If you’ve been on Instagram for a few years, your followers are probably made up of people you know. Friends, family, acquaintances. This creates a strange scenario if you’re thinking about posting consistent content to grow your audience.

To see my "self" not as myself but as another “self” that I control. One I must listen to and choose to work with and be kind to. But one who is another one. One who is not me, but instead, a future me, or a past me, or a parallel me—all who have, at one point, asked me to drive them…

On November 28th, 2023, I had 2400 followers on Instagram. By December 23rd, I had 10,000. By January 12th—20,000. February 5th—30,000. Next week, I’ll likely hit 40,000.

Guess what? I’m bored of it already.

I don’t brush my teeth every day, but once a year I spend all day brushing them to remove all the plaque at once. Do you see how ridiculous this sounds? Yet we apply this strategy to many areas of our lives.

Jesse Itzler’s net worth is over $200M. But early in his career, he almost gave away 10% of his future earnings in exchange for a $10,000 loan.

You can either say “Well, I tried,” and accept the plausible deniability. It isn’t in your court anymore after all. Other people dropped the ball, yeah? It’s not on you, right? Or you can take radical responsibility.

“When you set giant, unrealistic goals, the delta between the actions you’re currently taking and the actions you would need to take to reach that giant goal become glaringly obvious.”

Life is painful. It’s hard. And no doubt, writing and workouts make it harder. But that is a portion of the pain that we own. We’re co-creators in the pain. We’re still choosing this.

In a recent conversation with my uncle, we were discussing the optimal amount of time to assume you have left on this earth.

On August 11th, 2018, I tweeted the following: “I feel like I’m about to hit a personal / mental breakthrough. If the dissonance between where you are and where you want to be gets stronger, keep going through it!”

My knees were buckling under the crushing weight of stress. And I decided to take the weekend off of work and hang the cost.

As adults, we are told bedtime stories every single night.

We all got into this game because the feeling of turning ideas into reality is unmatched. Like a drug, it’s euphoric. And like a drug, it’s addictive and debilitating.

We have a misconception that eventually we’ll get really healthy, or eventually we’ll start investing a ton of money at once, or eventually we’ll slow down and have a ton of time for family…but it just doesn’t work that way.

Life-changing wisdom and insights can be boiled down to a few very short sentences. The trouble is, when things are too short they don’t stick.

I injured my foot during training and I had to get an x-ray. I was tired and hungry all the time for two and a half months. My hips locked up for a year afterward, and I had to take a special stretching class to regain mobility. I got 2,519th place with a time that doesn’t impress anybody.

When we take steps to improve our lives, the people around us can feel insecure about their lives. They might isolate themselves, they might lash out, or they might stop asking you to hang out.

Through all this achievement we’re chasing, we need to remember this. Businesses and cars and machines benefit from the very best at all times. But as humans, we’re a little different. Sometimes we just need a turkey sandwich.

The best part of a movie is the monologue. The main character finally decides to speak up, inspire their companions, and face up to the challenge. These scenes give us chills, and live long lives in our minds after the credits roll.

The most optimized approach is not the most effective for long-term habit building. Former athletes and musicians struggle with this the most. We know the most optimized way to exercise and play, and we tell ourselves if we can’t do it that way, we might as well not do it at all. This is a big lie that holds us back.