What should we aspire to do in life?
Every day I ask myself what should I do?
I wonder if I’m doing the right things, and more than that, the best things.
Yesterday I wrote down my perfect weekend, I sat and thought about what my ideal weekend is so as to figure out what I should do on that day. (Read This: How to Create The Perfect Day)
I ended up having a great day. I woke up early and wrote. I drove an hour to the mountains, filming videos (technically working) on the drive out. Hiked up a mountain with Teddy. Drove back home, filming more videos. Opened a beer and a book in the evening when I got back, and wrote once again.
Every second of every day we’re faced with choices. It’s crazy. Every second we’re posed with a decision to make. The more we make the best decision, the better our lives will be, the more we’ll accomplish, the more value we’ll bring to our culture.
Should I watch TV or read a book?
Should I run or walk?
Should I go for a hike or stay home and work?
What should I think about? Should I think about what I should do right now or should I think about how well others are doing? Should I envy or should I focus on my own path, journey, and work?
Before we go through things that every guy should aspire to accomplish, not just do, let’s go over one decision we must make, always.
If you wonder if it’s worth it, do it.
The Necessity of Accomplishment
The purpose of life is to live a great life. Accomplishment is a part of that, no matter what your definition of a great life is. You cannot live greatly without using your talents to their capacity. You cannot live greatly without working hard, solving problems, and persisting.
Accomplishment is what you put to use.
Now, what should you accomplish?
1. Your physical peak.
You look at a guy like Dwayne Johnson as a good model for this pursuit. He’s in better shape today than he was when he was playing football for the University of Miami. He’s also in his forties.
This quest shouldn’t cease. It doesn’t need to be a pursuit of perfection, either. It’s a matter of consistency and persistence. Make training consistent and routine and you’ll constantly improve.
The benefit is that life at your physical peak is better than life at your physical worst. Your physical peak enables you to do more at a higher quality. You can do more when you travel, you can go further, you can live more daringly.
2. Your bucket list top 5.
Bucket lists have become trivial and silly, but think about the core of what it is to make one. A bucket list should be the things you want to do before you die. That’s pretty damn important, or at least it should be.
Dig deep. Make the list. Where do you want to travel? What do you want to do when you travel? Where do you ideally want to live? What house do you want to build? What adventure do you want to partake in? (Read This: A Bucket List for a Legend)
Make it real. Forget about things, automobiles, watches, suits, stuff. Think experiences, accomplishments, victories, adventures. Making a real bucket list and limiting it to 5 things that you’re going to accomplish can be a great exercise to find clarity, but also to reclaim the excitement you once had about the possibilities of life when you were young.
3. The height of your line of work.
The internet is off while I write, so I’m not completely sure of the quote, but Martin Luther King Jr. made the point that every man should do his work as if he were Michelangelo painting the Sistine Chapel.
Set out to become the best at what you do, no matter what you do. This takes time and persistence. If you’re constantly switching jobs and careers trying to ‘find the right fit’, this isn’t going to happen, it can’t happen. It took Michelangelo, Da Vinci, and every other artist at least a decade of purposeful practice to create their first masterpiece.
Set out to create a masterpiece, not to simply exist. Whatever you’re doing right now, stick with it, become great, and the meaning will be found in the pursuit. If you’re always jumping ship you’re never going to find the meaning you want from your work, trust me.
I switched careers a lot from the ages of 20-25, when I finally settled on one I was able to create meaning where it didn’t initially exist.
4. Family.
Men are here to protect, provide, and procreate. We need more kinds raised by good fathers, we have more than enough that were had by absentee fathers or deadbeats. If you’re a good man, who will provide for his family and protect them and guide them, then please, make babies.
Having a family and raising them right, being there for them, providing for them and protecting them is a real accomplishment. It’s as great an accomplishment as a man can create in life.
If you’re a deadbeat who bucks his responsibilities, please, don’t even risk having a baby, get a vasectomy immediately.
5. The ability to discern what is real and what is false influence.
This is a real accomplishment, and one that few – especially today – ever realize. The ability to know what is true and what is false influence is increasingly rare because influence is everywhere, and our ability to understand what’s necessary for us to live our greatest life, for us to win at life, is far more difficult than ever before.
We’re influenced everywhere we go, and by everything, and even if we know how to discern good from bad and right from wrong and true from false, our friends, peers, and family, who are blindly influenced, will have an impact on us.
To know what you want in life, to know what you should pursue, usually comes at the end of one’s life.
It’s only after we’ve given our lives to making money that we realize we ignored our family, and its our family that was most important to us.
It’s only after we’ve spent out lives being safe, always choosing the safe route, the safe path, the path of least resistance, that we truly understand that life is found outside of comfort, never within it.
To be able to see where roads lead before we’ve reached the finish line is something that would serve all of us well.
6. Being a man of virtue no matter the situation.
Being consistent in virtue is rare. Most ebb and flow with the circumstance. They morph and change to suit themselves.
Be a man of virtue, no matter the reward. Do your best, regardless of personal acclaim.
Be the constant courage amidst cowardice. Do the right thing, always.
7. Victory over your greatest weakness.
What do you not have control over?
Are you addicted to booze? Do you have control over your finances, what you spend and why you spend it? Are you addicted to porn or sex or eating or smoking or gambling?
To gain control over what you have no control over, is victory.
Maybe your self-talk is horrible. Maybe you’re prone to sadness or depression or a negative way of thinking. You have control over your thoughts.
You may not have control over an event, but in your back pocket is the power to respond to it however you like.
About The Author
Chad Howse: Chad’s mission is to get you in the arena, ‘marred by the dust and sweat and blood’, to help you set and achieve audacious goals in the face of fear, and not only build your ideal body, but the life you were meant to live.
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