E) Goals and Habits

I wish as a society we put a higher emphasis on historical figures… not history per se, but influential people. 100% of our goals contain wildly influential figures. Their lives are the playbook. I competed gymnastics in college and it took me 22 years to figure out the best way to learn… was to study the greats… relentlessly.

business – Steve Jobs
basketball – Michael Jordan.
a peaceful life – Thich Nhat Hanh.
Books are the answer: Their journeys were mapped.

“If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of giants”
Isaac Newton

7 Most Useful

1) ‘If I repeated this 100x would my life be better off?’

Sahil Bloom Website

I have a habit of getting lost into infinite rabbit holes. This was such good advice for determining the effectiveness of my actions.

https://youtube.com/shorts/4dhfEPikYjk?si=BWXZNxav87rL8R50

The Pottery Class, Alex Hormozi

2) Your Life in Weeks

Born in 1993 for ex. Thanks Tim Urban and Bryan Braun (custom printable)

Few things give me more perspective than my own mortality. I’ve started to plan my life by decades. What won’t I be able to easily do when I’m 80? 50? Married? Kids?

6 month sprints to a defined goal have totally helped me getting these goals

3) 10x your goals

Grant Cardone, his book

Holy smokes has this made a difference. If I wanted to make $40,000/year I force myself to think about $400,000. If I wanted to climb a 5.12, I think about 5.14. This act just forces you to dream bigger and has a huge effect.

4) “Begin with the end in mind”

Stephen Covey

Gordon Ryan, Greatest Jiu Jitsu practitioner in the world

This has seriously changed how I go about living my life. The first time I did it, it felt impossible. But the more I visualize the end, the higher success I have. It forces micro adjustments along the way (literally used w mini golf this week)

5) You are a composition of your habits.
Goals set direction, without habits you never get there.

Transitions: When first building a habit, I make it a point to do it everyday at the same time. This is easiest at transition points – arriving home, waking up, after brushing teeth – The same time every day makes it automatic. 2 mins of habit every day reinforces the identity. ~21 days builds the habit

Write it down, too.

6) “People are envious of where you’re at, they aren’t envious of how you got there”

Unknown

7) Write that shizz down

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 that stat came from but it sounds cool. It definitely helps w memory tho, have head 7x more useful than reading)

The Visuals

Aannnndd the best representation:
James Clear ideas illustrated by Andrew Nalband

James Clear

“It’s you vs you dog, you’re running your own race”
Russ, Song – Stockholm Syndrome

Long Term Goals

“The people who succeed are irrationally passionate about something”
Naval Ravikant

“Obsession Is the #1 Habit of Highly Successful People”

Tim Denning, his 5 min article

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. Tim Denning references this exact idea in his article.

(18 min) Start with Why by 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.

‘Focus on the process, not the when’
Russ

“If you haven’t read hundreds of books, you are functionally illiterate…

…you will be incompetent, because your personal experiences alone aren’t broad enough to sustain you.”

Jim Mattis

“You are the product of your 5 closest relationships”

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.

“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.

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.”
Framingham Heart Study, 12,000 studied over 32 yrs (thx Medium)

Habits/Discipline

“Essentially, all the benefits in life come from compound interests. Whether it’s in relationships, or making money, or in learning.”
Naval Ravikant

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.

‘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.

Pretty soon you’ve just got a bunch of half built bridges and you’re still stuck on the island’
Source: totally do not remember

Visualize Value, Jack Butcher

Action & Finishing Projects

1) “It won’t happen overnight, but if you don’t start it won’t happen at all”

Unknown

2) “You don’t need more information, you need more action”

Unknown

ACTION: 2 To-do lists:
– 1 open, filled with everything you want to do
– The other is closed: only 2 tasks allowed at a time

The trick is 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. It forces completion combatting butterfly-interests. You aren’t able to dance across multiple projects, you have to finish them.

“The fastest way to learn is through failure. If you want to learn faster, fail faster”
Source: Unknown

Dr. Andrew Huberman has a great 2 hour podcast on how to learn faster. It genuinely helped me overcome some of my social self consciousness – I’m not here to be the best now, today, or tomorrow… But in 5 years, hands down I will succeed.

“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

“Interested people watch obsessed people change the world.”
Tim Grover

“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 (I mean let’s be honest it is)… 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

ACTION: 60%
What is the Minimum Viable Product – How can we solve to 60%?

^^Software development. It has taken me a lot to think in this mindset. I want to be 100% all the time. I want it to be perfect… but usually good enough is good enough. Otherwise I never finish. 60% lets me actually finish things and move.

“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 “100% bullshit-override” has been. To use it all the time would be boar-headed, misguided if you will. But to not have it in the back pocket at all was certainly the weakest time in my life. The full throttle balls to the wall durability has been a muscle I’ve had train, but an invaluable one.

Direction n Focus

“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 costs 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 a current goal or relationship… that costs time and our time on Earth slowly ticks away.

(1 min) Theo Von x Tony Robbins – You find what you’re looking for

VISUALIZE: Imagine it so much it feels like you have it

Feel the breeze, smell the air, see 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. Stepping closer fills those receptors. (but dreaming w no action is pure high on the vision w no action)

“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, arguably greatest Jiu Jitsu coach of all time

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

“The single greatest deficiency in military leadership is lack of time to reflect”

Marine 4 Star General, Jim Mattis

“The man who chases two rabbits, catches neither.”
Confucius

Jeff Bezos on Decisions, 3 mins
Humans have got about ~4 hours deep focus/day

“If you fail to plan, you plan to fail”
Taylor Swift, Mastermind

“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

“‘What you think, you gon’ be famous or somethin’?’

But I landed where I’m at ’cause I was aimin’ for something
Y’all were aiming for nothin’
Russ, 2006

Getting Good

(2 min) Getting good & muddy faucets, Ed Sheeran

“If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of giants”

Isaac Newton

(2 min) John Mayer with the Creativity Faucet

If you just don’t stop eventually you stumble upon goodness (thanks Julian for sharing)

Bit by Bit

“Rome wasn’t built in a day”

Probably the Romans

For some reason hearing stuff life this hits me. I’m impatient. I want results and I want them now. But these multi year projects take…well… multiple years. It’s helpful to look up every now and then and see massive shit humans have built takes years.

“Bit by bit, building a wall no one could break”

Will Smith

“How do you eat an elephant?
One bite at a time”

Desmond Tutu

So off-putting it almost makes sense. 1. bite. 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.

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. If I lay in bed at the end of the day, it’d gnaw at me. 3 mins was a way to at least build the habit.

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.

Just start mother fucker. Action > plan
Don’t break the chain – every day
Fall to lvl systems
Clarity of your Why

Other Resources

Article

(1 hr) On the Shortness of Life by Seneca, 24 pg (Just started, first 2 are fantastic)

Songs

Ten Thousand Hours, Macklemore

“The greats weren’t great because at birth they could paint, the greats were great because they paint a lot”

Really Scared by Lil Dicky

An honest expression of fear and Dave Bird’s come up as he grapples with the reality of just being a normal dude. Cool to see the internal struggle knowing he ‘made it’

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”

Dear Reader by Taylor Swift – Yes, for the Swifties, decent advice
Put You On Game by Russ – Sort of a letter to younger self, but banger
Middle Child by 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”

Books

1) (6 hrs) Atomic Habits by James Clear

Every goal is achieved only by the behind-the-scenes efforts day in and day out.

2) (14 hrs) Can’t Hurt Me by David Goggins

Few books have made me want to run through a wall and simultaneously question if I’m even doing anything with my life as much as David Goggins.

3) (8 hr) Deep Work and So Good They Can’t Ignore You by Cal Newport

“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 feels like death…

then in the long run failure just isn’t an option”
Colin Douglas

My Reflections

#21 How These Damn Dementors Sucking Your Life