How bad do you want it?

yes YOU!
How bad do YOU want it?
YOU are in control.

(Looks like summer on my picture, but really it's -20 over here and I'm gonna go run outside after writing this post...
Life only gave me two options: "Suffer the pain of discipline or the pain of regret" .)

This past year has been really hard.
But it was also the most powerful year of my entire life so far.

Realising that time is the most precious asset we have was a game changer for me.
And until now, I promised to myself that every waking day, I was going to do everything in my power to use my time with things that bring value to my life.
Because I don't know how much time I have on here.
No one knows.
But there's one thing that I do know.
I want to leave a powerful legacy behind for the upcoming generations.
I have a mission.
And it doesn't start tomorrow.
Or in 5 years.
It starts now.
Because the present is all we have.

Habits are everything. Whether they are mental habits or physical habits.
Lazy habits steal your time and they don't bring you closer to your dreams.

The day I stopped looking at my phone 150 times a day, was a very powerful one.
Social media is a threat to our mental health.
It's where the comparison was born.
It creates a world of illusions.
It makes us think the grass is greener on the other side, while it's clearly not.

88% of what we do comes from a sub-conscious level. (freaking scary, I know!)
Whether it's our beliefs, our perceptions, our emotions, our habits, values, imagination, long-term memory.

Only 12% of what we do comes from our conscious state of mind.
This includes our will power, our short term memory, our logical thinking and our critical thinking.

Most of the time, when we take our phones to check them, we don't take the time to actually ask ourselves the question:
"Do I want to look at my phone right now?".
It's subconscious. Instinctive. We do it without fully thinking it through.

Just like anything, the mind is a muscle.
If you want results, you need to train your mind.

This brings me to my next point.
I traded social media for meditation.
Best decision ever.

I started off with 5 minutes a day.
And it was very difficult at first. It still is now.
But the self-awareness it brings is absolutely incredible.
I could tell you all the actual benefits it can bring.
But it won't do much until you actually try it for yourself on a daily basis.
Everyone has 10 minutes a day to devote to something that can better your mental health and your life on the long-term.
Meditation helps cultivate a discipline.
The discipline of thinking.
Being aware of your thoughts.
Because the thoughts we have and the story we tell ourselves impact directly our lives.
Focusing on the present moment.
Because really, that's all we have.
It gives you the tools to be more in control and ready to face whatever will come your way.
It does wonders and it only requires one thing: you.

Reading books every single day is the best time investment ever.
Ever.
Ever.
Ever.
I can never say this enough.
It makes you smarter.
It improves your vocabulary.
It provides you knowledge that you can use and apply to your own life and your own person.
It fills your head with ideas that you can use to become a better person and to become more successful.
Social skills, personal development, business management, self-care books, name it.
They can only bring so much value to your life.

No matter how hard things can become sometimes,
I think each one of us has the power to change this world in our own ways.
Most of the time, we can not change situations that happen to us.
But if there's one thing we can change, it's our mindset towards it.

The real power lies within ourselves and not on external circumstances.
That's one powerful thing meditation taught me, and school didn't.

Or as Gary Vaynerchuk would say....