Relax

Rest and relaxation are just as critical to your growth and betterment as the work you do. 

You can and should work hard and do everything you can to improve daily. 

Walk the disciplined path and seek to become your best self. 

But don’t forget the importance of rest in all your doing. 

You’ll run yourself ragged and wear yourself down. 

You're not meant to go, go, go indefinitely. 

Your mind, your body, your soul each require rest. 

Rest doesn’t have to be boring, however. 

You can ride your bike, go for a swim, take a walk or any of a thousand activities that aid your heart, mind, and body in recalibrating. 

You’ll find that as you step away from all your work, even for a moment, you’ll return refreshed and ready to get back at it. 

Change your thinking, change your life.

Change your thinking, change your life.

No one talks to you more than you do. 

And no one has a greater influence on the story you tell yourself than you. 

Tell yourself the right story, and it will change your life. 

Tell yourself that no amount of adversity is going to stop you. 

Tell yourself that you’ll keep going no matter how hard it gets, or how badly you want to quit. 

Reshape the tales you tell yourself. 

While story alone won’t get you there, the right one will give you a massive advantage. 

Compound Interest

Growth, change, and progress always happens internally before it ever manifests in an external way. 

In fact, the distance between when real, true, systemic change takes place inside you, and when it becomes apparent to everyone else is gargantuan.

That’s how you get better though; winning one small internal battle at a time. 

Victories over donuts, laziness, and the snooze button may seem tiny and insignificant. And they are when taken individually. 

Things rarely happen in isolation though. 

Each win you secure over weakness in whatever form is a deposit in an account that’s accruing interest. 

Every time you say, “No,” to something you shouldn’t do, you make a deposit in the account. Those deposits are small at first, but blossom over time. 

Compound interest is a beautiful thing, and it doesn’t apply to bank accounts only. It applies to every area of your life. 

Invest in a handful of daily habits. Habits that seem small when taken in isolation, but yield massive results months, and years down the road. 

You Get To

You get to wake up early and get after it. 

You get to go to work and give it your all. 

You get to workout, lift heavy things and sweat. 

You get to choose good, nutritious foods. 

You get to pick your kids up from school. 

You get to go home and spend time with your family. 

You don't have to, YOU GET TO. 

You're reading this, so that means your alive today. You have breath in your lungs and you get another glorious day to love, work hard and cherish. 

Don't waste it with a cruddy attitude. 

Soon your race will be run. Soon your life will reach its end. 

What will you have done with the time you've been given? 

Will you squander it and all its glory with a bad mindset? 

Or will you focus on all the things you get to do, relishing and marveling at the fact that you and only you get to do them? 

Relish the hard road.

There is no easy path to success. 

Only the hard road reaches that destination. 

Sweat, exhaustion, and tears litter the roadside, but it's not crowded. 

It's followed by the special few who daily take the incremental steps needed to improve.

There are no short cuts to the top. 

Only the long, painful process of discipline.

That's why there is big business in selling people an easier way. Everyone wants a shortcut. No one wants to sign up for years of toil and sweat. 

But that's exactly what it takes to become the person you want to be: years and years of work, sweat, and persistence. 

Relish the hard road. 

If you're on it, it means you're taking responsibility for your life and doing your darnedest to make it count. 

If your not, it's time to turn down that path. To start putting in the work necessary to get 1% better each day. 

You have everything you need to walk that path, so what are you waiting for? 

Get going.