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Your methods are your end.
Time and time again, we set a distant goal for a distant state of being just to disrespect it full-heartedly in our journey to get there.
A young college graduate takes a high-paying, highly-demanding job as to set themselves up for a life of luxury and rest. “I plan to retire by 40,” they say. They never do.
Your Methods Become Your End
Nothing is more powerful than habit. Humans can do incredible things when habituated — through small, stepwise increases in their habits, they can go pretty far. Ultra-marathon runners once began building a habit of running a little bit every day. Now, they run ultra-marathons.
In the power of habit, you must recognize the double-edged sword of your repeated actions. While incredible in its ability to get you to do things that you once wanted to do, it will only strengthen what you provide it. If you choose to endure hardship, it will make that same hardship manageable.
In the case of the young college graduate, you become so comfortable in the life you despised that you forget the original goal of your hardship — to escape it. You may wonder whether this isn’t so much a failure as much as a novel understanding that leads to a different life. They start their highly-demanding job only to enjoy the…
