How do you feel about your life right now? Forget about everything that’s going on in the world. Look at the personal things that matter to you. For most of us, it’s our character, consistency, happiness, health, those kinds of things. The things that we have power over.
Are those things better today compared to a year ago? If they aren’t better, are they at least the same? If not, I bet there’s some area in your mind that’s gnawing at you during those quiet times.
Before I got on this path of continuous improvement and love of wisdom, I had many moments where I thought, “What am I doing with my life?”
Not in a career or success type of way. I didn’t think about accomplishing any big goal or something like that. I often had this feeling that I wasn’t getting the most out of my mind and body. All that passive living made my life stagnant.
And then I started to extrapolate my life. As Epictetus said, “There is no need to consult astrologers to predict the future.” You can simply look at your actions today and look at the common results you get.
- If you never learn new things, you won’t be any smarter in a year
- If you never challenge yourself physically, you won’t be any stronger in a year
These are the only things that are within our control. That’s why worrying about things like the economy or geopolitics is fruitless. Epictetus said the overall future of the world is not something we control, and therefore it should be “nothing to us.”
However, our actions should be everything to us. By changing your actions today, you can shape your tomorrow. Here’s what I did to make that change. I started to read two books a week for three years. I started to lift weights and run consistently. I started writing books and creating courses. I didn’t focus on external goals like how much money I earned or whether I had the perfect beach body.
When you do things that improve yourself, it’s only a matter of time before your entire life changes. But here’s the key if you want to make a change. When you’re on your journey, 99% of the time you’ll feel like there’s no progress.
You just keep going at it. You learn, work at your job, exercise, and you’ll probably feel tired at the end of the day. That’s the feeling of a good day’s work. That’s the feeling you should cherish. It’s a sign that you’re moving forward. Instead of getting frustrated because you’re not seeing any big progress from day to day, look at how you feel at the end of the day.
