Ever since I went from having 0 energy to having full of it every day people started asking me how I did it.
And I tell them of course.
Do you know what the most common reply I receive is?
Do you know how many actually follow through with what I tell them?
They get the answer to their question.
They have the knowledge to do something about it.
But they don’t.
“I don’t have enough time for that…”
No one seems to have time for the one thing they’re actively looking for, but everyone seems to have time for everything else.
Watching Netflix and YouTube.
Scrolling for hours on their phones.
Working a full day.
And they don’t have enough time?
That can’t be right.
– – – – – – – – – some time ago – – – – – – – – – –
I looked at myself in the mirror after just having pushed myself out of bed.
I stared and stared for what seemed like hours but in reality, only was a few minutes went by.
I noticed how stressed I looked.
I noticed how I’m constantly floating away in my thoughts, not actually being there mentally.
I looked very tired, grumpy and exhausted.
Afterall, it had been another night with poor sleep.
I decided that was the last time I’m seeing myself like that.
I promised myself that I was going to do something about it.
I figured sleep was the first step and looked for ways of improving it.
Then it was my health – so I looked at ways of resolving this too.
And of course, my daily habits were the main culprit to all of my problems.
I found the answers I sought and was very happy about it.
Days went by and nothing seemed to change.
I stared at myself in the mirror and still saw the very same person as I’d promised myself to never see again.
I knew what to do and why to do it.
That was very obvious to me.
But I never acted on it.
I thought that by just knowing of the solution I would be set up.
But no.
It could work once or twice, but I wanted more than that.
Yet I was not ready to put in the work to get there.
I didn’t have enough time it felt like.
I didn’t have enough time for some bullshit like that – I didn’t know if it would even work.
I didn’t have enough time to figure that part out.
I had a lot of things to do every day.
I worked and then got home to play video games or watch YouTube.
Not necessarily any good things, but I already had something “planned” for that day.
And squeezing in some new tasks that would require a lot more effort from me than a video game does, no.
I didn’t have time for that.
I was too scared to abandon my current activities because they were comfortable.
They brought me some joy, I believed.
And doing something new and uncertain was just not for me.
I still knew deep down that I had to change something.
I’d already promised myself to always do what’s best for me since I’m the one that’s going to live my life.
So, I started out small.
I believed good sleep would solve everything so that’s where I started.
I tried for a couple of days to cut out on watching YouTube in bed before falling asleep.
It was a difficult task to keep going but I pushed through.
Some days I just couldn’t help myself, but I’d managed to avoid it most of the time.
But then one day, I woke up full of energy, feeling extremely well-rested and noticed a bright smile on my face in the mirror that day.
I don’t know if it was that tiny change in behavior that caused it or not, but I enjoyed it.
It sparked a new light over me, and I got a taste of what I wanted.
I made a new promise to myself.
“This is how I’m going to see myself in the mirror every day from now on.”
I changed more and more things as I went.
And, the results showed up.
– – – – – – – – – – – – – –
Having no clue what to do is like driving blind.
But having a clue what to do and not knowing why to do it, is like driving without a steering wheel.
After getting that tiny taste of how amazing everything can be, I know knew that change was possible.
I knew why I was about to do the things I ended up doing.
To ultimately feel that way every day.
At first, I strongly believed that I did in fact not have enough time for something new and uncertain.
But getting a taste of it flipped everything around.
It’s all a question of willingness.
We want different but we’re not willing to act differently to get there.
The question is, how far are we willing to go with our bullshit excuses?
I’ll tell you, it’s about prioritizing.
I eventually cut out all the time-consuming things that typically filled my schedule.
All the meaningless tasks really.
Exactly like YouTube, like Netflix, like social media, like video games.
To be fair, they only contributed to things being worse for me anyway.
That’s because they tamper with our dopamine system and reward our brains ridiculously well for using them, which makes it even more enticing to use them and less so to do anything else.
And suddenly I had a huge amount of time leftover.
Ever found yourself on your way to clean the house but then you get stuck on your phone instead?
The satisfaction and rewards after having cleaned is high but to achieve that point you have to put in the work.
So, who would really choose to put in the work when there’s a way to be rewarded instantly with no effort at all?
Right, that’s the issue.
And this instant gratification is also the reason hours tend to fly by when using it.
It’s just so rewarding.
But wouldn’t you say that it has gotten too far when a regular thing like walking dogs is no longer enough to please your brain?
That’s probably why you’re here to be fair.
The solution is simple.
Just don’t use those apps or websites.
You get more time leftover.
You get back the pleasure of everyday things.
You reset your dopamine system.
You get more control over yourself and your actions.
But saying all this is not enough, is it?
Because then there’s a different excuse coming my way…
“I’m too tired after having worked and just want to calm down”.
Or…
“It’s too stressful at work, I need to get back to earth”.
And I always think to myself when hearing this…
“Are people only living to work!?”
“Are people really willing to sacrifice their lives for a job, to the point where their free time is spent to recharge for another day of working?”
No wonder they can’t see any purpose…
Yet they still do it.
I give solutions, people don’t want solutions.
No matter how many solutions I give, there always seems to be even more excuses.
Our jobs do take up quite a lot of time.
Our jobs can be stressful.
But no one’s forcing us to stay there, are they?
No one’s forcing us to use the remaining time of our days to scroll on our phones.
No one’s forcing us to use up all of our energy for the day at work, and no one’s certainly going to thank us for it later…
Not even ourselves.
And here we are wondering what to do differently.
Maybe that’s where you should start looking?
Okay, we all get 24 hours every day.
8 to sleep.
8 for work, + 1-2 hours for commuting and preparation.
Then there’s 6-7 hours remaining.
It’s not a lot, but that’s about what you get.
You chose this way of living and now you get to live it.
6-7 hours is plenty of time to do things.
What you choose to do during this time is entirely up to you.
But remember…
What you’ve been doing for some time now doesn’t seem to be working, does it?
Again, it’s about priorities.
And we’re not very good at setting those.
Give yourself the time you need to try out a new approach.
And if you try the right thing correctly, I can almost guarantee you’ll get a taste of amazing results and then be more willing to keep it going.
Because when you truly know what you’re chasing and how to get there, you’re pretty much unstoppable.
But that’s only if you actually do so…