3 Daily Habits That Help You Fight Mediocrity
Your habits build your character. And the strength of your character determines your destiny. In short, your habits build you and your destiny.
It is small choices in life that determines the course of your life. Remind yourself every day that, ‘Life is a sum of small incremental steps’.
I chose to take stairs each time over the elevator. What about you?
I chose to defeat the mediocre side of me each time by choosing the stairs over the elevator. When everyone around is eating carb loaded snacks I chose to eat boiled eggs, yogurt, an apple or an orange instead. It’s a choice that I make.
In life you have two options, live a life that is guided by external circumstances or living life on your terms. To take control of your life, you need to change your mindset and make a choice.
How do you do it?
By understanding and controlling your emotions.
How to control your emotions?
By exposing yourself to growth. By implementing things into your routine that pushes your mind and muscle beyond your comfort zone.
3 Daily Habits That Help You Fight Mediocrity:
- Weight Training
- Reading
- Work on skill sets that make you money
Do these 3 things every day, and you’ll raise yourself above mortals. You will never be called average. You will thrive and you will conquer.
The majority of men watches 3-4 hours of TV and/or on social media when they should be lifting weights to connect with the masculine self.
To fight mediocrity you have to dedicate those 3 hours to self-improvement. To fight mediocrity you need to make daily resolution of cutting time on leisure to focus on self-improvement.
1. Weight Training
Now that you are onto it, train like a Spartan.
Train for strength.
Train for endurance.
Train because you have to perform in measurable ways over a given period – in times of emergencies. Who knows when you might have to break a door or a bone?
Make lactic acid your friend and get hard as a rock. Heavyweights, higher repetitions, sprints, do it all and walk out of that gym soaked in sweat.
Human bodies possess this incredible ability to get stronger and faster by adaptation. It’s your obligation to utilize it. You owe it to yourself to feel that strength in your veins. Those who don’t experience it live half the life.
When the iron calls you it’s your job as a man to lift that weight off the face of the earth.
What will happen when you get muscular?
You will stand tall with an open chest and head held high. You will look like someone who is going to take on the world. Men will respect you, women will adore you. Let iron refine you.
Muscle building is a project. Building a physique takes time. Lifting life will teach you about hard work, discipline, and consistency. You will carry the same approach to your other projects – business and relationship goals. Most importantly you will learn what perseverance and consistency can do.
Once you learn how to be successful at bodybuilding, you will transfer the same approach to other areas of your life which will lead to continued success.
Train like a Spartan
Cranking out those last few reps build character. Adding another 10 pounds to the bar builds mettle. Pain will lead you to glory.
Training hard makes you mentally and emotionally stronger. Weight training will calm you down and serve as a stress buster. Facing challenges at work and at business will become much easier.
Visualize your dreams and act, consider gym to be like a Shaolin temple where you can commit to exhausting personal discipline, a place where you can continually challenge to improve yourself by becoming, faster, stronger and better.
Weight training has a reflective impact on the human brain. Exercise enables the brain to rewire itself by creating new neurons.
I strongly believe that any man who integrates weight training into his regime will get better in all aspects of life. It is the best investment that you can make in yourself.
2. Reading
You own/possess/have only two things – your body and your mind. Everything else is temporary. Money, people, things, friends, love. They come and go. You either lose them or you break them.
You might win a lottery today, you might lose it all the next day. But if you have a body and mind that serves you, you will stay at the top of your game.
I often ask people to recommend a book and a movie that they like. It’s a great way to engage and connect. I ask specific questions what they liked about it. It provides a good fodder for conversation. And if they don’t have an answer ready, I stop wasting my time and move on.
If you don’t read, you miss out the tools. Tools to evolve. Tools to thrive.
Reading present me words that I can play with. It gives me tools to write. Quit watching TV and use that time to read books and blogs. Voraciously.
People don’t read much. Most guys never read any book other than the course books. Average man prefers entertainment over self-development.
Read self-help, read history, geography, psychology, autobiographies, blogs anything you can learn from. Anything that interest you. When you read great books and blogs you will load thoughts of a master directly into your head. Books contain everything that the writer learned over years.
You will gain the knowledge and experience of a learned scholar. You will learn about success. You will learn about failure. And you will find great lessons and advice that you can apply in your life. I bet you know it’s smart to read and learn from someone who has already done something you want to do.
Reading will infect your mind with good stuff. I wouldn’t be the person I am today if I had not started reading. Immerse yourself in a book and discern the wisdom.
Reading has a couple of benefits:
Creativity – Reading exposes you to new information. New ideas, that help you find new ways to achieve things. New ideas don’t come out of thin air. You see things, you learn and you create something better. Every page that you read creates a breeding ground for new ideas to foster.
Reading > Learning > Achieving
Improved Writing Skills – Your life is dictated by what you can imagine; reading books will increase your imagination. The words described in books as well opinion of writer help you expand your understanding of what is possible.
Reading will set you apart from the crowd. When you read, you learn new words, sentence formations, and patterns. It will improve your communication skills. People who tend to read more have an extensive variety of words to get their points across.
What’s better:
- You will network efficiently
- Reading self-help build-up many things which will help you effectively navigate your environment
- You will make better deals in business
- Having a wealth of knowledge will allow you to hold the conversation with people of diverse fields
- Impress men and women
- Win hearts
- It will turn you into a storyteller, like Zorba The Greek
When you read, your mind will create an image in your head. Reading is an exercise for the brain. What happens when you exercise your muscles? They grow. Same thing happens with the brain. It will grow.
Reading helps you connect with the world better. It permits you to consume a huge amount of information in a somewhat short amount of time. Reading will broaden your perspective. It will sure make you a better man.
Read anything. It is one of the daily habits that help you fight mediocrity.
3. Work on skill sets that make you money
To fight mediocrity you need to become a free man. Free from a boss, free from factors that kill your drive and lowers your testosterone. People worry about money all the time. They go to universities and hope to earn lots of money. But end up getting pennies at the end of the month.
Here’s the general rule – if you’re getting paid X amount at work, your company is probably making 10X from you. You are an asset.
How do you plan to pay your bills if your company decides to lay you off? Have you learned any skill that can pay your bills? Have you learned to sell them yet?
It might sound intimidating, but it’s actually easy. There are many people who are selling their skills and making thousand of dollar per month using Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn.
Put in hours to learn and to sell your skills on the web. Freelance. You can learn a lot for free through google search or by taking online courses.
The majority of men don’t spend a dime worth in acquiring any kind of skill. Master your craft and learn to sell your services. Take time to read books related to your craft. Start using your brains, start a side business and become a free man.
Get obsessed and fight mediocrity.
Self-improvement is leisure.
It’s the ultimate luxury.
Don’t trade time for money. Become an asset and trade value for money. That’s what all the great businesses do.
Note: Network with high-value men.
What’s the secret to networking?
Talk. Show value but never flaunt. Buy them lunch. Pick up the tab and be genuinely interested in them. Don’t try to pick brains up. Nothing is more repulsive. Instead, focus on developing relationships.
Life is tiring
“No one saves us but ourselves”
Working at a 9-5 job is tiring. Family obligations are tiring. It’s easy to open another beer and watch your favorite sport and relax. But, to fight mediocrity you have to ruthlessly crave time out. That’s how you build something. That’s how you build muscles. That’s how I build this blog.
Take time out. Take time out every day. Hit the gym every day. Read every day.
Take small steps. Small incremental steps are – the way to go big. Daily habits help you fight mediocrity. Do your routine every day and in due course, it will magnify into something big.
Your destiny is to become great. But your mind is designed to stop you from doing things that are new and uncomfortable. Things that won’t reward you instantaneously.
Humans have a habit of hesitating. Don’t hesitate. Stop waiting.
You are one decision away from a totally different life. The greatest gift you can give yourself is your love, attention and time. Activate your greater being, build a faster, smarter and stronger version of you.
A year from now, you’ll be glad you started TODAY.
I’ll see you at the top.
Until next time,
Shobhit
