Christian Ray Flores here,
It’s a beautiful day here in Austin, TX, and Deb and I are celebrating 27 years of marriage. The actual festivities are next week and include fantastic food, staying in a beautiful high rise in downtown San Antonio, and going to see Guns N’ Roses.
This week’s burning question: in spite of Nike’s insistent advice in all their ads — why can’t I just do it?
I know what I should do. I want what’s on the other side of doing it. And yet…
The question has already been answered. We just don’t like the answer.
Poet and warrior Archilochus lived around 700 BC in Greece, and one line attributed to him has been repurposed countless times — most recently by James Clear in Atomic Habits:
“We don’t rise to the level of our expectations. We fall to the level of our training.”
Just doing it can only happen through training.
You can swap the word for systems or habits.
The life on the other side of that — the aspirations, the desired future — hinges on training.
1. Train yourself.
If someone who doesn’t know you looked at your character, your daily habits, your investments of time, talent, and treasure, would they say about your aspirations: oh, that’s a no-brainer, you’ll get there, it’s just a matter of time?
If not, there’s your answer. Train yourself. Get a coach, a mentor, a guide to train you.
2. Train your team.
You need people. It may be just you right now, but you’ll need supporters, first clients, volunteers, patrons. You need the right friends. Then you’ll need a team.
If someone who doesn’t know you looked at who you surround yourself with, would they say: this is the community that will take you where you want to go?
If not, there’s your answer. Change your people ecosystem.
3. Train your technology.
I grew up in the third world in the last century. People washed clothes by hand, wrote letters to communicate, and had no computers.
Today, technology can be trained to be ultra-personalized to your vision and deployed to do the things you don’t want to do — faster and better than you would have.
If someone who doesn’t know you looked at how you use technology today, would they say: this is someone who uses technology to build a better life?
If not, there’s your answer.
Archilochus was right, and people don’t change all that much in their core nature.
“Just do it” — only happened if you have the training to the degree that the “it” happens on auto pilot
Your character, your habits, the people around you, the tech you use.
Great news, because it means you don’t have to rely on just aspirations, hopes, and daydreaming.
If you’ve missed it:
A great video to watch that is exactly about the systems that keep you in your familiar present instead of your desired future.
5 Mistakes and 5 Systems of Personal Branding
An oldie but goodie, on the week of our wedding anniversary.
How To Find Love & Keep Love: My 17 Secrets for a Happy Marriage