3 Little Wonder Bites
📖 Current Read; 366 Meditations on Wisdom, Perseverance, and the Art of Living — Ryan Holiday
Brick By Boring Brick
The Daily Stoic Meditation for June 8 outlines how you must take responsibility and build your own life, brick by boring brick.
There will be obstacles and it will not be easy.
However, this is your true role in life, and you must do it with persistence, consistency, and excitement.
“You must build up your life action by action, and be content if each one achieves its goal as far as possible — and no one can keep you from this. But there will be some external obstacle! Perhaps, but no obstacle to acting with justice, self-control, and wisdom. But what if some other area of my action is thwarted? Well, gladly accept the obstacle for what it is and shift your attention to what is given, and another action will immediately take its place, one that better fits the life you are building.”
— MARCUS AURELIUS, MEDITATIONS, 8.32
Brick By Boring Brick
Build A Life
Do you want to cultivate your own, beautiful life?
Do you want to cultivate a life in which you never have any monetary worries?
Do you want to cultivate a life tailored to health and happiness?
If so, you must take responsibility and build that life.
You must plant the seeds and lay the boring bricks.
Importance Of Consistency
Consistency is key.
There is no doubt about this in any world, any field, any aspect.
To succeed, and to build a life for yourself, you need consistency.
Consistency is the constant repetition of a particular behaviour, over a period time, with gradual enhancements and improvements.
In other words, consistency is just doing something over and over again till you become better!
Consistency is key.
This is evident in sports, business, studying and academics… anywhere!
You must be willing to put in the boring work, every single day.
You must be willing to repeat things, no matter how arduous it gets, no matter how much you want to give up.
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For, if you are consistent, something magical happens; compounding.
Everything compounds upon eachother; all of your previous efforts compound upon your current effort, improving your skills and therefore you become stronger!
Obstacles
You mustn’t think that this will be easy.
You can’t delude yourself into thinking that it will be a breeze — creating an entire life for yourself.
Rather, you must prepare yourself to encounter obstacles.
You will encounter danger.
You will encounter hard times.
You will encounter people who want to put you down.
It’s easier to fight the battle if you are aware of it, rather than blissfully ignorant.
Prepare
Preparation is absolutely critical.
You must prepare yourself for obstacles — you must know how to fight them, have the skills to do so etc.
You cannot crumble and fall under a hardship.
You must be prepared, so you can fight.
Fight
The best thing to do when you encounter an obstacle, big or small, is fight.
You must persevere and go at it head on.
Believe in the fight.
You will win most battles. And then, you can move forward.
Your Role
No matter how hard it gets, and no matter how much you ache to give up, you must keep going and move forward.
It is an imperative that you never stop.
Why?
Because, as a good person, this is your role.
It is your role to build your character, your life, everything.
It is your role to create something good for yourself.
It is your role to fight and overcome obstacles.
Philosophy and experience have trained you for this.
You have been trained to lay brick after boring brick.
You have been trained to fight and overcome obstacles.
You can do this, it is your role.
Idea of the Week. 💭
The 5 Minute Rule
What?
The 5 Minute Rule is a great productivity tool that can help you tackle large, looming tasks!
With the 5 minute rule, you take any task you have, and decide to work on it for just five minutes.
You do not have to get the full thing done. You do not have to slave away behind a computer for four hours. You simply have to do the first five minutes.
Why?
The 5 minute rule is so effective for multiple reasons;
- It lowers the stakes
- 5 minutes seems easy in comparison to long hours
- After 5 minutes, you’re more inclined to carry on
Low Stakes
Choosing to do just 5 minutes of a task, rather than hours, lowers the stakes.
It makes the impossible task seem just easy enough that you’ll be inclined to get started!
Easy In Comparison
5 minutes is nothing in comparison to long hours.
5 minutes seems easy in comparison to long hours!
The idea of ease, especially when you’re faced with a challenging task, can be a huge motivator.
Carrying On
After you’ve completed 5 minutes of work, you’ll be more inclined to carry on!
Rather than just stopping and putting the pen down, you’ll be more likely to keep going with the hard task.
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This stems from the fact that you are now aware of your ability.
Before starting the task, you may have had little self belief and no idea if you could do it.
However, after working for 5 minutes, you have evidence that you can in fact do it!
This motivates you to keep going.
How?
In order to put the 5 minute rule into practice, there’s a few steps.
- Choose the task
- Break it down
- Pick one, small aspect
- Get working!
You must first know what you’re working on.
Second, you must break it down into smaller, doable pieces.
Third, you must pick a small part that you want to work on.
Lastly, get started! This should be for 5 minutes.
Rather than writing the whole book, just work on designing the blurb.
Rather than writing the whole letter, just write an opening paragraph.
Rather than starting a whole business, brainstorm some logos!
Implement the 5 minute rule when you have looming, scary tasks that you don’t want to do.
Quote of the Week. 🗣
Robert Genn on rejection.
It is necessary to put yourself out for rejection, and accept that you will be rejected.
Put Yourself Out There
First, you must put yourself out there.
You must take risks! You must try something you fear!
There’s no way you’ll get rejected if you never try, and some see this as a safety net.
However, the opposite is also true; there’s no way you’ll move forward if you don’t try.
Do not let the fear of rejection hold you back!
Go for it and put yourself out there!
Acceptance
Further, you must cultivate a great acceptance for rejection.
Rather than fearing it, rather than shying away from it whenever you get the chance, you must acknowledge and accept it, and then shift your perspective.
When meeting rejection, there is two things you must do;
Accept.
Shift the perspective.
Accept
Rejection will happen to you.
There is no way you’ll walk the path unscathed.
Cultivate a gentle acceptance for rejection!
Perspective Shift
Sometimes, rejection can be a great thing!
In the moment, you may be incredibly upset due to the rejection.
However, you could work to shift that perspective and see what a great thing the rejection may be.
- You may have been rejected from the school of your dreams, but you wouldn’t have been happier there anyway
- You may have been rejected from a job, and this saves you from long hours and a difficult boss!
- You may have been rejected from a travel opportunity, but this means you can look for opportunities near by!
Shift the rejection from something bad to something good.
To end, here’s a question from me! ⚡️
How can you make a change?
This final question is very vague, and it can be applied to absolutely anything; it is your choice.
Your change doesn’t have to be huge, it can simply be something small yet meaningful.
What matters is that you do make the change, so that life becomes easier!
Thanks for reading!
Until next week,
Sam. 😆
