One question that is easy to overlook on a self-improvement journey is: Why? Why am I waking up earlier and running before work? Why am I cutting out fast carbs? Why am I automating my saving?
It is easy to get lost in the wisdom of others who have come before. Eat this, not that. Log your runs in a journal. Unsubscribe from marketing emails. The self-help genre is so enticing (for some) because of its proscriptive nature. These paths are well tread by those who have come before.
The problem is that, once you have powered through any resistance to new behaviors, it is easy to keep staring two feet in front of you. To not look up and take in the bigger picture. To not ask yourself: Why?
I wrote about this phenomenon back in April, when I decided to stop training for the Yeti 100 Miler. In my determination to progress as a runner, to keep flexing my discipline muscle, I hadn’t asked myself why I was taking on that particular challenge at that particular moment. When I finally stopped to think about it, I realized the race didn’t align with my goals. I had gone off course in my haste to follow those that came before me, like David Goggins, Cameron Hanes and Scott Jurek (good motivational writing will motivate you to do things you may not really need/want to do).
Think of the more sinister side of good discipline. The couple who saves every penny for retirement and never enjoys the fruits of their labor. The athlete who overtrains their way to chronic injury. Those may seem extreme, but without a clear end goal, all of those pursuits become meaningless.
Scott Trench, the host of the Bigger Pockets Money podcast, said something that has haunted me for the last few months: “People in this country [USA] don’t have a crystal clear idea of what they want.” He was speaking about the why of working eight hour days, five days a week. Of working longer hours to get that promotion, or that raise. Without a clear idea of why, what is it all for?
That statement is relevant for our careers and personal finance, but its scope is far broader than that. I can be much more deliberate about my choices. That is my takeaway from the podcast. I can do more work up front, to identify what it is I really want (from my career, from my health, from my social life etc…), and then make smarter choices along the way.
I am convinced that is what separates the truly successful from those who are successful in theory, but miserable in practice.