You often fail to realize that you are capable of amazing things. Your mind holds infinite possibilities- but you overlook your own potential.

This is because even though you know that more is available, you feel stuck.

The life you envision doesn't match reality. There is a disconnect between who you are and who you could be.

This has been my experience up to and including now. I could offer more motivational bullsh*t, but that won't help.

If you are anything like me, you have:

• Binged motivational content

• Read too many self-help books

• Listened countless podcasts

You think you know all the answers, yet nothing changes-and maybe life even gets worse.

Many of us fall into this bucket.

Educated and intelligent individuals who choose to stick with the guarantee.

The guaranteed job that they don't particularly enjoy, but that feeds and roofs them.

They see what's possible-but it never becomes theirs.

We can live our whole lives like this.

What are we missing? The simple characteristic is agency: the ability to take action and control of your life.

This is not a feel-good letter-it's raw, unfiltered on how to get your sh*t together.

We're going to go over:

• Rewiring your brain to crave progress over distraction

• How to start gaining respect.

• Sharpening your mind and always chip away at your goals

• Building progress that lasts forever-not just two weeks.

This is it. No superficial information but real advice that has changed my life. Let's dive deep.

Before we begin:

Here is a free step-by-step strength and endurance program to get you going today. DM or reply "hybrid," and I'll send it to you—no strings attached.

If there is anyone you know looking for it, send them to ancestralathetics.ca. It will be the first thing they see.

1) Rewire Your Brain to Stop Getting Distracted.

Without even realizing it, you've:

• Cheated on your diet

• Broke your goals

• Let your fitness slip

You had this big goal, and without noticing, you have completely fallen off the wagon.

There is this old Chinese martial proverb that I have been thinking a lot about recently:

If you don't train for a day, you'll know. If you don't train for a week, everyone will know.

What I love about this is that it assumes if you don't do something for one day, you won't do it for a week.

The problem with distraction is that it's habitual

The brain becomes wired to crave the instant pleasure over the delayed gratification of our goal.

This rewiring is summed up perfectly in one word: Akrasia.

Akrasia:the state of mind in which someone acts against their better judgment through weakness of will.

Josh Kaufman in his book,"The Personal MBA", highlights this idea as the first thing to know when working with you self.

Want to achieve more? Work when no one is watching.

It is easy to go to work and do the work someone else has assigned.

It is a lot harder to do the work that you have assigned yourself.

Now this begs the question: how do you rewire the brain to not get distracted?

When an NBA player tears their ACL on the floor, would a physio put them on a treadmill the day after surgery?

When you start saving money, do you put 75% of your paycheck into the stock market?

Obviously not, yet when creating personal change-werun before we can walk.

We are constantly worried about tomorrow and forget about what we need to do today.

This gets manifested into productive procrastination, for example:

• New business owners who spend months designing their website and business cards before reaching out to potential clients (I've been there).

“Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble."- Matthew 6:34

The only way to rewire your brain to avoid distraction is to break up your action into small daily steps.

The steps don't seem or feel big, and nothing will happen tomorrow.

However, you'll know that you did it. When you do it again the next day, that feeling will build.

The results won't show, but eventually the progress will come—and trust me, it is addicting.

All overnight success takes ten years.- Jeff Bezos

So slow it down, and keep it simple.

Once you realize that how distractions derail progress it will become clear that you are missing a crucial ingredient for success: earning respect.

How to Gain Respect from Those Around You.

I hold an extremely unpopular opinion: respect is earned and not given. It is an unfortunate reality.

Humans have a tendency to be self-centered and tribe-oriented.

Our goals, missions, and paths in life are for us and our tribe. Most of us don't let new people in and refuse to offer up our precious time.

Whether this is fundamentally good or bad is for another conversation.

The reality is that we don't deserve the respect from others—we have to earn it.

If we want any form of success in our lives in the form of:

• Promotions

• Relationships

• Opportunities

They are all given out of respect.

I have struggled with this for the last few years, as I am a people pleaser by heart.

You can't please someone for respect—you need to take it. How, you might ask?

This comes from having an internal respect for yourself.

There is only one way to form this self-respecting bond:

• Doing the things that you say you will do.

To get your shit together, you need to be consistently proud of yourself.

After all, if you don't respect yourself, how can you expect respect from others?

This isn't complicated—yet it can be overcomplicated.

Set a goal and stick with it.

If you want to get up before seven, get up before seven.

If you want to start going to the gym, go to the gym.

If you want to start reading a book, go read a book.

This sounds like step one because it is all intertwined.

Respect comes from action, and action comes from agency.

The longer you spend not doing what you want to do, the longer you aren't living in congruence with your mind.

If your self-image is not who you are in reality, it never leads to a “fulfilled existence.”

3) Consistently Chip Away at Your Goals

Give me six hours to chop down a tree, and I will spend the first four sharpening the ax.-Abraham Lincoln

Two years ago, I was walking along the beach with an old friend of mine.

While we were walking, they said something that I still think about today.

"I wonder what it would be like to live in somebody else's body—to experience their physical pain, how it feels to walk, and how they think."

We have all thought about it: the idea that we all don't see colors the same way—a subjective universal experience.

I won't get too philosophical. We all have our own ailments.

They could be physical, mental, or emotional.

We carry them throughout our day, into our work, and relationships.

I used to fall victim to my own ailments, letting them define who I am.

I structured my identity around mental diagnoses. This let others define who I am.

I have put a lot of thought into not letting myself be defined by external circumstances. It doesn't change the fact that we all have our own unique biology.

In Stephen Covey's book, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, the 7th habit is the idea of "Sharpening the Saw."

To make consistent, effective steps towards our goals, we have to be as sharp as possible.

This requires a deep understanding of our body and mind.

For myself, I have found that if I get less than 6.5 hours of sleep, I am a completely different person. My social skills are abysmal, and my thoughts aren't clear.

To start working with clients at 6:30, I've had to sharpen my saw the moment I wake up.

This has consisted of:

• Getting up from 4 am-5 am

• Training / moving my body

• Drinking a liter of water

• Eating a light meal

I used to ice bath and meditate from what I've read online, but it wasn't effective for me.

Coming back to your ailments, think about what you need to be effective.

Your night starts the day before. If you don't know what to do, start with your sleep.

Get your sh*t together by systematically removing your excuses.

Everything that was happening to you, is working for you.

4) Progress That Lasts Forever

We all know that feeling of giving up. It happens before we can realize it.

One day we are starting a new habit. We tell ourselves that "This is who we will be from now on."

The wave of motivation continues for one to two weeks, and then we take a day off. Then we take another… and another.

Before we know it, we haven't done the habit in months, and we're living a life based on who we were, not who we are.

I've done this over and over with business, mostly because I didn't know what I was doing.

The results aren't coming, and the excitement has died down.

When the excitement fades, that is when the work begins.-Alex Hormozi

Most of us are playing short-term games. We want long-term rewards in short-term periods of time.

This is why our progress fades, and we constantly fall off the wagon.

In old prisoner-of-war camps, captured soldiers were required to spend a whole day digging a hole, just to fill it when they were done.

This practice was made to break the human spirit and show how futile work is.

“Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms—to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.”― Viktor E. Frankl,Man’s Search for Meaning​

When I train, the gym stays the same: I pick up the weights, move them, and then set the weights back down

However, over time, the individual gets better.

The movement patterns get sharper, and the body adapts to handle more load.

The prisoners who were required to dig holes got more effective over time. They became faster and stronger.

Recent science can prove what we have already known: we adapt over time.

The secret to continuous progress is the knowledge of the hidden adaptations.

You evolve-until one day, progress becomes undeniable. That's when you start winning.

Nothing happens, and nothing happens, and then everything happens.-Fay Weldon

This feeling of progress is one of the most addicting feelings in the world.

It drives entrepreneurs, athletes, and anyone with ambition.

You need to continuously show up. Learn from every action and every step you take.

Repeat the wins and learn from the losses.

Only then will you start to find progress that lasts forever.

See you at the top,

Jordan