Are you only treating the symptoms of your problem and not the root cause?

This seems like a ridiculously common approach. People who are tired reach for more coffee. They don’t try to correct their bad sleep habits. People with headaches reach for ibuprofen or aspirin. They don’t make sure they are hydrated, well rested, and have good posture.

A bad lifestyle is harder to change, but the results are worth it.

What problems in your life are you treating but not solving?

There are many areas people have pain left untreated.

A few common examples:

• Finances: unchecked spending bandaided with debt.
• Physical pain: poor lifestyle symptoms treated with pharmaceuticals
• Stress and Anxiety: not making changes that they could, coping with escapism or drugs/alcohol

If you examine your life, do you find you are kicking a problem down the road treating only the symptom?

Identify the root of the problem.

You probably already know what it is.

But if you don’t, the wisdom of the world is available via the internet. There are very few problems (for individuals) that someone doesn’t know the root cause of. Some take a little experimentation on an individual level, especially diet related issues.

Seek and you will find.

Do the work, make the change.

The problem won’t solve itself.

You have to do the exercises, change your habits, confront the source. Whatever the root is, you are the one who has to take responsibility and make the changes. No one else is going to make your life better.

When are you going to step up and solve the source of the pain?

One of my fitness goals is to dunk a basketball.

Before this year, I had put that goal on hold. The reason was every time I started jumping, or playing basketball for that matter, the next day I would be in pain. My knee would feel weak, damaged, and fragile.

This year I found out about Knees Over Toes Guy (KOTGuy) and it has changed my life.

Walking backwards.

The foundational exercise he teaches is walking backwards.

Very simple. You find somewhere with nothing to trip over, or get good at looking over your shoulder, and walk backwards. Make it a slight incline for extra benefit.

I pull my son backwards in his stroller in the mornings before work.

Tibialis raises.

If you don’t know what your tibialis muscle is, neither did I.

It is the muscle on the front of your lower leg. To do this exercise, you lean your rear end against a wall with your legs extended at a 30-45% angle. Keep your heels planted and lift your toes towards your head.

Three sets of 25 is the starting point.

Extra long lunges.

KOTGuy calls them “ATG split squats.”

Basically you do a lunge, but you knee will end up above or past your toe. Your upper leg will be fully pressed against your lower leg. For beginners, you often need the front foot elevated and some sort of balance assist.

Check out his youtube channel and/or instagram for guides on the above three exercises.

• https://www.youtube.com/c/TheKneesovertoesguy
• https://www.instagram.com/kneesovertoesguy/

A small step everyday is the recipe for success.

The first step makes the second step easier. If you put on your shoes, going for a run becomes that much easier. The laws of physics apply in a sense to motivation and getting things done.

If you take the first step you are likely to take the second.

Make the steps small and easy.

Each step should be almost ridiculously small.

It becomes almost embarrassing that you didn’t do something that takes less than 5 minutes. Then it compounds. You do the next one and the next one and the next one.

Before you know it you have achieved something great.

You will underestimate the compound effect.

A small step everyday is the recipe for success.

For example if you were to write only 500 words a day, in a year you would have written 182,500 words. That’s about 2 novels worth of writing. Or if you were to learn 2 words in a new language per day, you would know 730 after a year. That’s enough to have almost all the conversations you will ever have. (see fluentforever.com for a list).

The first step is to sit down with pen and paper or a laptop and write.

Life will try to derail you.

That is why keeping each step small is important.

If it is easy to get started again, you are more likely to regain your momentum. Feeling overwhelmed by a task is what makes you avoid it and causes you to quit.

Keep taking the small step everyday and hop back on if life tries to kick you off.

Wisdom is often overlooked in life’s pursuits.

Don’t confuse wisdom with intelligence. Intelligence is more about theory and head knowledge. Wisdom is practical knowledge, often from experience. It is embodied.

Make a regular part of your life something that increases your wisdom.

Pick an area you are interested in.

You want something that piques your curiosity.

Many times this will be unrelated to what you do for work, and that is a good thing. Do a deep dive into the subject. There is likely a community of people already passionate about it somewhere online.

Find the community and learn from them.

Learn thru doing.

Try to find something where you don’t just passively learn (reading, watching), but actively learn.

Learn more about how the world works. Some examples:

• Build websites and computer applications.
• Take apart and repair appliances, computers, phones.
• Restore cars, tractors, or other machines.
• Flying model planes.
• Gardening and growing various plants.

Not only will you have a useful skill, but you will understand more about how the world you live in works.

Record what you learn.

You can use this to teach others.

It doesn’t matter if you write it down, make a video, or just record yourself voicing your thoughts. Make sure you capture it. The time right after you learn something is so valuable for the next person.

We often forget what it is like to learn something new.

You should have a hobby that helps you stay fit and healthy.

Fitness is essential for quality of life. There are a lot of different ways to exercise to maintain physical fitness. Choose one you enjoy and make it a hobby.

Make it a part of your lifestyle.

Find something enjoyable.

A part of your day you look forward to that also helps you stay fit is a huge win.

Some people enjoy solitude, others enjoy groups. While I normally enjoy working alone, I find exercise with others is more fun for me.

• Basketball
• Tennis
• Soccer
• Volleyball

The sport doesn’t matter too much as long as it involves movement and a little competition. You may find a solo bike ride or hill climb more to your liking.

If you enjoy it, you will stick with it longer.

Design it into your lifestyle.

If it is a regular part of your routine, it is easier to maintain.

Maybe you take a bicycle to work.  Maybe you push your kids to the park in the afternoon and play with them.  Could be pickup basketball in the evening. A simple hour long walk at any time of day is a winner.

Take the decision making out by making it a habit.

Take care of your body.

Age and time can be a limiting factor for some hobbies.

Some exercises are a bit rougher on the body. It is unlikely I will be playing pickup basketball in my 80s. Make sure that you are taking care of your joints and taking at least one rest day per week.

Health is wealth. Invest in your health.

Thanks to Naval Ravikant for the idea of the 3 habits.

Start by applying the 80/20 rule to the top 20%.

The 80/20 rule is fractal. For you as a business owner, this means it applies to your whole group of customers and also to the top 20% and the bottom 80%. If you have a thousand customers, then 80% of your revenue will come from 200 of them. And 64% of all your revenue will come from just 40.

This only works if you offer them a way to pay you.

Create more than 1 product.

If you only have 1 product, you are missing out on at least a 50% increase in revenue.

To capture the extra revenue from the top 20% and then the top 20% of the top 20% (the top 4%), you need more for them to buy. If you have 1 product and 1000 customers, odds are 200 of them will buy your second product, even if it costs twice as much or more.

Add a third product and you got 40 more sales just like that.

Create special high end products.

You will have some number of super fans that will buy everything you put out.

For these customers they will spend oddly large sums of money for various exclusive experiences. Some examples:

• Various levels of access to VIPs who can help them
• Going to the front of the line
• A personal visit from you, the business owner
• Access to experimental or test versions of products first

Look at what people pay for backstage passes and dinners with celebrities and you will understand.

Check out 80/20 Sales and Marketing

I originally got this idea from a book by copywriter Perry Marshall, called “80/20 Sales and Marketing.”

The idea was so simple yet so strong it has stuck with me for at least 8 years without ever having picked up the book again. I recommend you pick up a copy and implement the ideas. Especially as a business owner.

Follow for more insights into marketing, business, and success.

How you sit, stand, and move can affect your decision making and attitude.

You probably aren’t even aware of how you sit and stand a majority of the time. Most people are not mindful of their posture. These are some common mistakes people make with their body that lead to poor outcomes:

• Slouching
• Frowning
• Crossing their arms
• Looking down

Try these changes to make for a better day.

Smile, even when on a phone call.

Forcing yourself to smile, even when you don’t feel like it will make you feel happier and more confident.

There is a connection between what we show on our face and how we actually feel. Surprisingly it actually goes both ways. If you change your expression it will actually start your internal feeling moving to match it.

The positivity will come thru your voice as well.

Check in on your posture.

Then correct it.

Try to form the habit of thinking about your posture about once an hour or so. Look up proper posture and do your best to mimic it. Good posture will help prevent back pain, help you breathe properly, and make you more attractive.

You may need to strengthen some muscles to correct bad posture.

Try “power poses.”

It sounds silly, but it works.

Sitting and standing like a person with power will change your mood to feel more confident and assertive.

• Stand like a superhero (chest out, hands on hips).
• Lean back in your chair with your feet on the desk (like the Boss).
• Put your hands in the air in a V shape like you are celebrating.

Change your body and you will change your mind.

You say, “That is to stop everyone else.”

Too many people give up at the smallest of speed bumps. They do not stick with their goal long enough to find success. Instead they turn to the siren call of easy dopamine.

But the rewards are on the other side of the difficulty.

Let the roadblocks be your guide.

Ryan Holiday literally wrote a book on this called “The Obstacle Is the Way.”

When life throws a monkey wrench into your plans, that’s how you know you are on the right track. And life doesn’t pull punches. This can take the form of any number of things:

• Car accident
• Loved one gets sick
• Water leak in your home
• Lose your job

Just don’t let the problem derail you from your goal.

Attach emotion to the goal.

Part of the reason people give up easy is they don’t have any emotional associated with their goal.

The despair, annoyance, and frustration of the challenges in the way are enough to overwhelm some half hearted want. You need to genuinely desire the outcome you want. What will it mean for you to achieve this goal? A better life for your family? Freedom?

Some people say to find a “why”. What they really mean is attach an emotion to your outcome.

Remember why the obstacles are there.

They are to stop everyone else.

Everyone who doesn’t really want the goal. The walls and difficulties are there to turn them towards what they do want. But you know what you want. So they won’t turn you.

You will break thru the walls and get to your goal no matter what life throws at you.

I usually spend too much time watching and reading before doing.

You want to do things right. So you go thru tutorials, watch videos and read how to articles. These make you feel like you are learning. And you are learning some.

But it is really procrastinating because you want to be perfect.

Learn as you go.

If you are waiting until you know enough, you will plod along barely making progress.

You want to learn just enough to take the next step. Steady action in the pursuit of your goal and the failures that will come with it are the largest sources of information.

If you want to learn, try without worrying about failing.

Get in your reps.

Classic education has ingrained a lot of people with the false idea that you only get a few attempts at something before you have failed for good.

The reality is, as long as you avoid doing something incredibly stupid, you get as many attempts as you like. The more attempts you make, the better you will be at the skill.

The more you try, the better you will get.

Do the thing poorly.

Be willing to get a beginner’s result.

One of the reasons you procrastinate by reading and watching is you are worried too much about the outcome of your first few attempts. For the first several tries, don’t worry so much about the end result as the process of creating it.

Getting the beginner’s result is the first step to getting mastery.

Anyone can make money trading.

There are successful traders with all sorts of strategies. Some go long. Some go short. Some trade futures. Some trade stocks.

But all of the traders who find success long term have an edge, risk management, and self awareness.

Find a statistical edge in the market.

Trading is like playing poker, you need to take the opportunities where the odds are in your favor.

There are professionals who make a living playing poker. They don’t make a living by winning every hand. They make a living by playing the odds out over thousands of hands. The same is true for stocks. You can make money by being right only half the time.

You just need to know over a thousand trades that you can make more on the half that your are right than the half you are wrong.

Don’t blow up your account.

The most common cause of failure in trading is people losing all of their money on a few trades where they got stubborn.

There are a few common risk management strategies out there but the most common I have come across is you should never have more than 1-2% of your account at risk on any one trade. If you have $1,000 that means you can take a maximum loss of $10-$20 on a trade before you should be out.

Managing your risk will keep you in the game long enough for the odds to work in your favor.

Beware your ego.

Many traders lose way more money than they should because they don’t want to take a loss.

Fear and ego are two of the main culprits. You fear that if you get out, the stock will turn around in your favor. You don’t want to lose money and be wrong. Revenge trading after a big loss to make it back often compounds the mistake. The ability to be detached from the outcome of each individual trade is a super power.

For beginners, or anyone who has not become profitable yet, you should set a max loss per day on your account to protect yourself from yourself.