The Excruciating Importance of Mindset
I'm sure you have many plans for the year ahead.
I certainly do.
But intent and execution are two very different beasts.
Your goals, if properly formulated, can orient you in the direction of success.
But actually?moving?in that direction requires work. Hard work.
And that is no trivial thing.
Work is hard.
So hard, in fact, that the person writing this article is partly motivated by his desire to procrastinate on what he should really be doing right now.
Doing consistent, focused, deep work is even harder.
But your goals will not become reality until you build systems –?productive daily habits and behaviours – to bring them to fruition.
Once you have your vision for the future of your life, you must not fall into the psychological trap that what is to come will be smooth sailing.
Life is a ruthless, draining marathon.
Work will pile up for completion. Bills will mount, unpaid. Deadlines will creep ever closer until they are at your doorstep, crammed together in an impossibly short space of time.
Occasionally, you will have brief periods of intense motivation, early mornings, and a routine that rivals your idols.
And then, you will fall into an abyss of desperation and hopelessness, a state of little or no motivation.
Burnout.
It will just all be?too much, and you won’t have the energy to do what needs to be done.
When this happens, much of your time will be spent in the company of your all-too-familiar foe: procrastination.
You will begin treading water in the ocean of uncompleted projects, old commitments and new endeavours.
And as if that wasn't bad enough, your personal life is not immune from the afflictions that plague all conscious beings.
Partners will come and go. Friends will hurt you. Loved ones will die.
Horror and terror lurk behind the walls that we have so carefully construed around us in our attempt to create order from chaos.
All of this will happen regardless of how intelligent you are, how motivated you are and how far ahead you have planned.
Your goal in life should be to minimise these symptoms and maximise the time spent in productivity bliss.
And to achieve this, you first need to set your mind straight...
The Trap of Victimhood
Right now, do you feel like you’re behind?
Do you feel disadvantaged?
It might be harder for you than it is for others.
Some have gone to better schools, graduated from more prestigious universities, descended from higher-status parents or simply struck the genetic lottery.?
Maybe your weekends are taken up by work or family commitments, leaving you less time to work on yourself and climb the ranks of society.
Maybe you’ve got things to do that others don't even have to think about.
Maybe you have to juggle a part-time job or work night shifts to make ends meet.
Good.
Some of the most successful people in the world had to overcome great challenges to get to where they are.
You don’t have the money to do what you want to do with your life?
Good.
Elon Musk slept on a couch and showered at the YMCA before he became a billionaire.
…A billionaire who spends his spare time shooting Tesla Roadsters into space on stainless steel rockets.
You don't have the connections or status to advocate for yourself and gain notoriety?
Good.
Oprah Winfrey suffered poverty and sexual abuse before she became one of the most powerful women in the world.
Did you not do as well as you hoped last year?
Good.
Albert Einstein dropped out of school and failed his entrance exam for university before he won the Nobel Prize for his theories of special and general relativity.
Does your teacher, lecturer, boss or supervisor suck at explaining things in understandable terms?
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Good.
Michael Faraday wasn't provided with a teacher. He couldn't even go to university.
To cultivate a healthy mindset, you must avoid the trap of victimhood.
So, get your ass out of bed and follow your truth.
Gratitude in a World Beset by Tragedy
You, as a human being, are an amalgamation of incredible potential and catastrophic liability.
Only you know the depths of your defects and inadequacies, the lies you tell, the dark thoughts you ponder and the flaws that you desperately hide from the world.
And so you have every right to judge your insufferable self as unworthy of the goals you seek.
You may very well judge the world, for all its chaos and suffering, as undeserving of your attention, too plagued by war, famine, pain, illness and deceit to warrant your engagement.
But it takes courage to think differently. To cultivate, despite it all, gratitude for what you have.
To be grateful in spite of your suffering.
To practice gratitude by recognising that despite it all, things could be worse.
Much, much worse.
Have the courage to look for the good, despite the vicious opponent that is the world.
Despite your pain, your suffering, your trauma, your sickness and your defects.
You must accept your predicament and the cards you have been dealt.
As wretched or enviable as they may be.
Purpose and Fulfilment
Once you have accepted your predicament, you must cultivate a mission for your life.
Such a mission transforms your sad, miserable existence into one of purpose and fulfilment.
Maybe you don't think your life is so sad and miserable.
But without a purpose larger than yourself, you are condemned to mediocrity.
The names we remember from history, and those names that sit on the tip of our tongues today, are all driven to their work by a higher calling.
Elon Musk's motivating philosophy is to take actions which maximise the probability that the future is good for humanity.
As a founding father, George Washington's purpose in life was to ensure the independence, survival and prosperity of the young United States by laying a strong foundation of freedom, democracy and good governance.
The most profitable and innovative companies are also driven by a mission statement that shapes the character and essence of their collective toil.
Tesla's is to accelerate the world's transition to renewable energy.
Apple's is to bring the best user experience to its customers through innovative hardware, software and services.
Without a mission driving you and those you lead, you are left wandering aimlessly in a obscure cloud of possibility.
The job of your life's purpose is to collapse this?wave function?of possibility into a set of daily actions and principles that lead you closer to fulfilment.
Your motivating philosophy orients you in the direction of mastery.
It empowers you to bring immense value to the world, and to your fellow human beings.
Make sure you take the time to think about what it might be.
To summarise:
If you avoid the trap of victimhood,
If you are grateful in spite of your suffering,
If you are motivated by a purpose that is larger than you,
Then you shall own the world,
And the world will be better for it.