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Decisions, free will, and destiny

heavy_industry

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How many times in your life have you let yourself down?

How many times have you disappointed yourself?

How many times have you chosen instant gratification over productive activities that would yield better long-term results?

Why is it so hard to do the right thing, and why do most people end up living a life of quiet desperation?



We do not have as much free will as we think we have.

Human behavior is so predictable, that we can build entire bodies of knowledge (psychology, marketing, etc.) just by observing what people have always done, and will always do.

All of us, with no exception, are walking through life with a very complex mathematical function that is always running inside our head. This function is used to make decisions and navigate through life.

Do we eat doughnuts or salad tonight?
Do we work on our business, or get distracted by bullshit?
Do we go to the gym, or stay home to watch Netflix?

Whenever you encounter a binary decision, the choice has already been made for you by the function.

You will then use your conscious mind to justify this decision, and claim it as your own choice. You think you are acting consciously, but 99/100 times, this decision is the automatic and unconscious output of the mathematical function.

As long as the function remains unchanged, it will always have the same output for a given input. Always.

You are a slave to cause and effect.


But just because 99% of your life is being determined by an algorithmic function, it doesn't mean that you are a victim of your own destiny.

Because this function... was written by you.

Your life is your own making.

Years, and years, and years of repeated thoughts, emotions, and actions have shaped you into the person that you are today. Patterns of repeated behavior have slowly built up this mathematical function, that is sometimes referred to as your "mindset" or "personality". It's the total sum of your beliefs, desires, fears, likes, dislikes, and habits.


If you do not like the way your life looks like right now, you have to understand very clearly the fact that the results of today are not happening because of what you've did this week, or this month, or even this year.

Today is the consequence of what you did 5, 10, 20 years ago. The payday has come.

If you truly want to change your life, you have to understand that you are the captain of the ship, and you also have to understand that there is a huge delay between the moment you turn the wheel, and the moment the ship starts to steer in the right direction.

You can do anything for a week:
  • start a diet
  • start training
  • start a business
A week later, nothing will change. Your weight, appearance, and bank account will look exactly the same.

But if you do it for 6 months, the first results are going to come.
And if you do it for 6 years, life can be so different you would not be able to believe it's happening for real.


And this brings us to the conclusion of this thread.

The only solution for getting in the driver's seat of our life, and be the creators of our own destiny, is to gradually and systematically rewrite this mathematical function and create better circumstances for ourselves, by executing a good process.

The process - is the one and only antidote for all the chaos.

Figure out what truly matters to you, figure out the kind of person you need to be, and start practicing being that person. Have a few core habits and actions that need to be performed every single day.

Do them religiously.

You will gradually become the things that you are doing.

And now the mathematical function will start working for, not against you. You will now choose the right thing by default. Because this is who you are - this is who you have become.


You get to decide your process.
And the process will decide your destiny.
 
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BellaPippin

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I think this has slowly started to sink in in the past few months for me. It’s quite different “knowing” it than actually have the concept sink in at a subconscious level, getting to full acceptance.

I’m trying to switch some (if not all) aspects of my lifestyle, health and entrepreneurship mostly, to reflect this. Time will pass, it’s not a race. But it’s the consistency that will get me where I want, the thought of a deadline isn’t in the horizon like before. More like, this is the present, my new present. It will evolve in a future that I want, but I have to focus on this now, make the right choices for right now.
 

Spenny

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Kind of reminiscent of the theme!

Great posts as always Heavy :smile:
 

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Great post as always.
It is 100% true that the decisions we take today will decide where we are in 10 years.
We need to be accountable for our decisions and think twice before acting on them.
 

socaldude

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The day of reckoning will come when it's time to pay the piper. That day is not a good day when you realize you have been doing it wrong the whole time. Horrible day.

Redemption sometimes is costly in effort but it gets better and easier.

:)
 

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How many times in your life have you let yourself down?

How many times have you disappointed yourself?

How many times have you chosen instant gratification over productive activities that would yield better long-term results?

Why is it so hard to do the right thing, and why do most people end up living a life of quiet desperation?



We do not have as much free will as we think we have.

Human behavior is so predictable, that we can build entire bodies of knowledge (psychology, marketing, etc.) just by observing what people have always done, and will always do.

All of us, with no exception, are walking through life with a very complex mathematical function that is always running inside our head. This function is used to make decisions and navigate through life.

Do we eat doughnuts or salad tonight?
Do we work on our business, or get distracted by bullshit?
Do we go to the gym, or stay home to watch Netflix?

Whenever you encounter a binary decision, the choice has already been made for you by the function.

You will then use your conscious mind to justify this decision, and claim it as your own choice. You think you are acting consciously, but 99/100 times, this decision is the automatic and unconscious output of the mathematical function.

As long as the function remains unchanged, it will always have the same output for a given input. Always.

You are a slave to cause and effect.


But just because 99% of your life is being determined by an algorithmic function, it doesn't mean that you are a victim of your own destiny.

Because this function... was written by you.

Your life is your own making.

Years, and years, and years of repeated thoughts, emotions, and actions have shaped you into the person that you are today. Patterns of repeated behavior have slowly built up this mathematical function, that is sometimes referred to as your "mindset" or "personality". It's the total sum of your beliefs, desires, fears, likes, dislikes, and habits.


If you do not like the way your life looks like right now, you have to understand very clearly the fact that the results of today are not happening because of what you've did this week, or this month, or even this year.

Today is the consequence of what you did 5, 10, 20 years ago. The payday has come.

If you truly want to change your life, you have to understand that you are the captain of the ship, and you also have to understand that there is a huge delay between the moment you turn the wheel, and the moment the ship starts to steer in the right direction.

You can do anything for a week:
  • start a diet
  • start training
  • start a business
A week later, nothing will change. Your weight, appearance, and bank account will look exactly the same.

But if you do it for 6 months, the first results are going to come.
And if you do it for 6 years, life can be so different you would not be able to believe it's happening for real.


And this brings us to the conclusion of this thread.

The only solution for getting in the driver's seat of our life, and be the creators of our own destiny, is to gradually and systematically rewrite this mathematical function and create better circumstances for ourselves, by executing a good process.

The process - is the one and only antidote for all the chaos.

Figure out what truly matters to you, figure out the kind of person you need to be, and start practicing being that person. Have a few core habits and actions that need to be performed every single day.

Do them religiously.

You will gradually become the things that you are doing.

And now the mathematical function will start working for, not against you. You will now choose the right thing by default. Because this is who you are - this is who you have become.


You get to decide your process.
And the process will decide your destiny.
Thanks for writing this. I am choosing a path of pretty delayed gratification right now. (High barrier to entry business and learning real skills)
This post reminded me that just because I am not seeing results (or getting dopamine)now doesn't mean I'm on the wrong path.
 
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WJK

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How many times in your life have you let yourself down?

How many times have you disappointed yourself?

How many times have you chosen instant gratification over productive activities that would yield better long-term results?

Why is it so hard to do the right thing, and why do most people end up living a life of quiet desperation?



We do not have as much free will as we think we have.

Human behavior is so predictable, that we can build entire bodies of knowledge (psychology, marketing, etc.) just by observing what people have always done, and will always do.

All of us, with no exception, are walking through life with a very complex mathematical function that is always running inside our head. This function is used to make decisions and navigate through life.

Do we eat doughnuts or salad tonight?
Do we work on our business, or get distracted by bullshit?
Do we go to the gym, or stay home to watch Netflix?

Whenever you encounter a binary decision, the choice has already been made for you by the function.

You will then use your conscious mind to justify this decision, and claim it as your own choice. You think you are acting consciously, but 99/100 times, this decision is the automatic and unconscious output of the mathematical function.

As long as the function remains unchanged, it will always have the same output for a given input. Always.

You are a slave to cause and effect.


But just because 99% of your life is being determined by an algorithmic function, it doesn't mean that you are a victim of your own destiny.

Because this function... was written by you.

Your life is your own making.

Years, and years, and years of repeated thoughts, emotions, and actions have shaped you into the person that you are today. Patterns of repeated behavior have slowly built up this mathematical function, that is sometimes referred to as your "mindset" or "personality". It's the total sum of your beliefs, desires, fears, likes, dislikes, and habits.


If you do not like the way your life looks like right now, you have to understand very clearly the fact that the results of today are not happening because of what you've did this week, or this month, or even this year.

Today is the consequence of what you did 5, 10, 20 years ago. The payday has come.

If you truly want to change your life, you have to understand that you are the captain of the ship, and you also have to understand that there is a huge delay between the moment you turn the wheel, and the moment the ship starts to steer in the right direction.

You can do anything for a week:
  • start a diet
  • start training
  • start a business
A week later, nothing will change. Your weight, appearance, and bank account will look exactly the same.

But if you do it for 6 months, the first results are going to come.
And if you do it for 6 years, life can be so different you would not be able to believe it's happening for real.


And this brings us to the conclusion of this thread.

The only solution for getting in the driver's seat of our life, and be the creators of our own destiny, is to gradually and systematically rewrite this mathematical function and create better circumstances for ourselves, by executing a good process.

The process - is the one and only antidote for all the chaos.

Figure out what truly matters to you, figure out the kind of person you need to be, and start practicing being that person. Have a few core habits and actions that need to be performed every single day.

Do them religiously.

You will gradually become the things that you are doing.

And now the mathematical function will start working for, not against you. You will now choose the right thing by default. Because this is who you are - this is who you have become.


You get to decide your process.
And the process will decide your destiny.
I totally agree. I know that we "get to decide" on a literal basis, but I think a lot of this is so built into our system-- like you're talking about. I think that what really shapes our lives are small decisions and mini habits. We think about the big decisions and make a conscious choice about each particular issue. It's the little everyday stuff that trips us up over time. Because... we don't even think about those issues as being important to our overall lives. They aren't even consequential enough to recognize. Things like -- did you say thank you and mean it? did you properly brush your teeth today? did you put your chewed gum on the bottom of the table or in the trash? did you drink water today with your lunch or chug a soda? did you leave your dirty socks on the floor or put them in the hamper? did you call your difficult client back or did you ignore that "to-do" item? and the list goes on and the list goes on... I know. You are asking why -- and how much does it all matter? Everything depends on a slew of tiny daily decisions that pile up over a lifetime. They are the real force.
 

heavy_industry

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This post reminded me that just because I am not seeing results (or getting dopamine)now doesn't mean I'm on the wrong path.
The ship takes a long time to steer. But it will happen eventually.

Your job is to look at the map, steer the wheel, and stay focused.

Execute the process, and success will come.

It's the little everyday stuff that trips us up over time. Because... we don't even think about those issues as being important to our overall lives. They aren't even consequential enough to recognize. Things like -- did you say thank you and mean it? did you properly brush your teeth today? did you put your chewed gum on the bottom of the table or in the trash? did you drink water today with your lunch or chug a soda? did you leave your dirty socks on the floor or put them in the hamper? did you call your difficult client back or did you ignore that "to-do" item? and the list goes on and the list goes on... I know. You are asking why -- and how much does it all matter? Everything depends on a slew of tiny daily decisions that pile up over a lifetime. They are the real force.

EXACTLY

And that's why our daily habits are so powerful and dangerous at the same time.
They are invisible. We don't think much of them.

And because of that, they start working in the background without our permission or even awareness. By the time we figure out what has happened in the last 5, 10, 15 years, it's already too late, because the consequences of those tiny unconscious actions have materialized.

You lifestyle and habits can either be:
  • a rock solid foundation that you can build upon (being in top physical shape, being well read etc.)
  • a rock solid ceiling that is crushing you to death (dying of lung cancer from smoking, alcoholism etc.)

What we do is what ends up happening, there will be no escape from the consequences - good or bad.
 

constant

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How many times in your life have you let yourself down?

How many times have you disappointed yourself?

How many times have you chosen instant gratification over productive activities that would yield better long-term results?

Why is it so hard to do the right thing, and why do most people end up living a life of quiet desperation?



We do not have as much free will as we think we have.

Human behavior is so predictable, that we can build entire bodies of knowledge (psychology, marketing, etc.) just by observing what people have always done, and will always do.

All of us, with no exception, are walking through life with a very complex mathematical function that is always running inside our head. This function is used to make decisions and navigate through life.

Do we eat doughnuts or salad tonight?
Do we work on our business, or get distracted by bullshit?
Do we go to the gym, or stay home to watch Netflix?

Whenever you encounter a binary decision, the choice has already been made for you by the function.

You will then use your conscious mind to justify this decision, and claim it as your own choice. You think you are acting consciously, but 99/100 times, this decision is the automatic and unconscious output of the mathematical function.

As long as the function remains unchanged, it will always have the same output for a given input. Always.

You are a slave to cause and effect.


But just because 99% of your life is being determined by an algorithmic function, it doesn't mean that you are a victim of your own destiny.

Because this function... was written by you.

Your life is your own making.

Years, and years, and years of repeated thoughts, emotions, and actions have shaped you into the person that you are today. Patterns of repeated behavior have slowly built up this mathematical function, that is sometimes referred to as your "mindset" or "personality". It's the total sum of your beliefs, desires, fears, likes, dislikes, and habits.


If you do not like the way your life looks like right now, you have to understand very clearly the fact that the results of today are not happening because of what you've did this week, or this month, or even this year.

Today is the consequence of what you did 5, 10, 20 years ago. The payday has come.

If you truly want to change your life, you have to understand that you are the captain of the ship, and you also have to understand that there is a huge delay between the moment you turn the wheel, and the moment the ship starts to steer in the right direction.

You can do anything for a week:
  • start a diet
  • start training
  • start a business
A week later, nothing will change. Your weight, appearance, and bank account will look exactly the same.

But if you do it for 6 months, the first results are going to come.
And if you do it for 6 years, life can be so different you would not be able to believe it's happening for real.


And this brings us to the conclusion of this thread.

The only solution for getting in the driver's seat of our life, and be the creators of our own destiny, is to gradually and systematically rewrite this mathematical function and create better circumstances for ourselves, by executing a good process.

The process - is the one and only antidote for all the chaos.

Figure out what truly matters to you, figure out the kind of person you need to be, and start practicing being that person. Have a few core habits and actions that need to be performed every single day.

Do them religiously.

You will gradually become the things that you are doing.

And now the mathematical function will start working for, not against you. You will now choose the right thing by default. Because this is who you are - this is who you have become.


You get to decide your process.
And the process will decide your destiny.
Great post.

I've come to the conclusion that the less you force yourself to do the right thing, the weaker your ability to do the right thing gets and vice versa.
 
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Akaushra

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How many times in your life have you let yourself down?

How many times have you disappointed yourself?

How many times have you chosen instant gratification over productive activities that would yield better long-term results?

Why is it so hard to do the right thing, and why do most people end up living a life of quiet desperation?



We do not have as much free will as we think we have.

Human behavior is so predictable, that we can build entire bodies of knowledge (psychology, marketing, etc.) just by observing what people have always done, and will always do.

All of us, with no exception, are walking through life with a very complex mathematical function that is always running inside our head. This function is used to make decisions and navigate through life.

Do we eat doughnuts or salad tonight?
Do we work on our business, or get distracted by bullshit?
Do we go to the gym, or stay home to watch Netflix?

Whenever you encounter a binary decision, the choice has already been made for you by the function.

You will then use your conscious mind to justify this decision, and claim it as your own choice. You think you are acting consciously, but 99/100 times, this decision is the automatic and unconscious output of the mathematical function.

As long as the function remains unchanged, it will always have the same output for a given input. Always.

You are a slave to cause and effect.


But just because 99% of your life is being determined by an algorithmic function, it doesn't mean that you are a victim of your own destiny.

Because this function... was written by you.

Your life is your own making.

Years, and years, and years of repeated thoughts, emotions, and actions have shaped you into the person that you are today. Patterns of repeated behavior have slowly built up this mathematical function, that is sometimes referred to as your "mindset" or "personality". It's the total sum of your beliefs, desires, fears, likes, dislikes, and habits.


If you do not like the way your life looks like right now, you have to understand very clearly the fact that the results of today are not happening because of what you've did this week, or this month, or even this year.

Today is the consequence of what you did 5, 10, 20 years ago. The payday has come.

If you truly want to change your life, you have to understand that you are the captain of the ship, and you also have to understand that there is a huge delay between the moment you turn the wheel, and the moment the ship starts to steer in the right direction.

You can do anything for a week:
  • start a diet
  • start training
  • start a business
A week later, nothing will change. Your weight, appearance, and bank account will look exactly the same.

But if you do it for 6 months, the first results are going to come.
And if you do it for 6 years, life can be so different you would not be able to believe it's happening for real.


And this brings us to the conclusion of this thread.

The only solution for getting in the driver's seat of our life, and be the creators of our own destiny, is to gradually and systematically rewrite this mathematical function and create better circumstances for ourselves, by executing a good process.

The process - is the one and only antidote for all the chaos.

Figure out what truly matters to you, figure out the kind of person you need to be, and start practicing being that person. Have a few core habits and actions that need to be performed every single day.

Do them religiously.

You will gradually become the things that you are doing.

And now the mathematical function will start working for, not against you. You will now choose the right thing by default. Because this is who you are - this is who you have become.


You get to decide your process.
And the process will decide your destiny.
whoa
 

Kak

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If you do not like the way your life looks like right now, you have to understand very clearly the fact that the results of today are not happening because of what you've did this week, or this month, or even this year.

Today is the consequence of what you did 5, 10, 20 years ago. The payday has come.

If you truly want to change your life, you have to understand that you are the captain of the ship, and you also have to understand that there is a huge delay between the moment you turn the wheel, and the moment the ship starts to steer in the right direction.

You can do anything for a week:
  • start a diet
  • start training
  • start a business
A week later, nothing will change. Your weight, appearance, and bank account will look exactly the same.

But if you do it for 6 months, the first results are going to come.
And if you do it for 6 years, life can be so different you would not be able to believe it's happening for real.
Love this part. An important concept to grasp.
 

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Brilliantly useful post! Well done.

There was a study done on a brain damaged people who had no short term memory left. Turns out, habits aren’t in your short term memory! Same subjects were able to form routine habits (like walking the same route at the same time every day) and repeat them without assistance.

This says what we need to know about our own lives. You plant the seed for habit to form. If you keep caring for it (soil, water etc) for months, small something will grow. If you tend to it for years a tree will form. Do it for decades and a strong tree will be there. Same with habits… we are who we are because of what we conditioned ourselves to do on a subconscious level (habits).

Picture a huge elephant, that’s habits. Your mind is like a little human sitting on top of this big elephant and trying to control it.

At first, it’s hard to make it do what you want. But with time, you get to ride it pretty well.
 
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Mr.Maverick

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One technique for building powerful habits is to list out the top 5 habits that you want to develop.

Then prioritize them from the most important to the least.

Then focus on building the most important habit for 90 days consecutively until it becomes automatic.

Once it's automatic and it really has become a habit... you can focus on building the next habit because you have the mental resources available.

If you try to build 20 habits altogether at the same time from the ground up it's likely you will get none of them to actually form into a real habit. Hope this helps
 

WJK

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The ship takes a long time to steer. But it will happen eventually.

Your job is to look at the map, steer the wheel, and stay focused.

Execute the process, and success will come.



EXACTLY

And that's why our daily habits are so powerful and dangerous at the same time.
They are invisible. We don't think much of them.

And because of that, they start working in the background without our permission or even awareness. By the time we figure out what has happened in the last 5, 10, 15 years, it's already too late, because the consequences of those tiny unconscious actions have materialized.

You lifestyle and habits can either be:
  • a rock solid foundation that you can build upon (being in top physical shape, being well read etc.)
  • a rock solid ceiling that is crushing you to death (dying of lung cancer from smoking, alcoholism etc.)

What we do is what ends up happening, there will be no escape from the consequences - good or bad.
It comes down to cause and effect. And a lot of the causes are way too subtle to weigh when we do them. It's like the idea that a butterfly flapping her wings on the other side of the world can have big effects.

I am one woman who believes she can change the world by cleaning up her own little corner. I believe in the ripple effect. I throw a peddle in the pond and watch the ripples go out throughout the pond.

For example, I have a tenant who has a bad heart. She's a single disabled woman. She also has 3 kids and she is raising her sister's 3. That's 6 mouths to feed. Right after Covid, the Food Stamps in our area were cut off. The State got behind on its processing. She couldn't afford to buy food for all of those kids. So, my assistant and I taught this woman how to bake bread. And I bought her 50 lbs of flour and gave her a special glass jar to make her yeast sponge. She's taught all the kids from the little ones to the teenagers how to bake bread. And she's still doing it every day. What a ripple in my pond!

I never know what the results will be when I do my daily acts of kindness. Sometimes they are for others and sometimes for myself.
 
Last edited:

MJ DeMarco

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How many times in your life have you let yourself down?

How many times have you disappointed yourself?

How many times have you chosen instant gratification over productive activities that would yield better long-term results?

Why is it so hard to do the right thing, and why do most people end up living a life of quiet desperation?



We do not have as much free will as we think we have.

Human behavior is so predictable, that we can build entire bodies of knowledge (psychology, marketing, etc.) just by observing what people have always done, and will always do.

All of us, with no exception, are walking through life with a very complex mathematical function that is always running inside our head. This function is used to make decisions and navigate through life.

Do we eat doughnuts or salad tonight?
Do we work on our business, or get distracted by bullshit?
Do we go to the gym, or stay home to watch Netflix?

Whenever you encounter a binary decision, the choice has already been made for you by the function.

You will then use your conscious mind to justify this decision, and claim it as your own choice. You think you are acting consciously, but 99/100 times, this decision is the automatic and unconscious output of the mathematical function.

As long as the function remains unchanged, it will always have the same output for a given input. Always.

You are a slave to cause and effect.


But just because 99% of your life is being determined by an algorithmic function, it doesn't mean that you are a victim of your own destiny.

Because this function... was written by you.

Your life is your own making.

Years, and years, and years of repeated thoughts, emotions, and actions have shaped you into the person that you are today. Patterns of repeated behavior have slowly built up this mathematical function, that is sometimes referred to as your "mindset" or "personality". It's the total sum of your beliefs, desires, fears, likes, dislikes, and habits.


If you do not like the way your life looks like right now, you have to understand very clearly the fact that the results of today are not happening because of what you've did this week, or this month, or even this year.

Today is the consequence of what you did 5, 10, 20 years ago. The payday has come.

If you truly want to change your life, you have to understand that you are the captain of the ship, and you also have to understand that there is a huge delay between the moment you turn the wheel, and the moment the ship starts to steer in the right direction.

You can do anything for a week:
  • start a diet
  • start training
  • start a business
A week later, nothing will change. Your weight, appearance, and bank account will look exactly the same.

But if you do it for 6 months, the first results are going to come.
And if you do it for 6 years, life can be so different you would not be able to believe it's happening for real.


And this brings us to the conclusion of this thread.

The only solution for getting in the driver's seat of our life, and be the creators of our own destiny, is to gradually and systematically rewrite this mathematical function and create better circumstances for ourselves, by executing a good process.

The process - is the one and only antidote for all the chaos.

Figure out what truly matters to you, figure out the kind of person you need to be, and start practicing being that person. Have a few core habits and actions that need to be performed every single day.

Do them religiously.

You will gradually become the things that you are doing.

And now the mathematical function will start working for, not against you. You will now choose the right thing by default. Because this is who you are - this is who you have become.


You get to decide your process.
And the process will decide your destiny.

Beautiful, upgraded to NOTABLE. Almost missed it!
 
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Black_Dragon43

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Very valuable post, advice that’s not very popular and often gets ignored outside of Fastlane because everyone wants the result without the process (that’s why pills are so popular, humans are extremely lazy).

To stand on the shoulders of giants and add to your message I think what differentiates winners from losers is that winners understand that there is a cause and effect relationship that produces success or failure. And hence they can change things.

Whereas losers think success and failure just happens. And everyone is stuck with what they get.

90% of people are functional retards. They have no control over their lives and they’ve been bred to live like sheep. Fortunately thanks to the internet which has made all of this possible for us and others, more people are waking up every day and taking charge of their lives.
 

Hein Oosthuysen

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How many times in your life have you let yourself down?

How many times have you disappointed yourself?

How many times have you chosen instant gratification over productive activities that would yield better long-term results?

Why is it so hard to do the right thing, and why do most people end up living a life of quiet desperation?



We do not have as much free will as we think we have.

Human behavior is so predictable, that we can build entire bodies of knowledge (psychology, marketing, etc.) just by observing what people have always done, and will always do.

All of us, with no exception, are walking through life with a very complex mathematical function that is always running inside our head. This function is used to make decisions and navigate through life.

Do we eat doughnuts or salad tonight?
Do we work on our business, or get distracted by bullshit?
Do we go to the gym, or stay home to watch Netflix?

Whenever you encounter a binary decision, the choice has already been made for you by the function.

You will then use your conscious mind to justify this decision, and claim it as your own choice. You think you are acting consciously, but 99/100 times, this decision is the automatic and unconscious output of the mathematical function.

As long as the function remains unchanged, it will always have the same output for a given input. Always.

You are a slave to cause and effect.


But just because 99% of your life is being determined by an algorithmic function, it doesn't mean that you are a victim of your own destiny.

Because this function... was written by you.

Your life is your own making.

Years, and years, and years of repeated thoughts, emotions, and actions have shaped you into the person that you are today. Patterns of repeated behavior have slowly built up this mathematical function, that is sometimes referred to as your "mindset" or "personality". It's the total sum of your beliefs, desires, fears, likes, dislikes, and habits.


If you do not like the way your life looks like right now, you have to understand very clearly the fact that the results of today are not happening because of what you've did this week, or this month, or even this year.

Today is the consequence of what you did 5, 10, 20 years ago. The payday has come.

If you truly want to change your life, you have to understand that you are the captain of the ship, and you also have to understand that there is a huge delay between the moment you turn the wheel, and the moment the ship starts to steer in the right direction.

You can do anything for a week:
  • start a diet
  • start training
  • start a business
A week later, nothing will change. Your weight, appearance, and bank account will look exactly the same.

But if you do it for 6 months, the first results are going to come.
And if you do it for 6 years, life can be so different you would not be able to believe it's happening for real.


And this brings us to the conclusion of this thread.

The only solution for getting in the driver's seat of our life, and be the creators of our own destiny, is to gradually and systematically rewrite this mathematical function and create better circumstances for ourselves, by executing a good process.

The process - is the one and only antidote for all the chaos.

Figure out what truly matters to you, figure out the kind of person you need to be, and start practicing being that person. Have a few core habits and actions that need to be performed every single day.

Do them religiously.

You will gradually become the things that you are doing.

And now the mathematical function will start working for, not against you. You will now choose the right thing by default. Because this is who you are - this is who you have become.


You get to decide your process.
And the process will decide your destiny.
"Watch your thoughts, they become your words; watch your words, they become your actions; watch your actions, they become your habits; watch your habits, they become your character; watch your character, it becomes your destiny".

A great quote by Lao Tzu. I believe MJ also mentioned this quote in one of the Fastlane emails he sent out, but I just had to repeat it here.

It all works like a domino effect.
 

ajakupi

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I think this has slowly started to sink in in the past few months for me. It’s quite different “knowing” it than actually have the concept sink in at a subconscious level, getting to full acceptance.
That is exactly what was bothering me before. I couldn‘t learn/understand something just by knowing (which eventually would be forgotten), the whole concept has to sink in.
This is something we don’t think about but it so crucial to our life and shaping the future.
 
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WJK

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That is exactly what was bothering me before. I couldn‘t learn/understand something just by knowing (which eventually would be forgotten), the whole concept has to sink in.
This is something we don’t think about but it so crucial to our life and shaping the future.
You're right. We all "know" on a gut level what we should be doing. Until that act or understanding gets imprinted on our hearts, it's not second nature -- who we are. That imprinting happens through repetition. Repetition happens through creating a habit, intentional or not. The core to all of this is that each of us can choose the direction of our path, and therefore our future. We each have the personal power to create and act on our habits and morals. Having the power is totally different from having the will to actually do it. One of the big questions in life is whether we have the foresight to make the right choices and the grit to carry them through the many moments life throws at us.
 

Philip H.

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How many times in your life have you let yourself down?

How many times have you disappointed yourself?

How many times have you chosen instant gratification over productive activities that would yield better long-term results?

Why is it so hard to do the right thing, and why do most people end up living a life of quiet desperation?



We do not have as much free will as we think we have.

Human behavior is so predictable, that we can build entire bodies of knowledge (psychology, marketing, etc.) just by observing what people have always done, and will always do.

All of us, with no exception, are walking through life with a very complex mathematical function that is always running inside our head. This function is used to make decisions and navigate through life.

Do we eat doughnuts or salad tonight?
Do we work on our business, or get distracted by bullshit?
Do we go to the gym, or stay home to watch Netflix?

Whenever you encounter a binary decision, the choice has already been made for you by the function.

You will then use your conscious mind to justify this decision, and claim it as your own choice. You think you are acting consciously, but 99/100 times, this decision is the automatic and unconscious output of the mathematical function.

As long as the function remains unchanged, it will always have the same output for a given input. Always.

You are a slave to cause and effect.


But just because 99% of your life is being determined by an algorithmic function, it doesn't mean that you are a victim of your own destiny.

Because this function... was written by you.

Your life is your own making.

Years, and years, and years of repeated thoughts, emotions, and actions have shaped you into the person that you are today. Patterns of repeated behavior have slowly built up this mathematical function, that is sometimes referred to as your "mindset" or "personality". It's the total sum of your beliefs, desires, fears, likes, dislikes, and habits.


If you do not like the way your life looks like right now, you have to understand very clearly the fact that the results of today are not happening because of what you've did this week, or this month, or even this year.

Today is the consequence of what you did 5, 10, 20 years ago. The payday has come.

If you truly want to change your life, you have to understand that you are the captain of the ship, and you also have to understand that there is a huge delay between the moment you turn the wheel, and the moment the ship starts to steer in the right direction.

You can do anything for a week:
  • start a diet
  • start training
  • start a business
A week later, nothing will change. Your weight, appearance, and bank account will look exactly the same.

But if you do it for 6 months, the first results are going to come.
And if you do it for 6 years, life can be so different you would not be able to believe it's happening for real.


And this brings us to the conclusion of this thread.

The only solution for getting in the driver's seat of our life, and be the creators of our own destiny, is to gradually and systematically rewrite this mathematical function and create better circumstances for ourselves, by executing a good process.

The process - is the one and only antidote for all the chaos.

Figure out what truly matters to you, figure out the kind of person you need to be, and start practicing being that person. Have a few core habits and actions that need to be performed every single day.

Do them religiously.

You will gradually become the things that you are doing.

And now the mathematical function will start working for, not against you. You will now choose the right thing by default. Because this is who you are - this is who you have become.


You get to decide your process.
And the process will decide your destiny.
Amazing post dude. One of the many things all of us need to hear. Making choices is not only about making the right ones, its also about even setting what a right choice IS. YOU need to SET exactly what a right choice means and it can be different for everyone. Not only are you supposed to be the captain you are supposed to be the ship and the sea too. Because reality in the end is an illusion or an interpretaion of what our senses percieve. Dont distegard your inner wealth just like you dont disregard the outer one. Mental health is also part of health, thus your wealth.
 

andrea532

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How many times in your life have you let yourself down?

How many times have you disappointed yourself?

How many times have you chosen instant gratification over productive activities that would yield better long-term results?

Why is it so hard to do the right thing, and why do most people end up living a life of quiet desperation?



We do not have as much free will as we think we have.

Human behavior is so predictable, that we can build entire bodies of knowledge (psychology, marketing, etc.) just by observing what people have always done, and will always do.

All of us, with no exception, are walking through life with a very complex mathematical function that is always running inside our head. This function is used to make decisions and navigate through life.

Do we eat doughnuts or salad tonight?
Do we work on our business, or get distracted by bullshit?
Do we go to the gym, or stay home to watch Netflix?

Whenever you encounter a binary decision, the choice has already been made for you by the function.

You will then use your conscious mind to justify this decision, and claim it as your own choice. You think you are acting consciously, but 99/100 times, this decision is the automatic and unconscious output of the mathematical function.

As long as the function remains unchanged, it will always have the same output for a given input. Always.

You are a slave to cause and effect.


But just because 99% of your life is being determined by an algorithmic function, it doesn't mean that you are a victim of your own destiny.

Because this function... was written by you.

Your life is your own making.

Years, and years, and years of repeated thoughts, emotions, and actions have shaped you into the person that you are today. Patterns of repeated behavior have slowly built up this mathematical function, that is sometimes referred to as your "mindset" or "personality". It's the total sum of your beliefs, desires, fears, likes, dislikes, and habits.


If you do not like the way your life looks like right now, you have to understand very clearly the fact that the results of today are not happening because of what you've did this week, or this month, or even this year.

Today is the consequence of what you did 5, 10, 20 years ago. The payday has come.

If you truly want to change your life, you have to understand that you are the captain of the ship, and you also have to understand that there is a huge delay between the moment you turn the wheel, and the moment the ship starts to steer in the right direction.

You can do anything for a week:
  • start a diet
  • start training
  • start a business
A week later, nothing will change. Your weight, appearance, and bank account will look exactly the same.

But if you do it for 6 months, the first results are going to come.
And if you do it for 6 years, life can be so different you would not be able to believe it's happening for real.


And this brings us to the conclusion of this thread.

L'unica soluzione per prendere il posto di guida della nostra vita, ed essere i creatori del nostro destino, è riscrivere gradualmente e sistematicamente questa funzione matematica e creare circostanze migliori per noi stessi, eseguendo un buon processo .

Il processo - è l'unico antidoto per tutto il caos.

Scopri cosa conta veramente per te, scopri il tipo di persona che devi essere e inizia a esercitarti a essere quella persona. Avere alcune abitudini e azioni fondamentali che devono essere eseguite ogni singolo giorno.

Falli religiosamente.

Diventerai gradualmente le cose che stai facendo.

E ora la funzione matematica inizierà a funzionare a favore, non contro di te. Ora sceglierai la cosa giusta per impostazione predefinita. Perché questo è ciò che sei, questo è ciò che sei diventato.


Puoi decidere il tuo processo.
E il processo deciderà il tuo destino.
Wow this post is great
 
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