Achieving Top-Tier Dreams and Becoming a Higher Self Is Not a Mystery
This is why most people won’t succeed.
“Success is neither magical nor mysterious. Success is the natural consequence of consistently applying the basic fundamentals.” -Jim Rohn
Deep down, a lot of people flat-out don’t believe they can succeed.
Why? A main reason is simply because they don’t know how; no one’s showed them.
Most people born in the low and middle class will die there. Most people cannot call themselves “healthy” due to overconsumption of subpar food. Half of us (myself included) saw or will see our parents divorce — who’s going to teach us how to have a successful marriage?
But the truth is, achieving your highest personal, financial, and professional goals and evolving into a better self isn’t a mystery. It’s not easy, to be sure. But it’s simple.
Prolific motivational speaker and best-selling author Jim Rohn once said:
“Success is neither magical nor mysterious. Success is the natural consequence of consistently applying the basic fundamentals.”
Achieving the success you want isn’t complicated. Frankly, it’s very simple: if you can consistently follow the basic fundamentals, success will come.
So what are the fundamentals?
“Discipline Equals Freedom.”
The above line is the mantra of former Navy SEAL and author Jocko Willink, and it’s one of my favorites.
The more disciplined you are in any area, the more that area will improve. Many people label discipline as exhausting and tiresome. It usually is as first; everything is hard before it’s easy.
But this effort is exactly what allows you to experience more freedom and bigger success in your life. The more you discipline yourself, your actions, and your choices, the better your life will be.
When I was 10, I got hooked on pornography. It wasn’t a hobby, it wasn’t a “vice”: it was an obsession. I would hide porn in the toilet tank so my family wouldn’t find it. I’d hide it on the roof. I’d bury it in the backyard.
It wasn’t until 22 that I finally got sick of hating myself and went to therapy for my addiction. It was hard; very hard. My therapist told me to go to a 12-step program for my behavior.
That was hard, too. But for the first time, I had the choice to be disciplined in my actions to make my life better; would I journal how I felt, or numb my pain with porn? Would I go to 7:00am meetings, or sleep in like usual?
For the first 2 years, I didn’t get “sober.” I wasn’t disciplined. I’d sleep through meetings, lie about journaling, procrastinate my step-work, and avoid doing the emotional work necessary to get better.
Finally, I changed again. Sick and tired of being forced to admit I had failed again for the thousandth time, I got serious. I did the work. I went to 90 meetings in 90 days, twice. I shut up and did what my sponsor told me to do without complaining. I journaled a shit ton.
I’m a couple months away from celebrating 4 years with no porn. How?
Discipline.
The more discipline you have, the more freedom you experience.
“Small Progress, Every Day.”
“Every day, check these 4 boxes: Have I improved 1% on physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual health?” -James Altucher
Another fundamental of achieving your highest goals is consistency.
It’s one of the hardest ones. But if you can be consistent, you can master pretty much anything. If you can do it every day, you’ll be enormously successful.
Repetition is tedious. Doing the same task every day for months on end gets boring and tiresome, especially when there seems to be no evidence of improvement.
The truth is, consistency will make you feel like a loser. Once you start doing something all the time, you realize improvement doesn’t always happen quickly.
Recently, I’ve started consistently reading the Bible (as a Christian, that’s important to me). But it’s really hard. The more I read, the more I think how many other incredibly godly, spiritually-fit Christians could breeze through passages that totally stump me. Consistency is making me feel stupid.
Oddly enough, this is exactly what you want to have happen. It’s how it works — consistency will make you feel like a loser (at first). When you decide to improve physically and become aware of how much you’re overspending, overeating, and oversleeping, you’ll probably feel terrible about your situation. “This is bad. Is this how I really act all the time?”
Well, they say the first step to solving a problem is admitting you have one (learned that one in therapy!).
As Sheryl Sandberg once said:
“We cannot change what we are not aware of, and once we are aware, we cannot help but change.”
Small progress, every day. The rest will take care of itself.
“Getting ahead is based on manageable tweaks, not tectonic shifts.” -Neil Patel, Hustle
Raise Your Standards, Elevate Your Life
“If you don’t set a baseline standard for what you’ll accept in life, you’ll find it’s easy to slip into behaviors and attitudes or a quality of life that’s far below what you deserve.” -Tony Robbins
A simple reason most people don’t evolve and achieve their goals is because they have low standards.
Tony Robbins once described our capacity to succeed like an air conditioner. We set the temperature; whatever number we set is what our “room” (our career, relationships, income, health) will align with. Set your temperature low, and that’s what you’ll get.
A lot of people don’t expect much from themselves. Author David Deida described it like this: “Their lives are relatively secure and comfortable, but dead. They lack aliveness, depth, and inspirational energy.” Many people are satisfied with a comfortable life, even if it’s a dead one.
What you tolerate is what you receive. If you tolerate mediocrity in any area, that’s precisely what you get. If you’re content with having shallow, mediocre relationships, that’s what they’ll look like. Life tests you to see what you’re willing to take.
If you want to elevate your life, raise your standards. Stop agreeing to mediocrity. Your life is a product of what you tolerate.
A few years out of college, and my biggest dream was to make $50,000 at an easy job. That was my goal, and I eventually got it.
But it wasn’t enough; it was a cushy office job that sucked the vigor and aliveness out of me. My standard had been met, but I only realized after that it was a lower standard than what it could have been.
So I elevated my standards. My wife and I wanted adventure; we quit our jobs and moved to Korea to teach English. After that, I started my own successful writing business where I challenge myself every day.
I raised my standards and my life elevated.
In Conclusion
There are many more fundamentals to success (here are 14 more). Start with these, though. As George S. Clason wrote in The Richest Man in Babylon: “This is the process by which wealth is accumulated; first in small sums, then in larger ones as a man learns and becomes more capable.”
Learn these first. More will be revealed to you as you learn.
Achieving your goals and evolving isn’t a mystery. It’s not complicated or difficult to understand. It’s not easy, but it’s simple.
In my 12-step program, they say the same thing; it’s not easy giving up an addiction you’ve nursed your whole life. It’s not easy changing routines or behaviors that been ingrained for years, even decades.
But it is simple.
Follow the fundamentals. Don’t get too fancy; do what you can to be consistent and make small progress every day. The more discipline, the more freedom.
“You can accomplish tremendous things in your remaining years if you will design them before you live them.” -Jim Rohn
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