Most people have a terrible habit. We count the wrong days. We like to remember the first time we got laid, the first time we bench pressed 200lbs, the first time we got a sizable bonus check. These days are not important.
“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, therefore, is not an act, but a habit” – Aristotle
Since we are approaching a New Year soon lets create a new habit. Start counting the days that matter. The ones where you go through extreme pain and hardship. We all have similar goals, get better looking girls, make more money, get in better shape, etc. Instead of tracking our progress by remembering a milestone, track your progress based on what you gave up.
For those of you that work on Wall Street, the days you’re going to count include the days where you suffer from the banker twitch. Your eyes lose control, you have not slept for 48 hours and you’re overdosing on cocaine, yerba mate, adderall and Lord knows what else. Instead of quitting or complaining you get work done. Not only do you get everything done, you still go to the gym and work out for 30 minutes or you do pushups underneath your desk. Not to mention that you use all your meal allowance to buy healthy food because you know that repetition is the key to excellence. To top it off, when everything settles down, you continue to show up with a positive attitude every day… Maybe this guy deserves a promotion.
If you want to get those coveted “six pack abs”, instead of taking body fat measurements of your stomach or doing a few crunches every day (which do not help much), how about you count the cumulative hours you spent working out in the gym? Anyone can go into the gym after New Years running on a higher level of dopamine and adrenaline to “make a change this year”… Why weren’t you in the gym New Years Eve? Why weren’t you in the gym on your birthday? Why weren’t you at the gym on Saint Patricks Day? Those are the days that matter.It sounds cheesy and lame, but real success is built when no one is looking. If you take a break when everyone else is taking a break… be prepared to end up just like everyone else. Average.
Everyone remembers the first time they got laid, purposely going out to try and pick up a girl. What seems to be forgotten is all the work that lead up to that successful pull. You talked to 10, 20, 40, 100, 200+ girls. All a distant memory. Instead start counting the number of times you talked to an 8 or a 9. Did you let an 8 walk by and not say anything? Bad Move. Start counting the days where you open every single 8+ you see regardless of the situation. If you want to get better looking girls, you’re going to go back to work.
Finally, the biggest hurdle for men… money. Everyone wants more, but what are you giving up to get it? Are you wasting your time doing a job that pays near minimum wage when you could be working on a new cash flow… yesterday? Are you hoping for a raise or a bonus instead of spending every second you can trying to add value to your company? If you add up the days you worked yourself to death, you’ll find a direct correlation to your income. Don’t get us wrong, you may have to go through months or even years before you see that correlation pick up, but when it does you won’t regret it.
With that said, review your 2012 correctly. How many counted? How about today.
