When it comes to tackling a skill, do you follow the 2 Day Rule or the never skip a day rule?
Is it better to count your macros, slow carb diet, or go keto?
Should you take notes the Cornell Way or use a tape recorder?
When it comes to outsmarting procrastination, do you use GTD or Pomodoro?
What time should I go to sleep? What time should I wake up? How many hours do I need?
How many times should you go to the gym if you want to get swole or master martial arts?
The answer is that none of it matters if you ignore your conscience. The voice inside your head that you know you should be listening, aka the voice of God.
The answer is that knowing all of these things will have little to no impact on you if you don’t actually do anything.
This is why people who trip hard on entheogens aka psychedelics aka mushrooms, LSD, and even hash, come back with lessons and stories that seem profound only to them, but obvious to the rest of us. I came back with three simple words:
You. Can. Choose.
And it should have changed my life. Instead, I let myself fall back into funks over time. Instead, I convinced myself I needed another guru, another book, another YouTube video.
But we don’t.
Because we either know what to do, or we know what we need to find out in order to do it.
But we lack motivation.
Why? Because we choose to indulge in the emotions that let us put off what we need to do to get where we want to go, instead of reveling in the emotions that will lead us to action and growth.
How do I know you can choose? Because research shows that anxiety and excitement are exactly the same feeling. It’s how you rationalize the feeling that colors what you do with it.
Same with hard work. Do you choose to feel dread from having to do it? Or do you choose to feel pride for getting the opportunity?
Nearly all the inspirational quotes you’ll find on the Instagrams of fitness influencers, life coaches, and entrepreneurial gurus are true. But only if you really try to feel them, and take action.
Case in point: I had a friend who was once a chubby dude. Then after some painful life events, he decided that he would stop laughing at the cheesy fitness memes with the impossibly hot people doing squats in them and just start following the advice. Within two years he was ripped.
Another thing: a decision is not made if you don’t keep it. That’s called breaking a promise. That’s not keeping your word. That’s pure dishonor. And you can either feel sorry for yourself about it, or you can move on and get back to it.
So we’re in the second month of 2020. Many of you decided in January to set resolutions. How many of you will decide to keep them past February?