PPI #159: 5 Common Habits That Make You Mentally Weak
7 Jul 2021 · 0 min
Eric Partaker identifies five habits that drain mental strength: chasing distractions, waiting for the perfect moment, self-pity, entitlement, and dreaming without doing. He argues you need focused work blocks, action before readiness, forward momentum, persistent effort, and to stop consuming and start building.
In the face of adversity, the mentally weak crumble. But that isn't you, right? The mind decides everything. If you can master it, you can achieve anything. And if you don't, you will live a life dominated by doubt and regret. So today I'm going to show you five common things that you need to avoid because they make you mentally weak. And by avoiding them, you'll become mentally strong.
Hi, I'm Eric Partaker and I've been recognized as one of the top entrepreneurs in the country and I'm also the author of two best selling books including the Three Alarms. So the number one thing that's going to weaken your mind and impede the ability for you to achieve your goals is being addicted to distraction. You need to ask yourself honestly, in the course of a day, how many times during that day are you just doing random things that you know you shouldn't be doing? Meaningless activities? Did you get like some random idea and suddenly you're searching about it on the net and after a half hour you're like, what the hell am I doing with my time? Or are you on social media way too long? Should you be watching this video right now? I hope so, but should you? It's a good question. Ask yourself. So are you being addicted by distraction? Are you addicted to distraction? Because if you are, it's going to impede the ability, impede your ability to achieve your goals. You know, mentally strong people have the ability to stay focused, to stay on course, to not be distracted by their environment. In fact, they actually optimize their environment so that it will minimize distraction. So how can you do that? I'll give you some quick top tips. So one is start your day creative before reactive. Don't start your day reacting to other people in your inbox. You're going on to social media. Or what's the number one thing that you should be working on that day, this day, right now, to help progress you towards your goals. And start your day, at least for the first hour, working on that number one thing from 9am to 10am however, you know, whatever time you start your day, start your day doing that thing. And ask yourself throughout the day, how can I further optimize my environment to minimize distraction? Shut off all the notifications and your email and Slack and whatever other tools that you're using. Leave your phone in another room, focus just on what you should be working on. Avoid those distractions, minimize those distractions and you will propel yourself to new heights. In terms of mental strength, distraction makes you mentally weak. The number two thing that will hold you back and keep you mentally weak is the need to always wait for the right moment. There is no right moment. The right moment is when you decide it's the right moment when you decide to take action. Action creates momentum. Momentum creates further power. Act, commit before you're ready. It's the act of acting. It's the act of shipping something. It's the act of doing that creates the learning and the progress that you seek. There is no perfection you perfect or you improve things by actually doing them, by trying out, by learning from your mistakes and incorporating that into your next round of activity and progress so that you're constantly getting better and better and better over time. There is no right moment. The only right moment is when you decide that it's the right moment. The number three thing that holds you back and keeps you mentally weak is feeling sorry for yourself. Newsflash. That sun out there, guess what? It's going to rise and it's going to set day in and day out, with or without you. That goes for me too. So you just need to get on with it. If things haven't gone your way, whatever. Next day, next minute, next hour, there's always that next moment for you to decide. How am I going to be? How am I going to show up from this moment going forward? Don't feel sorry for yourself. Instead feel empowered. Ask yourself, what can I learn from the experience that hasn't just gone my way? What can I learn from the things, the challenges, the obstacles, the things that are making me feel down? How can I use that as fuel for my progress going forward? How can I use that as the very thing that will strengthen me and help elevate me to new heights, new terrain, new places? Number four thing that will get in the way and make you mentally weak is entitlement. The world doesn't owe you a damn thing. Nobody owes you anything. Your biggest source of strength is knowing that you're delivering your best effort no matter what. And if that best effort comes with a return, with a reward, great. If it doesn't, you still know that you showed up and you delivered your best. And that is your best insurance policy. That is the best thing that you can do to eventually guarantee your success. Because if you just continue chopping away, the tree might not fall right away, but eventually, at some point, it will suddenly fall. And to the person who's looking on the side, they'll think, oh my gosh, it was that chopped that made it fall. But what they don't See is the thousand times before that you kept swinging and you kept chopping away to get that tree to fall in the direction that you want it. So don't have a sense of entitlement. Instead, have a sense of prideful effort that you show up willing to give the hard work and the effort that's needed day in, day out. And if you do that, your success is inevitable. Might not come exactly at the right time, at the time that you want it to come, but it will come eventually. Number five, excessive dreaming. Look, don't, don't get me wrong. Dreaming is important. I actually talk about, you know, the importance of dreaming and lots of other, you know, things that I've done. But you can't just dream without action. You know, when I was growing up, for example, they used to say, knowledge is power. That's crap. Knowledge is not power. Knowledge is cheap These days. Action is power. Taking action is what you need to be doing. So if you find yourself dreaming too much and not acting enough, then you need to rebalance that equation once again. Dreams are important, but only if they come with the commensurate action that's needed to bring them to life. Don't dream endlessly without acting. Dream to inspire action and then keep taking action, action and action. And I'd love to hear from you, so don't forget to leave a comment and a rating as well. And if you'd like to get a copy of my new book, the Three Alarms, please head over to my website at ericpartaker.com that's E R I C ericpartaker.com where you can pick up a free digital copy of my new best selling book, the Three Alarms.
Sam.
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