The brush of your steps.

As I was growing up I learned many things, but one thing very well. I learned that everyone has a set of unique beliefs and that many of us hold those beliefs firmly over the course of our lives. We all believe in some idea, a monotheistic, polytheistic, or atheistic religion, a set of moral rules that you have developed over the years, a core set of family values, we all have some type of rules we live by. We all have this unique foundation. I found the selection of this foundation, be it a religion or otherwise, to be something that I would spend the rest of my life deciding. It made no sense to pick a belief without thoroughly understanding who I was first and that task alone would be a hefty schedule to do within a single lifetime. I realized that many people claim the choice of this foundation is the key to finding oneself so I would definitely not neglect opening myself up to the understanding of these ideas, but identifying myself as part of an entity before fully u...

When you wake up in the morning and go to the gym, it takes effort. It takes some kind of superhuman effort to get yourself to move out of bed if you are just getting into the habit, and then get dressed and go to the gym. It may not be for a decent amount of time until you see the benefits of going to the gym, it is an activity that takes a tremendous amount of effort. The reward is powerful, you feel healthier and generally more active, you begin to leverage your capabilities and that allows you to simply become a better person. Now think about the substances you take and the effect they have on you. For example, lets take coffee. It takes very little effort for me to drink coffee aside from ordering it, pressing a button on the work machine, or at the very most making my own shot of espresso. The effort is negligible but the effect is palpable. Your morning becomes immediately better, you feel more aware of your surroundings, the caffeine mimics the effects of adenosine so that i...

There are a number of times when I am drawn to the the art of writing in order to document consistent trends in the way I think. For the past few months I have begun to contemplate the effects that those you surround yourself with and those you avoid has on your personal development. Equally if not more importantly I would like to also address the effect of sharing thoughts  with those who are kind enough to listen has on you. I am incredibly driven by progress. Accomplishing goals and meeting seemingly impossible expectations shares a similar spot in my heart to the adrenaline rush people get when they go skydiving. Lets break these ideas down. Surround yourself with greatness. It is no hidden fact of life that surrounding yourself with the people you want to become will have a tremendous effect on your personality and your ability to become more like the people you are around. There are quite a few phrases that represent this very idea. I wholeheartedly agree with the tho...

I've heard of many people who close their Facebook accounts, or get an application which bans Reddit from their internet browsing experience. I congratulate them for their initial attempt, because it's better than nothing, but their approach is inherently flawed. Think about it really, do you sincerely believe that a few clicks is going to make a sudden change in your discipline? One click, and boom, that's it, you're suddenly focused? I'm sorry, but it's just not like that. In order to achieve a true control of yourself, you must not block the paths that you wish to avoid, but rather, simply choose not to travel them. It takes, in the words of Blake from Glengarry Glen Ross, 'brass balls'. By no means am I saying that closing your accounts isn't a good step towards ending your addiction, I think its a great start. I simply want you to feel how much more powerful you will be when you are capable of choosing A over B without increasing the cost...

This morning I set my alarm for 8:00am. I woke up at 10:00am. I was incredibly disappointed because I was trying to get six hours and then do my array of planned work in the morning, but instead, I ended not being able to do those things. Now, the reasons for this don't matter as much as the idea behind it. Despite waking up late, I still got in the shower, and took a cold one.  I don't mean I took a beer into the shower, I mean I deliberately turned my water to its cold setting, and showered while I shivered. The shivering was two weeks ago, now its more of a refreshing feel of coldness. It's been over two weeks since I started taking these, and if I had to pick my favorite example of my attempt to be more disciplined, this would be it. Try it. Can you actually defeat the fear and doubt in yourself that you'd be capable of waking up every morning to cold water? Most of you probably couldn't. And that's because most of you are weak. You live in a little bub...