Check out this Jordan Peterson Video:
Unstoppable
That is, once you’ve figured it out, you will be unstoppable. But what is there to figure out?
First off, every decision you make is made at a crossroads of all other decisions.
Okay, well, you’ve made a decision to read the rest of this article. And, consequentially, you’ve made that decision by choosing it over the decision to hit back and go scroll through more of your Instagram feed, go watch a YouTube video, or all the other infinite other activities you could’ve done.
My point is that, you’ve created a hierarchy, a value system, and you might not have even realized it because you’ve been doing this emotionally for your whole life.
By emotionally, I mean you’ve made the ultimate decision to read the rest of this article because you felt like it and not because you thought it out rationally and planned it out. Which is perfectly fine. We don’t have biological resources to ponder every single minuscule decision before making it.
But when it comes to self-improvement, we need to temporarily set aside this mode of living.
If you’re on the path of self-improvement, it’s time to take an audit. Does every decision you make serve your greater goal?
Your Greater Goal
That is, if you have a greater goal.
It is very difficult to improve in your life you don’t have a greater goal.
Let’s say you don’t take any vacations every year. You drive a shit car. You’re living pay check-to-pay check. The greater goal might be to have some savings allocated to appropriate places. Maybe it’s to have $5000 every year allocated to these appropriate places.
Next year, if you’ve been successful at fulfilling your greater goal, you will have that money.
Even if you don’t hit your mark you’ll have improved from where you were the previous year. Aim for the stars land on the moon.
Ultimately, having this kind of strategy in your life will improve it, whether you implement it perfectly or not. It is in the act of constant trial and failure that we continually improve and ascend.
Decisions, Decisions…
If you are like me, there are a multitude of different goals that can be aimed at. Will-power is a limited resource, and there are only a few things we can do well, and still remain vibrant and not burnt-out.
Therefore, you must make your 1 goal as clear as possible, so that you can learn about what you need to work on, and plan out your schedule accordingly so that it happens.
Everything else is irrelevant. Not that everything else doesn’t matter – it’s just that will-power is a limited resource, and it’s better to do 1 thing well, then to do 3 things poorly.
Put This into Practice
Something that I’ve taken for granted is my excellent personal hygiene habits. So, as an example, a “greater goal” someone can have is to have a cleaner appearance (and scent).
A lot of people have trouble fixing things like this. Things that the majority of people take for granted.
It’s because they feel like it’s so insignificant that it shouldn’t require some dedicated effort to fix. The fact that they do need to dedicate effort to fix it annoys them instead of motivates them, and then the problem never gets fixed. Ironically, this little issue makes it so that bigger issues are now impossible to fix.
For example…
A bigger goal could be to build 4 new business contacts a month by networking 3 times a week.
Well, it is very difficult to have the confidence to do that if we are subconsciously insecure about how we look and how we present ourselves. It is also very difficult to do this if there are, say, immediate scents that turn people away before you even open your mouth.
It’s important to have compassion towards oneself, and know that we are all imperfect beings that need help in unique aspects.
Just because you feel like a goal is beneath you doesn’t mean that it actually is.
It is, if nothing else, good practice. Achieving goals in general, is a skill, and small goals may very well play a bigger part in your overall success, in ways greater than you can even imagine.
I’ve found that it is an amazing practice to make a seemingly minor aspect of your life into the greater goal.
If the goal was for better personal hygiene, then a daily victory would be making the right decisions over the wrong decisions…
Decide to have 1 shower a day, 2 brushes a day, and laundry once a week, trim nails once a week.
You’ll come to the crossroad where these decisions come to you, and you can choose to do them or just continue with your usual schedule that keeps you unhygienic. But this time, because you’re implementing this strategy in your life, you’ll win.
Check it off. Then feel victorious about it…
Feel victorious about it –
This is an important part of taking part in goal-setting behavior.
Especially for people who don’t come from an positive environment and if there wasn’t any male leadership in establishing a productive culture. I’ve had trouble with this in my life because the overwhelming big issues shadow over my daily victories. This makes the whole goal-setting journey unsustainable due to discouragement and then lack of motivation.
So, take some time to feel victorious.
Meditate on your end result – what your life will look like in all aspects. This could be financial accolades, admiration from peers, respect from your superiors. Write them down. Then try to accomplish your daily victory again tomorrow.
Eventually, you’ll find that what you’ve set as daily victories toward your greater goal becoming a habit.
Then, eventually, the holy grail… you’ll see results. And since these habits are now ingrained, we will continue to see results without much effort.
If we want even better results we can tear things apart and enhance the greater goal and improve our daily actions.
Usually with unique personal goals, we only need them to be at a certain level so that we can move on to different goals. It is a matter of learning to walk before we run. Which also doesn’t mean we need to spend all our time walking forever.
Make Those Positive Actions!
According to Jordan Peterson, it is difficult to improve anything. It is much easier to screw things up than it is to make them better.
Therefore, we must treat every aspect of improvement in our life very seriously. Even the seemingly minuscule ones that we start off with:
- We must start with something small and immediately achievable
- We must focus on 1 goal at a time (this may include a lot of daily actions, but 1 greater goal)
- We must give credit where credit is due and re-live our greater goal every time we do accomplish a good day full of small victories
- We must reevaluate where we are in our pursuit of this greater goal and decide if we want to continue its pursuit or is it time to aim at another goal
Upward Spiral
This is a lot of work.
Especially if you have a huge list of things you want to improve.
There is a lot of planning, and a lot of discipline. But know that there will be a turning point where the momentum swings in your favor. There will be confidence in knowing that you can change positively. As you experience more fruits of your goal-setting labor, this confidence will pour out of you, enabling you to easily do what we need everyday to accomplish our most sought after dreams.
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