The Graffiti Machine

This is something I've been aware of for some time, especially after reading The Untethered Soul: a lot of the time, my inner voice is my enemy. It's the voice that talks me into skipping workouts, stressing out over what might happen in the future, or telling me to relax when there are tasks that need to be done. Even after years of being aware of it, it's always persisted. It almost felt like I had no control over it. This weekend I had a weird breakthrough that seems to be sticking. I woke up and the voice started right away: sleep a little longer, skip the walk with the kettlebell, skip the burpees after the walk. I kept pushing it off, but it kept talking. I grabbed my dog's leash and the kettlebell and headed for the door. The voice kept going: "Maybe skip the burpees after. I'm a little sore." "I can just do a short walk." "This kettlebell is heavy as fuck." As I opened the door, I said in my head, "Shut the fuck up," and headed out. The voice got quiet. Any time it crept in, I said it again. When I got back and put the mat down for the burpees, the voice came back. I said it again and did them. The voice started again this morning and I remembered something Jocko Willink says. I told the voice, "You don't get a vote." This is just what's working for me right now, but it's been powerful. How many times has your inner voice kept you from doing what you know you need to do? — Bus

A while back I saw a drone video of two wolves chasing a rabbit. The camera follows them for a while. Total chaos. Every few seconds it looks like the wolves are going to catch him. The rabbit never slows down. Full speed, hard cutbacks, quick changes of direction. It uses everything it has until the wolves finally give up. The reason it stayed with me is because our lives don't feel like that most of the time. We're not out there getting chased. Because of that, it's easy to relax on our health and fitness. But just because it doesn't happen often doesn't mean it can't. Being in shape makes normal life better: more energy, less stress, better mood. But it also matters in those rare moments when things get serious. An accident. A fight. A situation where you actually have to move, run, push, or fight harder than you have in years. That's not the time to realize you're not ready. You don't have to live like prey every day, but it's worth asking: if something heavy hit tomorrow, would your body be able to back you up? If the answer doesn't feel great, today's a good day to start changing that. — Bus

I did an interview with a guy named Marcus Anderson some years back and he said something that stuck with me: "There's only one level of commitment. Total." That's a pretty powerful way of looking at things. We can only commit to so many things. It's easy to catch myself wanting to be an expert in a lot of areas, but it isn't possible to fully commit to everything. Some people spend their whole lives being a musician, an artist, an entrepreneur. You can get pretty good at a lot of things, but most likely not world-class at all of them. If you want to be world-class at something, it probably takes a level of commitment that's far greater than we think. It's worth asking: what's the one thing you're willing to go total on? — Bus

Taking action is the best stress reliever I know of. Sometimes I wake up with a feeling like time isn't just ticking away, it's slamming away. Like the arms of a giant clock; every second the giant arm slams into place with a thunderous sound. The main thing that usually worries me is running out of time before accomplishing my goals. On these mornings, I take action quickly. As soon as action is being taken—real action—I start feeling the stress lift away. Get a workout in, start knocking off tasks from your list, chip away at the things that are plaguing your mind. It's not always the things outside of our control that cause the most stress. It's often the tasks we're avoiding.

I heard this quote in a Jim Rohn audiobook this morning and it hit me pretty hard: "An ounce of discipline weighs less than a ton of regret." On one hand, I write a list of tasks to accomplish and I knock them out. I do this seven days a week. But there's still a part of me that knows I'm leaving things on the table. I'm not a "hustle culture" kind of dude, but I have a lot I want to get done in the short time I have on this planet. An ounce of discipline can simply mean chipping away at your goals. You don't have to grind yourself into the ground; in a lot of cases, that's unproductive. The question is: how do you use discipline to make real progress? Focus on what you put into the hours rather than how many hours you put in. What tasks move the needle the most? That's where the ounce of discipline should go.