The spice of life

Hello. Hello to all of you out there.

How have you been lately? Have you been sleeping well?

Is work going alright? I hope you are all doing well, and moving forward in good ways.

But if there is a little weariness, a little unhappiness in your work, or simply a bit of difficulty — please accept it as part of your progress.

Some part of our life will always be discouragement. But when we see it as something that was always going to come, and treat it as perfectly ordinary, our state of mind changes.

As long as you do not give up. Do you remember how many doors the founder of KFC had to knock on before he got a single yes? The answer is 1,009.

That is the experiment I want to run on myself, too. I want to see how long it takes me to reach a thousand subscribers, then ten thousand.

Before any of that, a habit

Before any of that, you and I have to take one more step: building our habits.

Have you noticed that when you brush your teeth, or do anything familiar, you no longer have to try at all? You do it as though it were inevitable, without a trace of effort.

And yet, if you watch closely, a small child takes a very long time to build a habit like that. From the first grasp of an object, to each first step.

Once that flywheel is turning smoothly, we no longer have to push hard to keep it going. Think of a good habit you already have — you do it without much resistance now, don’t you?

So plant a seed of a good habit for yourself. You do not have to grow “a great tree.” Simply sow the seed, and do not forget about it.

Five minutes a day is enough to water it. A very small act, but enough to keep the seed from drifting away.

The habit, not the thing itself

If you want to lose weight, most answers are exercise and diet.

But in the beginning, exercise is hard to enjoy. And dieting, in the beginning, was genuinely torture for me.

It is the ache, it is the craving. But when you accept that ache and that weariness, build yourself a habit, find someone to show you the way, find a companion — only then does exercise begin to change you.

Exercise by itself cannot make you beautiful. It is the habit of exercising that gives you a different body.

One workout, on its own, cannot create a difference. But someone who works out 1,009 times — I think there will be a difference.

I wish for you to always carry a seed within you. A seed that carries you toward happiness, health, love of life, and more energy.

A quiet happiness, deep down, that only you can feel clearly. To everyone else it looks like a glow; to you it is an experience no one else could have given you.

One last word — I wish you a good night’s sleep. Tomorrow always begins tonight.