Comfort

It’s something the modern world, especially here in the west, affords you. 

The comfort of a hot meal, a warm bed, books to read, a TV to watch and so much more.

These things are so common you don’t even think about them day to day. 

You are fortunate.

Sadly, however, comfort lulls you to sleep. 

It takes your eyes off important things and limits your view. 

Comfort so often constructs the prison in which you gladly reside. See Huxley. 

If only you could grasp this one simple truth: comfort is not always your friend. 

He may seem polite and an easy companion, but that’s only while he fastens the noose around your neck. 

Discomfort on the on hand remains a faithful friend. 

He pushes you to think, to challenge, to grow. 

You don’t need to be protected from discomfort. You need to seek it out.

Seek out people, situations, conversations, and experiences that make you uncomfortable.

All the growth and change you seek is on the other side of those uncomfortable things. 

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. 

Inconsistency is an opportunity

You’re inconsistent. 

You think and act in ways that fail to mesh with your values in principles. 

Not just you, but all of us are walking and talking hypocrites. 

But that’s not the whole story. 

The rest of the story is that each time you catch yourself living inconsistently with your values is an opportunity. 

An opportunity to:

• change,
• correct course,
• confess,
• ask forgiveness, and
• begin again. 

Of course, it’s also an opportunity to:

• bow up,
• double down,
• give up,
• quit, and
• blame.

Hypocrisy isn’t the end of your story. It’s an intimate and defining part of it. 

How you respond to your inconsistencies will go a long long way towards determining what happens in your life. 

Choose the first set of responses rather than the second. 

They are hard and uncomfortable steps to take but lead to healing, hope, and happiness in the end. 

Most of all, they lead to growth and your best self.  

Humility

Humility is essential to success. 

It’s almost impossible to get there without it. 

You have to be willing make an honest assessment of yourself, to learn and to ask for help. 

Each requires humility. 

Be humble. 

Take stock of where you’re weak and own the problems and solutions. 

Ask for help along the way. Even the Lone Ranger had Tonto. 

Humble yourself and seek to improve in every area of your life. 

There are no finished products this side of Heaven. Embrace this truth and it’ll change everything. 

Feelings are a tricky thing.

They can simultaneously be your best friend and your worst enemy. As with most things, there is a dichotomy. There are two paths to how you treat your emotions. 

One puts too much stock in them and believes them good guides for decision making etc. 

The second sees them as triggers. They use them as sign posts that tell them to get in the game and change how they behave. 

Negative emotions like anger, fear, or frustration alert you to a problem within your own heart and mind. These feelings serve as warning sirens that give you the chance to change paths before things get ugly and out of hand.   

It’s a small distinction, but an important one. 

One uses these feelings as the basis for behavior, while the other allows the same feelings to trigger better and more controlled responses. 

Changing how you look at something changes everything, even when that change is something small and noticeable only within your mind.