Often hating every minute of it, but doing the work needed to be a champion. This was the mindset of Muhammad Ali. What made Ali the best of the best wasn’t his genetics but the habits he developed through years of practice.
Recent research tells us that world-class willpower is not a born strength. Personal discipline is, in fact, a muscle like other muscle and weakens when tired. Training oneself so that willpower becomes maximized is one of the crowning achievements of an epic life. The legendary performers amongst us practice being spectacular for so long that they no longer remember how to behave in non-spectacular ways. The secret of success of every outstanding human lies in the fact that they formed the habit of doing things that failures didn’t like doing.
Today the majority spend their days diverted by devices, tethered to television and majoring in mindless pursuits. Their brain will be weak and flabby through their mistreatment of it. Just like other muscles, it will atrophy. And this will result in weaker cognition, slower learning, low processing power.
The playwright George Bernard Shaw wrote in “Man and Superman”, “The reasonable man adapts himself to the world: the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore, all progress depends on the unreasonable man.”
The single best way to build up your willpower is to put yourself voluntarily in positions of discomfort. It is in the moment that you face your deepest weakness that you receive the chance to forge your greatest strengths.
To have a skill is contagious, to built it is victorious. Therefore to live life effortlessly is the shift you need to make. That shift happens in the doing. You become what you do. But how do you do it?
You will need a trigger as a starting point? something like an alarm clock. Next, you have the routine or ritual. It’s important to remember that all change is hard at first, messy in the middle but glorious at the end. Just do what you need to do before the brain tells you to do something else l; like staying in bed. The reward comes next. It does not need to be related. Finally, you need to repeat the process. How long does the process take? That answer seems to be 66 days.
Robin Sharma has divided 66 days into three stacks in bestselling “5 am club” and named them accordingly, however, the research was done earlier. The number 66 comes in sequence because what happens is this:
The first 22 days — Stage One — Destruction. The behaviour patterns (like emotions) are rewired. If it wasn’t difficult it would not be real change
22 days — Stage Two — Installation. This is the access to potential.
22 days — Stage Three — Integration. Here the change persists.
You need to be mentally strong during the transition there is no doubt. The primary purpose of life is growth as boredom kills the human spirit. When faced with a choice, always choose the one that pushes you the most, increase your growth and promotes the unfoldment of your gifts, talents and personal prowess.
When you are wiring in a new routine the entire structure of your brain is in upheaval. The old you must die so a better you can be reborn. When you most feel like quitting is the time this is the time to continue advancing.
During this period don’t repress the natural feelings of anger, disappointment and sometimes sadness that arise er from time to time. This is just you being human and real and even brave, not weak.
I personally value experiences over possessions there are things more important than wealth, acclaim and fame. Nothing’s as valuable as my happiness. Nothing’s as priceless as my peace of mind. At the end of the day, few things are as essential to exponential productivity, leading a field and the creation of an adored life s raising the appreciation we have for ourselves. To make a habit last, never install it alone, the teacher learns the most. So share your knowledge for the benefit of others.
