All Goals and Habits Resources
- Concept
- Quotes/Shorts ~1 Minute or Less
- Videos/Shorts ~5 Minutes
- Videos/Articles ~15 Minutes
- Podcasts ~2 Hours
- Books ~8 Hours
- Songs
- Practical Tools
My Creations
Why (Concepts)
It seems like we all get so lost in the sauce of our daily lives. Daily life gets in the way and it becomes hard for us to meet the goals we actually want to. We can look at the people who are the best and always find excuses for how they were able to make it.
The crazy part is that every single person who has ‘made it’, has started out at 0. Or as Joyner Lucas says “Ain’t no excuses, we all start at the bottom”. Goals are pretty dang terrifying, though. The bigger they are, the scarier and the further they are.
This is intended to be tangible advice for accomplishing some of those goals. Of alllll the people I’ve studied, vision, regular habits, and obsession seem to be the recipe for success.
- Marathon
- Miles side hustle
- Just start mother fucker. Action > plan
- Don’t break the chain – every day
- Fall to lvl systems
- Clarity of goals
Knowledge is only as useful as your willingness to apply it
~1 Min Quotes/Videos
Actionable Steps
- 10x your goals – Money, people, vision – 10x it. We’re only limited by our beliefs
- Jason Selk
- Don’t Break the Chain
- Habits
- If I did this 100 times would my life be better off?
- Imagine it so much it feels like you have it – feel, smell, the breeze, the clothes, the room, the people, what’s it taste like? There’s actually a neurological feat that makes this possible – our receptors become attuned to our dreams. Only stepping closer fills those receptors. (or dreaming w no action which is why ppl get off on the vision w no action)
- Obsession – The single most important feat for the ppl that make it
“Effort and sweat are no guarantee of success.
John Danaher
Only intelligently directed effort gets you past the myriad of obstacles that block your path to your goals.”
“Begin with an end in mind”
“Begin with an end in mind”
“Begin with an end in mind”
Stephen Covey
We all have ideas ideas ideas. We want them to be a reality… but WHY? Is this something that will genuinely help the people we are working with or do we just want it to be a reality because we came up with it?
Banu Akgul, CEO at ConectoHub
“People who write down their goals are 42% more likely to achieve them than those who don’t”
(No clue where this statistic came from but it sounds cool)
“You can have it all. You just can’t have it all at once”
Oprah Winfrey
‘In order to be the best lawyer or doctor, you have to first decide on becoming a lawyer or doctor’
Oliver Burkeman (?)
I am the master of indecision. I excel at it. Seriously, so good. But the book 4000 Weeks opened my eyes to the perils of indecision. Because we live with a finite amount of time on this Earth, every indecision is the postponement of action. Indecision is a decision itself. We are choosing to not pursue whatever goal or relationship and our time on this Earth slowly ticks out.
Don’t Break the Chain
A compelling way that helped me build the habit of writing. Even if it’s for 2 minutes each day – every. day.
If I was laying in bed and hadn’t written that day I’d dread it, but convince myself I could do 2 minutes. At the beginning the habit matters more than the output.
“If I repeated this action 100 times, would my life be better or worse?”
Sahil Bloom
I have a habit of getting lost into infinite rabbit holes. This was such good advice for determining the effectiveness of my actions.
“Start with why”
Simon Sinek
Start with Why, Simon Sinek
What sets the greatest leaders and companies apart from the mediocre ones?
I periodically return to this video am astounded by how compelling it is. If we don’t know the WHY for our actions, we are merely twiddling our thumbs.
Bit by bit
“How do you eat an elephant?
Desmond Tutu
One bit at a time.
It’s taken me awhile to get comfortable with this idea. You don’t get the leaps and bounds progress each day. It’s the bit by bit that adds up far more than the few days of astronomical progress.
“It won’t happen overnight. But if you don’t start it won’t happen at all”
Source: Unknown
TIP: 2 To-do lists:
– 1 open that is filled with everything
– The other is closed. Only 2 tasks allowed
The trick is that you cannot move to the next item on the Infinite List until 1 of the 2 are complete
I got this from Oliver Burkeman’s 4000 Weeks: Time Management for Mortals and it totally transformed how I work on projects. You aren’t able to dance across multiple projects, you have to finish them.
“You’re an average of your 5 closest friends”
Source: Jesus?
We hear this all the time. What is mind-boggling though is how little heed we pay to this on a daily basis. We carry on with our friends and current social circles without realizing the drastic effect they have on our lives.
Anyone who moves away for college or lives in another city or travels to another country, from my experience, has spoken volumes to how much they grew. It’s not until we grant ourselves isolation or the distance from commonly held beliefs that we seem to figure out what it is we actually believe.
Personally, it has only been my ability to distance myself from ‘status quo’ that has lead me to any level of success. Leaving Nevada. Moving to Colorado. Solo-packing Europe. Road-tripping Iceland and Ireland. Working in Estonia. These things opened my eyes to the world and showed me there was another way.
After returning, I cannot stress how much environment dictates our behavior. I did not want to disappoint people, but it wasn’t until I distanced myself from their expectations that I could actually set my own goals.
ACTION: Don’t tell people what you plan to do but what you are currently working on
This avoids the validation and mental masturbation of something you haven’t even done yet while also telling others so they hold you accountable.
“According to their results, if a friend of yours becomes obese, you yourself are 45 percent more likely than chance to gain weight over the next two to four years.
Framingham Heart Study, 12,000 studied over 32 yrs (thx Medium)
More surprisingly, however, Christakis and Fowler found that if a friend of your friend becomes obese, your likelihood of gaining weight increases by about 20 percent — even if you don’t know that friend of a friend.
The effect continues one more person out. If a friend of the friend of your friend develops obesity, you are still 10 percent more likely than random chance to gain weight as well.”
“A person without goals drifts through life, reacting to things that occur around them.
There is nothing wrong with that and, arguably, this a better way to achieve basic happiness or pleasure.However, if you want to go further than simple happiness or pleasure, and make notable achievements, you must have a goal so that your life has focus.
In a world of a million possibilities those who become remembered are those who can focus for a lifetime upon only one or two.”
John Danaher, arguably greatest Jiu Jitsu coach of all time
“Obsession Is the #1 Habit of Highly Successful People”
Tim Denning
“The fastest way to learn is through failure. If you want to learn faster, fail faster”
Source: Unknown
“We do not learn from experience… we learn from reflecting on experience.”
John Dewey
“The man who chases two rabbits, catches neither.”
Confucius
“If you just keep going… if you just refuse to quit… if you just keep soaking your brain in the knowledge of the greats… if you just keep learning from the best…… and if the alternative is death…
Colin Douglas
…in the long run, failure just doesn’t seem like an option”
‘Focus on the process, not the when’
Russ
“Once you become obsessed success becomes a byproduct”
Colin Douglas
After studying character after character. Einstein. Michael Jordan. Steve Jobs. Kanye West. MLK Jr. It seems like the single biggest determining factor for performance is obsession.
Getting good & muddy faucets, Ed Sheeran
John Mayer with the Creativity Faucet
If you just don’t stop eventually you stumble upon goodness (thanks Julian for sharing)
“All the returns in life, whether in wealth, relationships, or knowledge, come from compound interest.”
Naval Ravikant
“If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of giants”
Isaac Newton
“Don’t stop when you’re tired, stop when you’re done”
David Goggins, Marilyn Monroe
Hustle culture certainly has it’s drawbacks. Hustling 100% of the time and we often lose sight of why we’re going where we’re going in the first place.
But once the compass direction is set, I cannot explain in words how valuable the “override 100% of bullshit” trump card is. To use it all the time would be boar-headed. Useful? Sure, but misguided. But to not have it in the back pocket at all was certainly the weakest time in my life. Durability is a muscle you train.
“Knowledge is only as useful as your willingness to apply it”
Colin Douglas (pretty good, right?)
STOP mufuker. Stop right there. Pause. You’ve read enough…. too much. Go do something. Whatever that inkling of an idea you have in the back of your mind. Go. 15 minutes. Start it. Whatever it is. Please. Just do something
“You don’t need more information, you need more action”
Source: George Washington (probably)
“You don’t need more information, you need more action”
Source: George Washington (probably)
“The people who succeed are irrationally passionate about something”
Naval Ravikant
“Interested people watch obsessed people change the world.”
Tim Grover
‘Habits are like building a bridge away from a deserted island. Every time you start a new project or habit or goal and don’t finish the last one you just add to the collection.
Source: totally do not remember
Pretty soon you’ve just got a bunch of half built bridges and you’re still stuck on the island’
“If you haven’t read hundreds of books, you are functionally illiterate…
Jim Mattis
…you will be incompetent, because your personal experiences alone aren’t broad enough to sustain you.”
“Perfection is the enemy of progress”
Winston Churchill\
and similarly
“Done is better than perfect”
Sheryl Sandberg, Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead (Haven’t read)
I started to use this in the development of this website – I wanted everything to be perfect and shiny and attractive… but I’d get so bogged down in streamlining it and making it look clean that I wouldn’t make substantial progress with the actual content.
and similarly
What is the Minimum Viable Product – How can we solve to 60%
Commonly used in software development
It has taken me a lot to think in this mindset. I want to be 100%. I want it to be perfect, but usually good enough is good enough. That way I can actually finish things and move to the next
Gordon Ryan, Greatest Jiu Jitsu practitioner in the world
Understand that effort and sweat are no guarantee of success.
Only intelligently directed effort gets you past the myriad of obstacles that block your path to your goals.And the single best basis for formulating such a plan is the trial and error method that forms the basis of the scientific method.
Test your theories and compare them with the evidence before you.
John Danaher
Think of how many incredibly hard workers there are earning minimum wage. Hard work is not inherently a recipe for success. Learn from the best and study the greats then maybe you’ve got a chance
“It won’t happen overnight, but if you don’t start it won’t happen at all”
Source: Unknown
“‘What you think, you gon’ be famous or somethin’?’
Russ, 2006
But I landed where I’m at ’cause I was aimin’ for something
Y’all were aiming for nothin’
“It’s you vs you dog, you’re running your own race”
Russ, Song – Stockholm Syndrome
Theo Von and Tony Robbins – You find what you’re looking for
The Pottery Class, Alex Hormozi
5 Mins- Videos/Articles
Quantity over quality
“If you fail to plan, you plan to fail”
Taylor Swift, Mastermind
Books
1) Atomic Habits by James Clear
Every goal is achieved only by the behind-the-scenes efforts day in and day out.
2) Can’t Hurt Me by David Goggins
Songs
Middle Child, J. Cole
“To the OGs, I’m thanking you now,
was watching you when you was paving the ground,
I copied your cadence, I married your style,
I studied the greats, I’m the greatest right now”
Ten Thousand Hours, Macklemore
“The greats weren’t great because at birth they could paint, the greats were great because they paint a lot”
Waves, Russ
“‘Cause it’s just waves and sometimes you’re on the top, yeah
Other times, you rock bottom from the drop, yeah
Gotta just float, float, float, and have faith”
Practical Tools
1) Habit
Day in day out is what dreams are built upon. Without the constant daily input, waking up at 30 & 90 with a life full of regrets is in inevitable.
2) Start with Why/Begin with the End in Mind
Once you know where you’re going… once you have an end state visualized, once you know exactly where you’re going and it’s attached to a timeline:
You can break the goal into monthly, weekly, and daily necessities that will either happen or the mark won’t be met.
This is impossible without having a fixed end point you’re trying to get to at all. This is constantly in harmony with habits.
3) Write it Down
Forcing myself to write goals down brings them one step close into reality. An idea is just an idea.
Written down? Now I’m serious I’m not just playing in my mind.
4) Eat the Frog
I enjoy this particularly with cold showers (well I actually don’t it sucks). Hot showers in the morning are nice, but cold ones fire me the eff up.
To be clear, they suck, but tremendously beneficial
5) Don’t Break the Chain
I started using this habit to force the habits. I knew it needed to happen every damn day.
Even if I didn’t have time for a full session – guitar, writing, running – I’d do the activity for 3 minutes before bed to build the habit.
It’s made all the difference.
6) Death
By far the most powerful motivator for keeping my compass on track. What will I regret? What will I not care about when I’m dying?
Is this a goal I truly care about or my social circles want it?
Writing down all my goals helps me see how short life truly is because there’s so much I want to do.
My Reflections
Weekly Wanderings
- Week 83 Wanderings (6-18-2023) – You have to actually think, Less is more, Some Chinese guy, Progress doesn’t feel like it, A goodie song
- Week 82 Wandering (6-11-24) – Getting more better things done, Choosing directions is tough, Being bad at stuff, A common regret
- Week 78 Wanderings (5-21-24) – Determining the effectiveness of our actions, 10000 Year long term thinking, Is it real or temporary pain, A book on the ‘reason to live’, Such a good song
- Week 65 Wanderings (2-6-23)
You know what you have to do. Go do it. It’s not for you. It’s not for your parents.
It’s for all the people who couldn’t figure out how to do it on their own. It’s for all the people you could’ve inspired. It’s not for you. It’s for the kids, man, the kids.