I’ve been obsessed with self-improvement and productivity for over a decade now and have tried nearly everything. Most advice has some good rationale behind them, but most people, including myself, fail to pragmatically adhere to any of it.
Especially in this world full of digital distractions, it’s incredibly hard to form new habits. You can understand all the psychology behind habits, progressively improve certain habits, then just one day stop it all because you got bored or distracted. You might feel defeated or you might just feel indifferent.
But maybe your gut feelings about all these habits were correct from the start. Being an optiMISER makes your miserable. It’s dorky, lame, and BORING.
At the end of the day, you’re training yourself to become a bean counter for some marginal benefit.
None of these life hacks are worth it. What you need to fix is your big picture mindset.
But everyone already talks about abundance mindset, conqueror mindset, and whatever else is trending nowadays.
Ok great. If you’re young, maybe you should understand the theories behind all that first. But that is not your end goal.
You want to embody a version of yourself that you truly want to be.
If you can focus on being what you should ideally be, you will automatically also do whatever else is necessary to get things done. It becomes crystal clear to you which habits are needed and which are unnecessary. This can change from person to person and even for the same person over time.
Don’t worry about having the ideal morning routine or work flow process. Just start doing shit and fill in the blanks with solutions whenever you run into a real problem. Don’t overengineer for perfection before you even start to take action.
The biggest culprit of this trap is a meditation practice.
You’re sitting on your ass with your eyes half closed as a balding hippie is whispering into your ear about “letting go”.
If you get off on that, I’m not gonna make fun of you too much for being a phagguette. You do what you enjoy, but it’s not a productivity hack and won’t get you into a mental state of success.
According to the Bhagavad Gita, yoga is skill in action.
This means true mindfulness is paying attention while you’re taking action and treating every action you take as a skill that you can improve.
Nobody has time to sit on their ass bored out of their mind an hour every morning.
Stop pretending that you’ll develop this habit. You’re not going to and it’s not worth it anyway.
You know how to actually become more skillful in focusing on things?
Training it all the time in all contexts as you’re simply living life.
If you’re driving, pay more attention to other cars. What model are they? Which direction are they driving?
If you’re walking, track birds flying in the distance. Notice where other people and cards are heading.
If you’re playing a sport, pay attention to what the other players are doing.
This is the true essence of meditation and being here now.
Stop doing extra shit that you won’t stick to anyway.
Just pay more attention when doing anything that you’re already doing. It’s that easy.