''Life is like exercise.
The harder it is, the stronger you’ll become. ''
(9 year old saby girl! 🎀)
Us, millennials, have been brought up in the digital era, which I believe, came to a cost.
Most people use social media in a way that affects them negatively.
If you compare yourself to others, instead of comparing yourself to the person you were yesterday, you already lost the battle.
You gotta keep in mind that social media is all about projecting an image.
In 2016, Americans spent more than 8 billion $ on minimally invasive procedures (botox, lazer, filler).
The quest to attain the illusion of perfection breaks my heart, but it also shows us something important.
This is just an example that relates to physical appearance, but it still illustrates that when we dislike something about our body, instead of getting to the deeper root of the issue (ex lack of self-love), we resort to a quick fix, thinking that it will solve the problem.
Imagine if all those efforts were put into focusing on our internal self, to become the best version of ourselves?
When you feel great about yourself internally, chances are, you will make others feel great too.
In an age where instant gratification is what we value above anything else, it’s hard to develop persistence and consistency. Why would you anyway, if you can get what you want only a click away?
Mental blocks are part of the game of life.
Whether you hit your first marital bump, or you fail an important exam, failure is an inevitable part of life. And in every failure, there is success.
Reaching our goals is a daily grind, and it’s a messy process that does not happen in a straight line.
And the tiny progress you make on a day to day basis will add up and cumulate over time.
I wish I had meditated like the experts who have done around 30 000+ hours in their lifetimes.
But to get there, they probably had to meditate 8 hours a day for almost 20 years.
That means that every single day, they would wake up and discipline themselves to do so.
While this is a pretty big number, if let’s say I meditate for 1 hour every day for the next 365 days, at the end of the year, I will have meditated for 365 hours, which is briefly the equivalent of having worked 40 hours a week for 9 weeks. Up to the challenge? 😉
As I previously said before, habits are formed by discipline or by a lack of discipline.
Building a wall does not happen overnight.
But if each waking day, we commit to learn to build one single brick as best as we can, one day, we will get to the end product.
Everything is a process.
Romantic relationships are not built by the snap of our fingers.
They require daily work and nurturing.
The world will not always want what we want, people will get in the way of what we wish to achieve, but to keep on going, we need to discipline ourselves.
And to me, when I think of the concept of discipline, I think of two things: mental and physical exercise. I think the best teachers of mastering these two are Olympic athletes. When you compete at such a high level, a second of distraction could be the cost to a gold medal. But to become experts in their discipline, elite athletes train both their minds and their bodies. Body and mind work together, and if one is out of sync with the other, your performance will be affected. I consider myself lucky that working out does not require much motivation on my part, but to me, working out was also
the best way to build discipline and a proper work ethic.
I have played soccer at high levels my whole youth, and it has taught me so much on the value of persistence. I remember, a day before one of my final games, a lady I knew told me at school:
''Sabrina, the most important minutes of the game are the 5 first and the 5 last. The 5 first to score the first goal, and the 5 last to protect your net like your life depended on it.'' (This was 12 years ago, and I remember it like it was yesterday). Little would I know, the day of my final game, I scored the first goal in the first 5 minutes of the game, and we won the cup 1-0. 🏆
I played soccer for 13 years of my life. Can you imagine the progress you make in that many years? All the obstacles you encounter? All the little victories you get to savor here and there? The strategies you develop to improve yourself?
Imagine if today we made the promise to ourselves to commit to live the rest of our lives through the values of commitment and persistence.
Like any dream or goal we envision for ourselves and commit to achieve, it’s the accumulation of all the little things that make the difference in the end.
Every single day matters.
One task a day, and soon enough, we will get where we want to be. ✔ ✨