optional pre-reads for added context:
the inertia effect | wave window
life ain't fucking fair.
i thought, laying on my roof.
the sky was lookin crazy but i didn't notice.
even though the cosmos gave me its brightest smile －
i couldn't see shit.
i been working overtime.
pushing through it.
going the extra mile.
and none of it's working.
it's like this invisible force is dragging me down,
doomed to run in circles forever.
like that fucking satellite over there.
wait.
space
in outer space, if you fly by a planet closely enough － it pulls you.
the pull changes your course, causing you to circle around it endlessly.
this is why planets circle or "orbit" around each other.
each planet got its own aesthetic.
on earth we got seas and trees n shit
mars is just deserts and this wall-e lookin robot thing.
our situation in life works exactly the same way.
we all got our planets.
some chosen. others assigned.
and we just fucking orbit them shits into eternity.
boring right?
i think most of us yearn to change planets.
whether it's our job, habits, environment or skillset.
we'd like to orbit something else.
you might not even have a destination yet.
anywhere is better than here.
so you try.
take a step － get pushed back two.
try to stand － fall flat on the floor.
you ask for help － they laugh at you for trying.
you're stuck on this planet.
and gravity will keep you here.
forever.
gravity
it's impossible to beat gravity.
you? vs a whole ass planet?
how?
endless defeat
your only hope is reaching enough speed to escape.
so in a sense, you're racing against gravity.
an opponent that never stops.
never slows down.
never sleeps.
it becomes even more impossible when you take size into account.
the harder the achievement you're after － the bigger the planet.
bigger planet = more gravity.
some people been tryna escape a planet their whole lives.
smoking,
depression,
insecurity,
fear.
and the longer you're in the race －
the more fatigue pulls you down.
like poison, melting through your will － one doubt a day.
until one day － quitting isn't just an option.
it's necessary mercy.
hope
people who achieve the impossible are rare.
despite having the same 70-100 years of life,
they built enough speed to escape massive planets.
if they can escape those kinda planets,
you can escape yours.
just build speed.
how?
putting in work consistently.
until you escape － acceleration is all that matters.
if you want to accelerate on a bike,
now is not the time to stop peddling right?
so keep going.
now just do that for the next year.
every single day.
too much?
that's just a small planet.
if you wanna become a pro athlete, comedian, artist, writer.
you can double it. triple it. maybe even quadruple it.
working.
every day.
consistently.
for years.
not making a single penny.
overwhelmed? don't worry.
all the greats were.
let's look at how to get consistent.
and stay consistent － for decades, not days.
escape velocity
there's only one way to escape.
reach a speed you've never reached.
easier said than done? yeah.
but it ain't rocket science.
why most fail
they stop.
picture it like cycling uphill.
on the outside － looks like they're killing.
but inside, the engine's overheating.
as soon as they gas out and take a break,
"life ain't fair" starts playing.
they start sliding. fast.
now they gotta kill downward momentum,
before building it back up again.
you might recover once or twice.
but you're essentially doubling the workload.
you thought one planet was hard?
try escaping two.
at the same time.
the longer you extend the journey,
the more fatigue starts barking like a bitch.
motivation drops.
doubts spike.
when all you had to do…
was show up once.
a single rep.
is one moment really worth it?
giving up everything?
why you won't
humans are weird creatures.
our biggest tool is our biggest enemy.
emotions can make us trade a lifetime for a moment.
let's make sure you don't.
selecting destination
a planet escape can represent two things.
you're either trying to end a bad situation,
or achieve a good one.
the second already got a destination,
the first needs to start aiming immediately.
negative motivation is very strong － if not the strongest.
it's great to kickstart your journey and build momentum.
but damn it burns out fast.
after a while you forget the pain you felt.
you might even start romanticizing and craving it again.
it's a common way addicts relapse.
simply trying to escape negativity won't keep you going.
you need a clear destination, a clear reason for working.
the amount of discipline you need to succeed shrinks －
in direct proportion to the clarity your vision gains.
that way you work until you reach it.
instead of stopping when the pain fades.
now that you know where you're going,
let's see if you can handle the trip.
planning trajectory
to avoid burning out, it's good to know what you've signed up for.
you don't wanna cave in at the finish line －
only to find out halfway marks got flags too.
the journey should be as clear to you as your destination is.
when aspiring day traders talk with experienced ones,
there's always this piece of advice that keeps coming back:
"extend your time horizon."
i picked trading, because it's one of the hardest pursuits to master.
a regular person will take between 2-6 years to turn profitable.
that's 2-6 years of losing money & all the stress that comes with it.
i think you can see why 95% doesn't make it.
if you're planning to escape a big planet － update your standards.
study the timelines and hardships of other escapees.
accept the fact you're gonna have to work without results.
progress ain't linear － our linear minds can't see that.
social media & entertainment have shifted importance
from being good to looking good － to gain status.
the increase in pretenders feeds an illusion:
"how i achieved my dream in 30 days."
don't let bite sized effort culture fool you,
anything worthwhile doesn't come easy － and that's fine.
an easy life is never a good life, but a good life makes life easy.
if you can accept long hours without pay,
and still enjoy the work…
you'll work harder.
way harder.
if you can't, that's totally fine.
keep at it a little longer to see if anything changes,
passion often comes after some level of skill is achieved.
if not, you should go back to destination selection.
you probably don't want it enough.
really, go back. don't lie to yourself.
you'll try to find ways to shorten the route,
but with many worthwhile things:
the short route is the long route and the long route the shortest.
taking off
before you can build planet-level speed,
you need micro-level momentum.
the micro is where most give in.
no respect. no audience. just grit.
Inertia will remind you that going from 0 to 1 －
means multiplying by infinity.
so if you wanna handle that weight,
you'll need to dive a lil deeper.
preserving fuel
a journey where everything goes according to plan
is a fictitious one － and even those have hiccups.
there's gonna be days where the whole world is against you.
even your own body and mind are trying to sabotage your rise.
"i'm tired. it's raining. it's a holiday. everyone else is …"
you now know that keeping momentum is mission critical,
but that doesn't mean off days are days off.
instead, design a system for days like these.
the simplest system i've found is tiered effort.
normal day? standard input － tier 1
feeling weak? too busy today? － tier 2
ain't a chance in hell? － tier 3
if you have minimum requirements for all 3,
you won't stop long enough to stall,
especially if tier 3 is so easy you get dumber just doing it.
if you make staying in motion easy,
you make winning easy.
but moving ain't enough.
the monkey needs to feel progress.
you think he trusts the process?
analyzing progress
the way you view your progress is crucial to succeeding.
having systems to work on off-days is essential too,
but what if all days start feeling like off-days?
the monkey part of your brain is very simplistic.
good feeling = good, bad feeling = bad.
if there's too much bad, he'll make everything harder.
it's your job to give him good feelings, but in the right way.
reward yourself for putting in effort,
especially if you were struggling that day.
capture it, a photo, post, voice note, doesn't matter.
you gotta stack your wins like this.
don't reward yourself for outcomes － at all.
the input is your work, the outcome is life's work.
don't try to take credit for that.
this way the monkey gets his little treat when you make progress,
now your emotions tell the truth when you ask how you're doing.
when your emotions are in check the only thing left is context.
progress only exists in comparison － but to what?
most never find out.
the loser trap
any self improvement journey is built upon an important foundation.
the foundation of self-love.
you might be thinking "wow he's gone soft on us."
but let me show you just how important it is.
whether you like being you or not, you want to like it.
you want to feel confident, capable, and proud.
any person does.
but when you don't love yourself, your journey becomes toxic.
you start working, not to grow － but to prove your worth.
this is where the price of self worth gets pegged to results.
1 success = 1 increase in self-love
1 failure = 1 decrease
welcome to the loser trap.
so you're about to put in work right?
before you even start, you're on edge － already obsessed with gains.
you're never in the moment to actually perform well.
you start making more mistakes,
but you can't admit these mistakes －
to you, they mean decreasing your self worth.
so the ego starts hiding them.
out of sight, out of mind － no need to get real.
how?
simple. just blame outside factors.
if the mistake wasn't your fault, self-worth stays up.
slowly your grip on life starts slipping.
as you make more and more mistakes, you blame more.
you're giving your power away.
and it's feeding all your insecurities.
now you wait around, paralyzed, for life's next move.
so what about the mistakes you do catch?
they become proof.
proof you really are that worthless.
this further shapes the lens you use to view life.
what you think of, you see more of.
so you're blind to what needs fixing － too fragile to face it,
you go through life as an anxious victim,
and you have a toxic self-image.
that gets stronger.
daily.
these factors strengthen each other so much,
even other people will start seeing you as a loser,
now it's reality. you're born to lose.
lucky for you, you're learning about this now.
and all this is just one big mental game.
the only power it has, is the power you give it.
avoiding the loser trap, just takes two steps.
the first is learning to love yourself － it's not that hard.
start with the basics. ravikant has a great book on it.
it's short. but it fucking works.
you really are your own teammate for life here.
if your teammate sucked, you think not loving them would help?
every time they miss, you scream at them?
of course not.
a good teammate motivates you － rewards you for trying.
accentuating the part of your effort that does go well.
so be a good teammate.
once you love yourself, you can take the next step:
taking radical ownership of your life.
whenever something goes wrong, own it.
see how you could've handled the situation better.
even if it wasn't your fault.
even if you're completely justified to blame.
and remember, you're a good teammate now.
so don't beat yourself up for these things.
mistakes are a myth.
all you got is reps.
next set.
ego lifting
the final ego trap: setting the bar too high.
not because you're confident － but because you're not.
you use goals to prove your worth,
not realizing:
if you can't accept where you're at －
you'll never feel what high self worth is like.
you jump straight from intermediate to expert level.
obviously you fail － now your emotions start talking.
you're not built for this.
you don't have what it takes.
bla bla bla.
setting big goals is something you have to earn.
repeatedly setting strict criteria and failing to meet them,
is like going to the gym － only attempting 400lbs lifts.
you're ego lifting.
you're ambition is a good thing －
but progress is built on consistency.
if you can't lift 100lbs consistently,
why the fuck are you adding three plates on top?
set goals you can reach.
reach them frequently.
then raise the bar.
and don't fall for the dopamine trap either.
talking about your goals, imagining the payoff － it feels good.
but that's pure pleasure, no pain.
real work flips that: mostly pain without pleasure, at first at least.
so if you just came from effortless gains －
the work is gonna feel like hell.
stop acting.
start working.
after action report
this part's for the overachievers.
nothing keeps you going like clarity,
and nothing brings clarity like journaling.
when you recap your days,
you get another rep in.
journaling is like rereading a book:
you start spotting patterns, hints, clues.
each making you faster.
weekly recap? another rep.
monthly? another.
wanna go deeper?
give yourself points. reward holistically.
suddenly your progress becomes linear.
even the monkey's motivated now.
stack the wins.
log the road.
stop guessing.
start growing.
to the demon in you
half-ass
you can't complain if you sabotage yourself.
have you ever really thought about what you want?
you know what you don't want, but has that been enough for you?
you might think you know, but do you really?
you want it, but only without trying.
time to wake up.
then you finally get going, but one off day starts the chain.
why is it always 0 or 100% with you? is your ego that weak?
putting in 10-50% is below you? so you quit altogether?
all those 0's coulda been 50's, leading to more 100's.
wise-ass
oh you're perfect now? never your fault? right, right.
you do everything flawlessly, huh?
remind me － when was your last mistake?
ages ago, right? still in diapers, surely?
then why are you so tight?
why does every slip up feel like heartbreak?
how come i've never heard you say sorry?
you don't want growth.
you want to feel grown without growing.
you're not tryna improve.
all you care about is image.
that's not ambition.
that's virtue signaling.
to your fucking self.
who are you lying to?
to the real you
i know you got way more in you.
that's why i'm givin it to you straight.
now go.
and this time.
don't stop.