What you do matters. When it comes to getting what you want from life and your relationships, no one will ever work as hard or care as much as you to get it. If you aren’t intentional in how you design your own life, someone else will do it for you and your life’s work will fulfill their dreams instead of yours.
The first principle of the Pilanesberg Project, action, is personified by the leopard. Just as the leopard gains the advantage by ambushing his unsuspecting prey, you must take action when others are idle if you want to get ahead. Be learning and creating when others seek entertainment and distraction.
Action brings clarity and creates motivation to take the next step. Making progress on a project, whether it is something you’re physically building or a problem you’re working through, often reveals what we must do next and helps us locate the resources we need to complete it.
One of my favorite quotes, which unfortunately lacks attribution, goes something like this: “If someone were to follow you around for a week and you were unable to speak to them, would they know what your goals were?” Would this person see a man who sincerely compliments his wife and regularly takes her out on date nights, or would they see the guy who only makes time for his hobbies and never for her? Which man is committed to improving his marriage; the first or the second?
Action is only half of the equation; the second is consistency. Consistency is the surest way to achieve something extraordinary. Consistently doing the things that matter with an over-the-top work ethic will give you the life you want and deserve.
Unfortunately, many people consistently work very hard at the wrong things and never advance their station in life. Others work on the right things, but never work on them consistently enough to make a difference.
At first, you might feel like a loser because you’ll be consistently doing it poorly. Compressing what feels like repeated failure into a shortened time frame can be uncomfortable. It’s normal to feel defeated when you decide to finally take action to do something you want to improve in because you’re putting in the work week after week but not yet seeing results. You often feel worse than when you were doing nothing and didn’t care because now you’re actually trying. This is when most people throw in the towel and quit.
But here’s the thing; repetition is the mother of skill. You can’t do something with intentionality 100 times in a row and get worse at it.
We’re so use to seeing big, instant results that we get discouraged and tell ourselves that we aren’t doing it right. As long as you’re consistently working on the right things, you will eventually master your craft, establish strong relationships, and ultimately change your life.
Life is a sliding scale. There is no stasis in the human condition; you’re either learning and growing, or your mind and skills are atrophying. Aim to get just 1% better every day in every area of your life — physical, emotional, social, financial, and spiritual — to move yourself toward your goals. Commit to developing these personal domains incrementally and you will find yourself confronted with more opportunities that you know what to do with.
“I’ll do it when things get better. I’ll do it when I have more time.” Things will never get better and you’ll never have more time unless you make things better and intentionally make the time by prioritizing what is important. “Things” don’t change, you change.
Men of action experience a flow state that men of inaction do not. You will never feel more alive than when you experience the satisfaction that comes from burning through a punch list of tasks as you help others and provide for yourself and your family.
The default mindset in today’s society is risk-averse. So many people play it safe and just live a mediocre life instead of the great one they could have had. This is the great tragedy of modern life in America, which I believe, is still a land of great opportunity.