Balancing all the responsibilities we have such as our family, job, religion and passion is not easy. But what I’m learning along the way is that not managing these core responsibilities would make my life very meaningless. So the realization I have is, there are always going to be problems I’m going to have to solve. Because that’s what life is, we’re always solving problems and that is what makes it meaningful, once we solve one problem we are then met with another, then another, then another and so on
Knowing this, what could potentially be the next right thing to do? according to me it should be to expand your knowledge base, because your actions cannot be wiser then your thoughts and your thinking cannot be wiser then your understanding, but if you’re like: “Well, thank you Hashim, that’s a very revolutionary idea, what should I do about it then?” I’m very much confident you’d already know what you need to do, such as which book to pick up, which social media to limit yourself from, which bad habit to cut down on, what next step you should take for your passion etc. My advice is do something, yes, do something and forget about doing it very perfectly. Chasing perfection or the right time, or the right mood, or the right energy is what makes us continuously keep putting off our plans. The most successful people we all know, didn’t do everything because of some out the world will power or because of making and executing a flawless plan right of the bat. We can’t rely on that occasional motivation burst we get which pushes us to get a gym membership, where we start picking heavy weights up, thinking we’ll become Batista very soon if we keep it up.
We need to fix this “putting plans off for the right moment” illusion and get some things straight. we usually wait for this loop before actually doing something: Get inspired, motivation kicks in, we then finally take some action, Mark Manson in his incredible book “The subtle art of not giving a f**k” suggests us to reorient this mindset, instead of the above, we should follow this pattern
“do something” = take action first, action will naturally spring inspiration for more, which will eventually motivate you do to more action
This is the key to getting stuff done: Action -> inspiration -> motivation -> action and the loop starts
As Manson suggests: Action isn’t just the effect of motivation, but it’s also the cause of it
We are all way to scared to live, to pursue what we want, to do what we want because we are drowned in social media where only the best gets broadcasted. Everyone starts from somewhere. No one has that perfect start, and since it doesn’t sound very exciting, it’s not very common on social media to see someone doing something boring
My goal is to tell you that you have one life, the things you do everyday steer your life, what you do everyday, the small daily habits and routines, those are the driving force of your life, now whether these are poor habits or routines or great, they will be steering your life. In Atomic Habits, James Clear suggests that every action you do every day is like a vote, now just like in traditional elections, one party doesn’t need a unanimous decision to win, they just need the majority, that is exactly how you can achieve your goals as well, just by doing the right things the majority of the time.
We usually think we need to have unwavering commitment or sheer will power to accomplish the things we want in life. The reality is that even the most successful people we all know don’t push their will that much.
We all probably have heard many times that knowledge is power, I’m realizing now how true that actually is, the kind of knowledge atleast that I’ve learnt in school just messed my mindset up. I used to be annoyed studying physics, chemistry, and hardcore mathematics because it didn’t really give me much actionable takeaways which I could implement in my own life. Starting from childhood, learning these kind of subjects messed my concepts up about the power of knowledge, not the kind of knowledge we just spoke about but real meaningful, practical, and actionable knowledge which I’ve found so far in some books which you can view in my resources tab
In James Clear’s book, Atomic Habits he talks about environment design. It’s one of the most powerful yet simple methods I’ve learned which we can use to steer ourselves towards the habits / actions which will put us closer to our goals without having to push our will every time.
This is the habit loop:
This is a loop our mind makes us go through in seconds hundereds of time everyday, we first see something which acts as the cue, then a craving kicks is which makes us want to take action / react, then we respond by taking the action and get rewarded by the fulfillment of our action
This is simple yet very powerful. Now imagine you want to get on a better diet. If you let cookies or brownies or pastries sit in your fridge, your brain will trigger the habit loop every time you “See” these items in your fridge or anywhere where you spend most of your time. You want to ensure you get these distractions out of the way. You don’t want to be challenging your “Will” of not picking a cookie up after looking at it, you just want to make sure it’s not in your view.
A fun example: Whenever we bring a new snack home, I’m the one who has the biggest appetite and I finish it like it was never there in the first place. One day I just asked my mother to tuck the snacks away in a kitchen cabinet without telling me which cabinet it is. And the results? We both forgot about those snacks for weeks LOL
We think, whatever we don’t know is not important. But I am seeing knowledge has become so underrated because of the poor education system we go through. We get conditioned to become a part of the masses and to not stand out.
You know what’s good news? Like Pitbull says in one of his songs, “But every day above ground is a great day, remember that”
And you know what’s an even better news? You are trying to grow, and I respect you
The biggest favor you can do to yourself is to expand your knowledge base, this is one of THE most valuable lessons of my life,
Pick a few topics, Finance, Negotiation, people management, innovation and startup or whatever else interests you, (It should be something that adds value in your life, not entertainment), and pick a few of the top books up on those topics and start reading them
Remember, you should not be waiting for more motivation, all you should be doing is “Doing something” about your goal, as Mark Manson says in his incredible book you can find on my “Resources” page is: “Action is not just an effect of motivation, it’s also the cause of it”
Once you start “Doing Something” about the goals you set, you’ll see that you’ll naturally start feeling motivated to keep going,
In James Clears’ amazing book “Atomic Habits” he says, consider every action like a vote for the person you want to be, just like in traditional elections, you don’t need unanimous votes to win, you just need the majority, consider every action you do like a Vote, the more you vote for the person you want to be, the higher the chances of you becoming that person, you have to be real to yourself, if you tell yourself you want to be someone but keep putting plans off, keep procrastinating, then my friend, you’re going to be fooling yourself into thinking you’re going to become the person who you want to be magically one day.
Everything worthwhile in life is won by surmounting the associated negative experiences, – Mark Manson author of “The subtle art of not giving a f**k”
Pile up evidence by “Voting” for the person you want to be, the more the evidence gets, the more motivated you’ll become to keep going
We are always solving something, choose what you want to solve