Condition Yourself to Love Pain
Break the loser mentality by challenging yourself every day
In the last few weeks, beating myself down and apprehending difficult tasks was becoming the new normal for me. I was becoming a slave to my phone, I was losing control over my own life and I did not have the energy nor the desire to make it stops.
Loserdom was the direction I was moving toward and I did not even notice it.
What was going on?
I stop challenging myself.
It is so effortless to challenge yourself once every new year, but on daily basis, it easy to perceive it as unimportant and forget about it. It requires discipline, tenacity, and self-control which most people don’t have or never manage to develop…myself included of course.
Instead, once a year, we go big because we are motivated. We focus on 10,000 goals and wonder why we can’t maintain it long-term. Motivation is exciting and feeble, and as time goes by, it degrades to a stable level of excitement. Always. I don’t care who you are, motivation will only get you so far.
Discipline and tenacity are where it's at. Constant action over a long period of time. This is not particularly pleasant nor comfortable to experience.
We all have been there…where we had a choice between staying comfortable at home or going to the gym, or whatever else activity you enjoy in your life.
This is the test.
This is what makes you disciplined or not. It is not when you are motivated that you are tested, it is when you are tired and you would prefer jumping back into your bed.
Life is alway giving you a test, trying to give you a way out, trying to give you an excuse not to show up, this is my excuse today [rain], but guess what, you’ve got to have the mentality to show up every f*cking day of your life. — David Goggins
Brainwashing Yourself to Love Discomfort
Every single day of your life, you are being brainwashed.
Whether it is the news, social media, entertainment, music, people around you, or yourself, it does not matter. You’ve got to control what you allow in your brain and the only person who can control it is yourself.
Instead of being brainwash by your environment; brainwash yourself and take control fo your life. Instead of salivating to every “like” you get on Instagram, salivate at the idea of completing challenges and solving problems.
How you may ask?
Simple
Challenge yourself every day of the week.
These challenges must not be hard to accomplish, at least at first. You want to start small and easy, but challenging none the less. And through consistent action, consistent victories, you will transform your mindset from loser to winner.
As you push the rock down the hill and take your initial action, you start creating momentum. It might take a long time to make it move by itself but with consistent action every day, the small wins will accumulate and compound. It will get easier and easier to push that rock down the hill.
But beware, the reverse is also true and it is pervasive. Negative reinforcement will get you astray and you won’t have the time to realize it until it is too late. Negative reinforcement is when you fail the little test life throws at you. It is when you listen to your excuses. It is when you let your emotion lead your decision. It is when you stop challenging yourself.
Small challenges and small wins every day.
Once your brain adjusts to these small challenges, when they get boring, that is when you start ramping up the difficulties. Not only will it make you a winner, but it will also make you feel alive. More habits, more work, more responsibilities, and certainly more control over your own life.
Some people ask me why do I get up early in the morning and go for a run. It is not for the physical benefits nor it is for losing weight. It is to fortify my mind against weakness.
“You need to live in the grip of life to find inspiration. Put challenges in front of yourself. When you put challenges in front of yourself and you attack it, that’s when you find inspiration. Try to be 10% that you were last week. So if you run 30 miles a week, run 33 miles. The more you walk away from accountability, the weaker you become. You can’t find yourself by doing nothing” — David Goggins
Example
The easiest way to get started is by doing any physical activity. There is something about moving your body that makes you feel refresh and focus no matter how bad you felt prior. Of course, you can also attack your projects and goals. Anything that moves you in the direction you want.
For all the examples below, challenge yourself to do it once. Then, do the challenge for a week, then a month, then a year, etc. Start small and later, go bigger.
- Wake up at 6 AM and go for a 15 minutes walk, run (or go to the gym).
- It is pouring outside, go for a run or walk.
- Do one more repetition than what you think you can.
- Do a new recipe once a week.
- Initiate a conversation with 1 stranger every day.
- Write/Draw/Edit/Stream/etc 15 more minutes than when you would have stopped
Anything that is challenging for you.
Anything that makes you uncomfortable.
Then do it.
And the mindset is important here. It is not going to make you a Streamer, an Artist, a Writer, or a CEO because you challenge yourself every day. The mindset shift will make it easier for you to start working on your projects or life goals but of course, if you don’t take any action with this mindset, you won’t go far.
