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I’m currently on a weight training routine that involves lifting five to six days a week. In addition to the encouragement that comes from knowing that I’ll be ready for my long-awaited mermaid photo shoot by the time winter rolls around, a notable consequence of this routine is fatigue.

One hallmark of effective workout regimens is that they prevent the muscles from adapting to the workouts. This translates to frequent changes in workout duration, intensity, and the very exercises employed.

But being sore sucks.

Yes, it’s a great feeling to know that I’m making progress (I think) but sometimes I want to take a few extra rest days for recovery. This is of course a luxury I don’t have, and this rest would undermine what I’m trying to accomplish.

By the same token with personal development and professional growth, remaining in a holding pattern is tantamount to suicide.

In a great podcast with Dave Asprey, Tom Corley (author of Rich Habits) explains that rich and successful people devote hours of their day to personal improvement—from physical activity to networking to content creation for books, trade journals, and publications.

Another “rich habit” is waking up about three hours before going into the office. What this says to me is that these people aren’t generally getting 8-10 hours of sleep per night.

They’re tired. They get sick. Their kids need attention. Their employees create problems that need to be solved.

But the solution employed isn’t to take a vacation or sleep in, the only option is to keep going.

Do you want the kind of friends who say what you want to hear, or friends who say the things that you need to hear?

Is your career optimized for maximum safety and stability, or do you proactively seek out responsibility and opportunities to create meaningful art?

Do you show up to play your heart out every day, grateful that you’re in the game rather than watching from the sidelines (regardless of the score when the whistle blows)?

And are you internalizing a limiting narrative about the heights you can reach in your lifetime and how likely you are to reach your goals?

I don’t want to know your answers, but you should have them.

It’s impossible to control what happens to your work once it’s shipped. It’s subject to criticism, misinterpretation, and praise alike—this just comes with the territory.

What we can control is what people come to expect from us based on the quality and nature of our art. Setting an expectation of excellence is perhaps our best ally in this regard.

A creaky door hinge on a Kia is going to elicit a different reaction than the same thing on a Rolls-Royce.

I took a break from the gym for a couple weeks, and decided to make my return this evening. It was great.

And by great, I mean pitiful and humbling.

I felt weak and uncoordinated, which reminded me of how it feels to get out of the habit of writing.

“Man, this sucks.”

“Whatever, let me just get it out there.”

There doesn’t appear to be any correlation between my satisfaction with a post and the impact that it has, so I generally ignore the voice in my head criticizing the work.

The next step in the evolution of Resistance-conquering is overcoming the force that drives me from doing the things I set out to do.

Right now a still, small voice is piping up, telling you as it has ten thousand times before, the calling that is yours and yours alone. You know it. No one has to tell you.

And unless I’m crazy, you’re no closer to taking action on it than you were yesterday or you will be tomorrow. You think Resistance isn’t real? Resistance will bury you.

—Steven Pressfield

Indeed.

P.S. Listen to this, it’s great.

Most software is really bad.

I’m not being a software engineering snob when I say this (after all, I’m not a programmer myself), we just have an extraordinarily low bar when it comes to acceptable software quality. Apple probably makes software that’s 20% better than everyone else’s, so it’s praised by critics. [And for reference, the best software in the world is probably written by NASA engineers.]

One of the applications I’ve been enjoying a lot recently is called Wunderlist. I’ve used Omnifocus and Things for task management and was a bit underwhelmed in both cases, so I gave Wunderlist a try with a healthy bit of skepticism.

Well, I love it. In addition to being beautiful, the key features I need are implemented intuitively. I’ve been using it for everything from grocery lists to personal todos to project scheduling for work.

And I’d be remiss if I didn’t have a suggestion for Windows users wanting to get in on the world of great software. Here you are.

One of the main reasons I spend time investing in and working on myself is because it helps me get better at getting better. I’ve been learning more about NLP recently (thanks Peter) and what I’m noticing is that it’s been providing me with clarity into what was previously just a cloudy mass of Resistance.

For example, I recently realized that I have a routine that I go into when I’m avoiding the routine that I set out for myself (which is designed to help foster winning habits). This isn’t ground-breaking information (and the NLP world is full of a lot of things that make me uncomfortable…), but making small improvements on a regular basis adds up.