It took me a while to realize that my daily actions are the most important instrument for achieving what I want in life. If I’m doing something regularly, I will soon get better at it. I only have to do it every single day of my life. That’s why it’s sfo hard. It was hard in the beginning. It was hard in the middle. It’s hard even today. Nevertheless, doing things that bring me closer to where I want to be, every single day, no matter how hard it is to keep going, is the best thing that I’ve done in my life.
I don’t know why the above realization took so long to arrive in my thoughts and settle.
A couple of years ago, I was quite an irresponsible person. I wasn’t good at anything, except partying and spending money. I was living with my parents till 25 and I was a burden to them. I didn’t had a plan, a stable job, nor enough money to save my parents from me and myself from my misery.
I had a dream to buy an apartment and move out from home but I wasn’t sure how I will accomplish this. It was only a dream.
I must say that part of who I am today I owe to various self-help books. I was quite obsessed with reading self-help books at one point in my life. Not that I don’t like reading them now. Simply now I know that reading alone won’t get me closer to where I want. Doing. Being an active person. Keeping healthy habits is the true way to happiness and long-term success. Along with keeping things simple and myself focused.
Today I want to share a life strategy. I named it The Every Day Rule.
It’s a simple strategy that will help you become
Don’t believe me?
Sure you don’t. You don’t quite know me. But before I convince you I must warn you that
If you still want to read what I have to say let me first tell you a story. My short story of failure.
Why People Fail In Life
I will answer this question in details and I will give you my life as an example.
Why I was a failure:
Fixed Mindset
Before I graduate, I thought that the only way to become successful, earn a lot of money, buy nice things
My parents were constantly telling me that I had to graduate with honors if I wanted to get a good job and live a better life. Better than theirs.
This was the only possible path towards success and happiness, at least for me. It’s either you graduate and you get a good job or you work as a factory worker for the rest of your life if you don’t do it.
Back then the entrepreneurial spirit was still a bad word. Something very few people talked about. Garry Vee wasn’t famous, yet. You had to stay in school. Listen to your teacher. Strive for good grades. Do well on exams. Raise your hand when the teacher asks a question.
Even though I’m quite a rebellious person, I was doing pretty decently in school in terms of grades. I was constantly arguing with my teachers about different things, trying to explain why they’re wrong and why I’m right. Nevertheless, I did graduate with honors. My final grade was, and it currently still is: 5.88 by 6 being the maximum in our country.
No Direction
It’s hard to find meaning in life when you’re 18. Hell, it’s hard
When I graduated from college I felt relief. Finally, I was ready for the big job that was going to pay me a lot of money and help me accomplish my dream at the time: get an apartment and a fancy new car.
I did not know what type of work I wanted to do, nor I cared. I simply wanted a huge salary. To experience the life of a wealthy person. To spend hundreds of dollars every week on new clothes and clubs.
The minute I got my diploma, this sacred piece of paper that was costing me 5 years and more than 15,000 leva, that’s around $9,000, I started sending CV’s to all the big brands in my country. Once I was done, I sat down on my couch and I waited for my phone to start ringing.1
Daily Activities
Between 10 and 25, my passions and daily activities evolved as follows:
- Playing video games;
- Watching TV shows and playing video games;
- Drinking, watching TV shows, and playing video games;
- Drinking and chasing girls.
For all these years the only positive activity I was doing was running.
I was rarely mindful
As I mentioned at the beginning, the most important goal back then was graduating. I thought that this holy act of receiving a diploma and throwing your hat into the sky is the ultimate task a young person can achieve:
That’s why I never bothered to use my time to learn something. New skill. New language. Something that will eventually help me in life.
No. I thought that everything will be OK once I receive my document from school.
The Average Land
If you follow along you already saw why I failed in life. The 3 things I mentioned were the ones slowly moving my pawn to the end of the board. Above that board, there is this place called the Average land.2
The Average land is the place where a lot of the graduates go. Not that they like it or they want to go there by themselves. It’s simply something that happens naturally if you live your life in certain ways. The bad news is if you end up living there it’s really hard to get back to the real world where happiness is present more often:
Let me tell you how I, you, and most of the people became citizens of this place:
- Fixed Mindset: People who suffer from a fixed mindset believe that their basic abilities, their intelligence, their talents, are just fixed traits. They’re also convinced that success is based on innate ability. You’re either born with a talent or you’re just a regular guy destined to live in a cubicle for the rest of his life.
- No direction: Obviously, if you don’t know where you’re going you will end up in a place which you probably won’t like very much. Decide what you want to do and where you want to go or someone else will do that for you. A lot of people don’t direct their life towards something specific and they end up being citizens of the Average Land.
- Daily activities: If your daily activities are reactive: You don’t take the initiative; You don’t make your own bed; You’re spending more than you’re earning; You’re satisfied with watching television all day; Eating junk food rather than cooking your own meals is part of your everyday life; Your belly walks two feet ahead of you; You rely on your wife, friends, cat, your own mom when your facing a difficult situation, you’re surely going to the Average Land.
“Ivaylo, how will I know if I am a resident of this place?” you might ask:
Symptoms of the average land:
- You owe a lot of money to the bank;
- Going to the mall is your favorite activity;
- Eating burgers and Cheetos is part of your diet;
- You’re living with your parents;
- Your cat has more followers on Instagram than you;
- Your wardrobe is full of clothes you don’t wear but you still want more;
- Time is something subjective for you;
- You’re subscribed to dozens of TV series;
- You’re working the same job at the dinner for the last 10 years;
- You think that happiness means owning all the Apple products;
The worst of all: You’re doing everything from the list above and you think that the government is to blame.
The Every Day Rule
The every day rule is your ticket out of the Average Land. It’s one simple life strategy that will allow you to reach greatness in every aspect of your life.
Ok, no more personal stories and bullshit, here’s what The Every Day Rule means:
Doing things that will get you closer to where you want, every single day of your life.
Here I’m not talking about scheduling your workouts sessions or thinking about which days you will be writing your future book. Here I’m talking about training, writing, doing pushups, or whatever is what you want to achieve,
Is that even possible? Is it going to be hard? Uncomfortable?
It’s surely will be. It will even sound impossible in the beginning.
The Every Day Rule Guidelines
Ok, before I help you do your own Every Day page, let me give you a couple of guidelines:
General guidelines:
- Set a goal. Something you want to achieve in the long term or someone you want to become (i.e. writer, personal coach, designer, developer).
- Think about the things/tasks that will help you reach the above. Be specific.
- Write them down.
- Commit that you will execute, every single day of your life for an indefinite amount of time. You can share it below this post and I will spam you every day if you’re not delivering.3
- Be specific. Say exactly when you will do the things you just said you’ll be doing (i.e., I will wake up earlier than before and exercise before I go to work).
Additional guidelines:
- Keep your list short: Here I’m not talking about listing 20 things. If you do that it will surely be impossible. List 3 to 7 things that are easily executable.
- Be specific: Don’t simply say I will write every single day. Say how much and when you’re going to write. If you want to write a book you should include writing on your daily list. But writing is something very broad. That’s why you need to add more details. Say how much you will write every day and when. For
example: I will write 500 words each day. I will get up at 06:00 AM to achieve this small task. - Prepare for the worst: Let’s say that one of the things on your list is writing 500 words a day – as I mentioned above. Don’t beat yourself up if you can’t reach that goal for a specific day. Life happens and sometimes you can’t do that task in full but that shouldn’t stop you. Prepare for the worst days also. This means that even if you can’t write 500 words, you can surely write a paragraph, at least. If you can’t run 5 miles on Saturday because you’re going to a wedding, do 40 pushups. It’s better than not training at all.
- Write them down: Write down your goals on a piece of paper or state them on your own website, like I did here: My Every Day Page. If you don’t have a website, don’t worry, simply grab a sticky note, write your 3 to 7 tasks and stick this note to your refrigerator.
Your Every Day Goals
Now is your turn.
What is what you want?
Start by thinking about what you want to achieve. Once you have an idea, deconstruct that goal into small, easily executable steps that are fairly simple to be achieved.
Here’s what is on my list and my reasons for every single day of my life:
- Task: Wake up between 06:30 and 06:40 AM. Sundays I can rest longer. I can sleep till 07:00. Reason: This is my frog.4 Working out in the morning wakes me up and also removes the hardest thing from my list. I feel more alive when I get up and work-out.
- Task: Exercise every day. Reason: This is a no-brainer. I want to be in shape, that’s why I work-out.
- Task: Write at least 1000 words. Reason: I want to grow this website and make writing part of my future lifestyle. Also, I want to improve in this craft.
- Task: Eat less meat and more greens. Reason: I feel better when I eat healthy food.
- Task: Answer 3 Questions on Quora. Reason: I want to grow an audience on this channel and also help people with their questions.
- Task: Read at least one page of a book. Reason: Reading is helping in every situation. Reading gives me ideas for blog posts. It’s helping me when I face difficult decisions and situations. It’s also making me more creating person.
Six simple tasks but by executing them every-single-day of my life I’m able to achieve a lot. I managed to lose 10 pounds in 30 days. I now wake up at 06:30 without setting an alarm. I write more and better with each passing day. I feel great and my body is in very good condition.
Some Closing Thoughts
It’s your turn now.
Think about what type of person you want to become? What type of work you want to do and start doing it, every-single-day of your life.
Look at things this way: If you want to become a
Hit me in the comments below if you have questions or you need assistance with setting up your daily tasks. I will love to help.
Footnotes:
- Well, it wasn’t costing me all that money. My parents were the ones paying for my education, fortunately.
- I actually just invented this place. It’s not in the map. Don’t look.
- Don’t worry, I won’t spam you – evil face.
- If you’ve read the book Eat That Frog!, you know what I’m talking about. Tackle the most difficult task the first thing in the morning. This will fuel your body with adrenaline and keep you active for the rest of the day.
