Developing work ethic

You can force yourself into doing anything by putting your dreams on the line.

One of the hardest things I did was to quit smoking. I tried and failed multiple times. I cut down to only a few a week. I made it a rule to only smoke around friends. Nothing worked, light smoking turned into heavier smoking and I always fell back into half a pack a day.

Then I got my ego involved. I said to myself: I have all these dreams, I want to build a business, solve big problems, change the world.

Willpower is something that you can train. Willpower is like a muscle, it gets stronger the more you exercise it.

It’s the same with any task that requires brain power, it gets easier the more you do it. Your brain is a muscle. It gets stronger the more you use it.

According to psychologist Mihály Csíkszentmihályi, flow is when a person doing an activity is fully immersed in a feeling of energy, focus, and enjoyment. Flow is characterized by complete absorption in what one is doing and loss of one’s sense of space and time.

It’s easier to commit 100% to quitting than to smoke in moderation. Because you don’t have to make the decision anymore. Otherwise you’ll be like ‘today’s an exception, my friends are smoking,’ everything becomes an exception.

Do not make a backup plan.

Plan B only distracts you from plan A.

We’re all professionals in one area of our life: our jobs. We show up everyday. We show up no matter what. We stay on the job all day. We’re committed over the long haul. The Pro takes the time to master technique. The stakes are real, this is about survival and feeding our families. The Pro gets paid.

Time is our most valuable asset. Once you’ve spent it, you can’t get it back.

This is the amount of time you have, each box represents one year.

It’s not much, and you’ve already spent some of the boxes.

Hold your hand to your chest and feel your heart.

That is the feeling of time slipping away. You will never get those beats back.

Value your time like you value money. Think about how much attention we give to money. Working hard to make money, saving money in the bank and finding worthy investments for your money.

1. Wake up early
2. Calendar your entire day
3. Work on the first important thing first thing in the morning
4. Schedule 2 hour time blocks for everything that is important
5. Treat your time blocks as if they were appointments with your doctor
6. Multitasking doesn't work
7. Schedule in free time for thinking and reflecting
8. Write down all your ideas
9. Get really good at saying now
10. Love the process