Have a goal
If you do not have a definite aim, you will go nowhere and everywhere.
It need not be a well-defined goal. Need not be a SMART goal. But make it directionally accurate. You know your goal is somehow northwest of where you are. Aim northwest. You will get clarity from movement.
One of my goals is to be a crazy-fit 90 year old man. I have an image of the future and me in it. White hair, buzzed short. But . . . fucking hell, he’s 90??? Astonishingly fit.
I’m in no rush to reach that vision. I will become 90 years old one day at a time, no matter what. I don’t yearn for this or recoil from being 90 years old.
I am only interested in what I’m doing today.
And it is an intriguing aim. Imagine quality of life in every facet at 90 as a “fucking hell, he’s fit” 90-year old man. Imagine the interesting task of building toward that goal: what to do, how to eat, everything. N=1 experiment.
Start now
You have a goal. When do you begin?
Start now.
Start here
You lack the tools, the resources to achieve your goal.
Start with what you have on hand right now. You have the resources to start. You don’t have the resources you need to finish. But you’re at the starting point, and you have enough on hand to start now.
Get tomorrow’s resources tomorrow.
Starting now gives you something you didn’t have yesterday: direction and momentum.
Start with what you know now
You can’t get much done at all. You need information, you lack skill.
Life lessons are learned in life.
I started lifting with a few YouTube videos and a great deal of sheepish confusion at the gym. I learned some stuff quickly, from putting my hands on a barbell. Those were lessons I learned only from doing.
Better technique comes with practice and instruction. But I can only practice and receive hands-on instruction if I’m in the arena, at the gym, as an ignorant amateur weightlifter.
Do what you are capable of now
Do what you can do just as you are right now. You are smart enough to take action today. You are strong enough. You will get smarter and stronger tomorrow, building off the momentum and learning of today.
I can only lift the bar, without weights? So be it. Go upstairs one step at a time.
Aim forward, measure back
Always aim toward your goal. You will find it moves in front of you, like the horizon, so you will never get there. You will never be done. You will never be there.
But you will feel immense satisfaction by staying in the present moment, immersed in your self-appointed journey. And you will feel pleasure — and find guidance — by looking back to yesterday you, and noting your progress.
Today You, Yesterday You, Tomorrow You
You lifted weights at the gym today that yesterday you could not lift. You understood something you read that yesterday you could not understand.
Don’t fret that the barbell could have contained more weight than you lifted. Look at what you did today, compared to yesterday.
Don’t fret that you are still ignorant and lack understanding. Look at what you know today that you didn’t know yesterday.
What you were yesterday was the foundation on which you built today’s accomplishment. Today you is built on the foundation of yesterday you.
Incremental progress. One millimeter a day, if that’s all you can do today, is world-changing.
Build a strong today you. Tomorrow you will be thankful for the foundation you built today, just as you are thankful for the foundation yesterday you built for today you.