Compete Every Day by Jake Thompson

Author:Jake Thompson
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Clovercroft Publishing
Published: 2020-04-03T00:00:00+00:00

They’re terrified to take a step forward because they only focus on the gap and because the unknown terrifies them. It’s like being at the starting line of a race and having no idea what’s ahead of you.

If you want to train your brain to shut up in these moments, you need to distract it with a game.

Like tag.

Our brains can’t maintain focus on the gap and simultaneously try to talk us out of continuing onward when they’re busy with an easy task. So you give them one.

You pick a small, achievable goal—for me, it was catching that sixty-five-year-old runner in a bright pink shirt—and focus on getting it. Once you reach that goal, your brain rewards you by releasing dopamine.2 You suddenly “feel good,” because the brain is rewarding you for achieving a task. You feel motivated to receive another hit of dopamine, so you set another small, achievable goal—like passing that sixteen-year-old running in a clown outfit.

You tag that goal, and your brain rewards you again with feelings of motivation and goodness. More achievement, more dopamine.23

You don’t get that feeling and motivation when you’re focused on how far you have to go or you’re listening to the voice whispering, “Give up.” You get that feeling when you focus on small, attainable wins along the way to your own finish line.

It’s not about “all of the” debt you have to pay off or “all of the” weight you have to lose—it’s about asking yourself, What can I do today to make a small amount of progress—and then doing it. It’s the same approach that members of Alcoholics Anonymous take to growing their sobriety.

Our biggest wins are the result of one magic turning point.

Our biggest wins are the result of a multitude of small victories compounded on top of each other over time. It’s small win after small win that keeps you motivated and moving forward.

Think about going to the gym. You grow strength by doing repetitions of an exercise. You work through your repetitions during a single workout, and they start to build one on top of another over weeks and months of training. It’s slow and anything but an overnight change, but the repetitions start to add up until you achieve a new personal best in that lift.

You aren’t stressed about maxing out on a lift six months from now, because you’re solely focused on getting the best reps in today. You’re following your training plan, you’re giving your best efforts, and you’re focusing on today’s lifts.

You reach your big goals—and build your grit—by focusing on your daily reps.

What’s the next task you can tag?

What is one thing you need to do today to reach that closest target?

What do you need to focus on today instead of on how far you have left to go?

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