3202: Get These Fundamentals Right and You Can Achieve Anything by Carl Pullien on Self Improvement

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[00:01:00] This is Optimal Living Daily Episode 3202.

[00:01:04] Get these fundamentals right and you can achieve anything.

[00:01:08] By Karl Pauline of KarlPauline.com.

[00:01:11] And I'm Justin Mollick, reading you one article a day usually,

[00:01:14] covering happiness, productivity, self-help, minimalism, and more.

[00:01:19] Today's post comes from Karl Pauline. So with that, let's get right to it and start optimizing your life.

[00:01:29] Get these fundamentals right and you can achieve anything.

[00:01:32] By Karl Pauline of KarlPauline.com.

[00:01:37] From Greek philosophers and Roman emperors to Renaissance scientists, authors, and painters,

[00:01:43] the fundamentals for achieving a fulfilled, happy life has been documented, spoken about,

[00:01:49] and lived for thousands of years.

[00:01:53] Yet today, most people struggle through life in states of misery, stress, and unhappiness.

[00:01:59] Why is that? And what are these fundamentals that, if practiced, lead to a happy, fulfilled life?

[00:02:06] Well here's just a few of these fundamental principles you can follow

[00:02:09] to give you a fulfilled, stress-free, and happy life.

[00:02:14] Discipline. Everything flows back to this one trait.

[00:02:19] Without discipline, you will always choose the cake over the healthy option.

[00:02:24] You'll always drink that one too many glasses of wine.

[00:02:27] You'll always choose the sofa over a 30-minute jog or walk.

[00:02:31] It is your self-discipline that will catapult you towards achieving many of the goals,

[00:02:36] ambitions, and objectives you set for yourself.

[00:02:39] From losing weight to creating a successful blog,

[00:02:43] you need the discipline to take action every day to make these outcomes happen.

[00:02:48] No excuses.

[00:02:50] We humans seem to be much better at coming up with excuses about why we cannot do something

[00:02:56] than we are at coming up with reasons why we can do something.

[00:02:59] We seem to have reversed things somewhere along the way.

[00:03:02] There's an old saying, energy flows where your focus goes, which means

[00:03:06] if you spend all your time thinking of reasons why you cannot do something,

[00:03:10] all your energy will be focused on finding excuses for not doing it.

[00:03:14] The most common ones being, I'm not ready yet, or I just have to do this first,

[00:03:19] or I don't have time.

[00:03:21] Whenever you find yourself saying these excuses, you need to mentally check yourself.

[00:03:26] Recognize immediately what these are, excuses, and take steps to remove them from your thinking.

[00:03:32] The best way to do that is to have this conversation with yourself.

[00:03:36] I don't have time to write a blog post this week.

[00:03:39] Why is that? What is taking up all my time?

[00:03:42] I have to do this first.

[00:03:44] Why? Why is doing that first so important?

[00:03:47] I'm not ready yet.

[00:03:49] Why? What do I need to do to be ready now?

[00:03:52] Asking these why questions forces you to recognize you are making excuses

[00:03:57] and opens your thinking to finding reasons to overcome these self-imposed barriers.

[00:04:03] It's a process called interrupting patterns of thinking

[00:04:06] and is very effective at preventing you from making excuses.

[00:04:10] Whatever it is you want to accomplish, stop making excuses

[00:04:14] and instead make a list of all the reasons why you can, should, and must do something.

[00:04:21] Just this one act of writing out all the reasons why you can do something

[00:04:25] will start to make whatever it is you want to achieve much more likely to happen.

[00:04:30] Have a plan.

[00:04:32] The majority of the people you will meet today woke up without a plan for the day.

[00:04:36] The only thing on their agenda was probably that they had to go to work.

[00:04:40] That was it.

[00:04:41] The only thing they will do all day is follow the instructions of their boss or customers.

[00:04:46] When they get home, because there is now nobody telling them what to do,

[00:04:50] they will sit down in front of the TV or binge watch YouTube videos until bedtime

[00:04:55] and then repeat the same process the next day.

[00:04:58] If you're not planning your days with one or two clear objectives,

[00:05:02] you're going to find yourself in a repetitive cycle of missed opportunities, stress, and unhappiness

[00:05:08] because instead of you setting the direction of your life,

[00:05:11] you are giving up that responsibility to someone else

[00:05:14] and their plan for you is never likely to be in your interests.

[00:05:18] It will be in their interests.

[00:05:20] Instead, give yourself 10 to 20 minutes at the end of the day to look at your calendar,

[00:05:25] see where you are going to be, and plan a few personal projects around them.

[00:05:30] Schedule 30 to 40 minutes of exercise, one hour of reading in a coffee shop,

[00:05:35] or arrange a meeting with a lost friend.

[00:05:38] Just the fact you are making a plan to do something constructive for you every day

[00:05:42] will give you something to look forward to and will give you a sense of accomplishment.

[00:05:47] It's that sense of accomplishment that will drive your motivation

[00:05:50] and pull you towards repeating the process the next day.

[00:05:55] Write down your goals.

[00:05:57] Unless your goals are written down and you review them regularly,

[00:06:01] you will never likely achieve them.

[00:06:03] Goals give you a direction in life.

[00:06:05] They help to keep you moving in the direction you want your life to go.

[00:06:09] Without goals, you will drift.

[00:06:12] Drift from one career to another, one relationship to another, and one job to another.

[00:06:18] What is it you want out of life?

[00:06:20] What do you want to achieve in your career?

[00:06:22] What kind of relationships do you want?

[00:06:24] What lifestyle do you want?

[00:06:27] Answering these questions will give you a set of goals you can turn into daily actions

[00:06:32] that will help to take you towards achieving them.

[00:06:35] The joy and purpose you get by pursuing your goals are worth it,

[00:06:38] even if you never actually achieve your goals.

[00:06:42] The ability to focus.

[00:06:44] This seems to be a lost art.

[00:06:47] There are so many distractions competing for our attention

[00:06:50] from social media, advertising, and entertainment,

[00:06:53] to people and things that it has become very easy to have our attention hijacked

[00:06:58] by the latest, loudest thing.

[00:07:00] If you want to achieve success at anything, you must resist these distractions.

[00:07:06] People like Elon Musk, Steve Jobs, Nelson Mandela, and Oprah Winfrey

[00:07:11] never allowed themselves to be distracted by trivialities.

[00:07:15] They had or have a purpose, and they stayed focused on that purpose.

[00:07:20] They knew where their priorities were, and that was where their focus went.

[00:07:24] Remember, where your focus goes, your energy flows.

[00:07:29] Focus on the latest and loudest, and you'll be pursuing trivialities.

[00:07:33] Focus on improving yourself mentally and physically,

[00:07:36] and you'll become an improved version of yourself.

[00:07:39] These five traits and habits will serve you well in life.

[00:07:43] They will guide you to make the right choices,

[00:07:45] and will be the driving force of taking you from where you are today

[00:07:49] to where you want to be in the future.

[00:07:51] These are simple steps, but can be difficult to make.

[00:07:54] It's up to you to take that first step.

[00:07:57] Over time, you'll find they are so ingrained into who you are,

[00:08:01] it'll become natural for you to live a disciplined, focused life.

[00:08:09] You just listened to the post titled

[00:08:11] Get these fundamentals right, and you can achieve anything

[00:08:15] by Karl Pauline of KarlPauline.com

[00:08:18] And I'll be right back with my commentary.

[00:08:21] Thank you to Karl.

[00:08:22] When it comes to discipline, you might be nodding along like,

[00:08:25] yes, with some discipline, I can choose that walk

[00:08:29] instead of watching that show on television.

[00:08:32] But then when it actually comes down to it,

[00:08:34] having that discipline is a different story.

[00:08:37] Sounds nice on paper, but how do you hold yourself to it?

[00:08:41] We've covered this in previous episodes.

[00:08:43] If you're a newer listener to this podcast,

[00:08:45] I'm sure you'll discover many episodes where we talk about

[00:08:47] tips for taking action and discipline.

[00:08:51] But this does remind me of a post from David Cain that I narrated.

[00:08:55] I'll just quickly read part of it because it's been so long.

[00:08:58] He said, quote,

[00:08:59] Number one, recognize that right now already is the future.

[00:09:04] You are currently experiencing the future of all your past selves.

[00:09:09] Their choices have come to fruition.

[00:09:11] If you like better fruits, make your right now self into someone

[00:09:15] who as a habit rolls out the red carpet for future self.

[00:09:20] Imagine if someone had already done that for you.

[00:09:23] Highly disciplined people are always experiencing advantages

[00:09:26] inherited from their wise and caring past selves.

[00:09:31] Number two, recognize the moments when you're about to sell out your future self.

[00:09:36] These moments often happen when you are in retail establishments.

[00:09:39] They often involve televisions or other gratifying electronic devices,

[00:09:43] including the snooze button of your alarm clock.

[00:09:46] They also frequently involve high fructose corn syrup

[00:09:48] and disposable packaging, end quote.

[00:09:51] This recognizing he said in number two is really powerful.

[00:09:55] It's self-awareness,

[00:09:57] which can be learned through practices like meditation,

[00:09:59] journaling and other things you hear about on this show

[00:10:03] and not only affects our discipline but other areas of our lives as well in positive ways,

[00:10:09] including our emotions or outbursts self-dialogue

[00:10:13] and more if you want to hear more from David on discipline,

[00:10:16] you can go way back to episode 92 of this show.

[00:10:21] I probably sound a lot different back then so don't judge

[00:10:23] but I think it's a good article worth revisiting.

[00:10:26] So that should do it for today.

[00:10:27] Thank you for listening and being here.

[00:10:29] Have a great rest of your day

[00:10:31] and I'll see you tomorrow where your optimal life awaits.