This year (2020) I’ve read the book Can’t Hurt Me by David Goggins.
That’s the beauty of reading books from different writers:
The ultimate message is the same, but there are so many ways of explaining just 1 concept.
David Goggins has his own way of inspiring and motivating which doesn’t resonate with everyone.
That’s not the goal anyway, but I appreciate learning from all these different perspectives that lead to that 1 universal message: you can do it.
One of the lessons I learned from the book, is to go to war with yourself.
This may sound harsh, but it does make complete sense.
At the end of the day, we are our own worse enemy.
We are in our own way.
We are confined by the walls that we build ourselves.
It is important that we don’t keep tap dancing around the truth.
There is a voice in our mind that knows us very well.
It knows what to tell us when we feel the motivation to do something scary.
For a minute the feeling and thought of “yes I’ll change my life!” excite us, till that voice takes over.
That voice that says: that’s too hard, you’re too old, that takes way too much time, it’s stupid anyway, this will go wrong that will go wrong, etc.
It is very smart, we don’t even realize that the voice merely wants to prevent us from failing.
So it believes it is better not to try at all and convinces you of this very detrimental opinion.
Go to war with this voice.
Hear this voice and understand that you are not this voice.
It’s a voice that was programmed in you.
It’s a voice that was created during the imprinting, modeling, and mirroring stages of your life.
This voice is sadly responsible for anyone not achieving their goals.
True you can’t be anything you want, but you can be everything you are.
Therefore it is necessary to beat this voice.
Override it. Don’t listen to it. Let a different stronger uplifting voice speak louder.
It takes time to override this voice, but with continuous momentum building and affirmations for example you can train yourself to dial down this detrimental voice drastically.
Get real with yourself.
Expand your mind and become more aware of your thoughts, feelings, and actions.
You have thoughts and feelings, but you are not your thoughts and feelings.
When you do start to take action, and you fail to meet your own created deadline, don’t beat yourself up.
You do not want to forget to be kind to yourself and appreciate you have taken those first steps.
Let’s use the smartphone as an example.
When you plan to use your phone for one hour per evening instead of the 4 hours that you are normally using your device, the voice in your mind will try to take over your mind.
It will make you doubt all the reasons which are responsible for wanting to use the device for one hour only in the first place.
When your phone use is improving and you have used it for 2 hours instead of 4 or 1, don’t beat yourself up.
Talk to yourself as you would talk to a friend.
Acknowledge that you are trying and that it may take time to reduce your tech use to 2 hours.
Don’t get angry and quit because “you will never succeed anyway” or “because well what’s the point!”
The opposite side of that spectrum is that you stay serious about your objective.
So keep trying and doing.
Stay focused and do your best to reduce your phone use to 2 hours.
Take your mission seriously.
Keep a level of strictness so you don’t get complacent.
The key here is to find that harmony between acknowledging your success and keeping in mind that you can and should do better.
Letting yourself off the hook can result in victimizing yourself.
There is no progress to be found there.
So don’t lose responsibility for your life, but don’t beat yourself up either.
Understand yourself as much as you can and don’t limit yourself.
Go to war with yourself so you will allow yourself all the wonders of life you so desire.
Even that detrimental voice will be happy you didn’t listen to it.