Accept what is. Do the best with what is. Don’t wish you had what isn’t.

When you’re sad about the past and worried about the future, enjoy doing what you can in the present.

When you focus on what you can do with what is, that is, with what really is and not what you wish was or will be, you have joy and progress.

When you dwell on what was and concern yourself with what is not yet, you rob yourself of joy and progress.

You can be both content and ambitious.

You can both be grateful and driven.

I never used to understand this…

That being grateful helps you achieve more, hence, it helps you be more ambitious.

I thought that I always had to focus on what I did not yet have or what I had not yet done with a chip on my shoulder to actually get it.

Wrong attitude and thought process.

If You’re Unhappy Here’s How to Be Happy

The fragility of humans is emotional.

Physically, if we’re training we’re pretty robust. If we’re learning we’re pretty damn intelligent.

Emotionally, however, is where we can run into problems.

Yesterday I turned 34 and for some weird reason – for a moment while I was at the gym of all places – my thoughts started trending to what I did not have, who I was not with, what I had not yet achieved.

I was dwelling on things I could not control and concerned about whether or not I was living as best I can – which can be good.

Being your staunchest critic is a good thing, but it’s more important to actually get stuff done as best you can than it is to want to get things done.

That is, by dwelling on the past or nervously fretting about the future, about this limited existence we have and this reality that time is constantly ticking away, you remove yourself from the joy and the work that exist in the present.

Sometimes stopping and reciting what you’re grateful helps, sometimes it doesn’t.

Sometimes we’re so aggressively lying to ourselves that reason won’t cut it.

The only course of action to take is to completely be in the moment and do your best in that moment. 

Of course, we can’t and shouldn’t always live in the moment.

We need to learn from the past, appreciate it, and we need to plan and set up our future.

It’s okay to be in the past and the future and not in the present, but carrying your emotions to either time period can be unproductive and even destructive.

When you’re sad about the past and worried about the future, enjoy doing what you can in the present.

The Things You Can Always Control…

There are structural things in our day that we can and should always control.

Taking a scoop of Man Greens makes me feel great (partially why I created it). It’s filled with vitamins and nutrients and adaptogens that are proven to not only boost T and improve health, but promote mental wellness (Maca and ashwagandha).

You can control when you wake up and what you think when you wake up…

Upon rising: write down 3 things you’re grateful for. Practice the worst case scenario and accept it. Then focus on the upside.

During the day: accomplish precisely what you set out to accomplish, but keep that list to no more than 3 things (anything else you achieve is a bonus).

We need achievement, and doing what we set out to do is great, it’s literally all we can do.

We can’t do what we can’t do.

It sounds so obvious, but spending any time outside of what’s now, what has been decided on, the present, the work, the moment, is an utterly useless and destructive attempt at doing nothing for an odd illogical attempt at doing everything.

Man, we can all do better and that ‘doing better’ is simply doing better.

Happiness is Important…

It shouldn’t be your quest in life, not happiness in the modern sense, at least. 

Happiness is important but it comes from being of value and being productive.

It’s also created by not comparing your life to that of another’s, or worrying about things that are out of your control.

You’re the man, born to be the man, take comfort in what you can possibly do while you’re here (none of us even have a clue how great that can be), and focus on each moment, enjoy this life, really enjoy it.

…Something that can only be done in the present, in accepting what is and doing your best with what is rather than wishing and dwelling on what isn’t.

Be Legendary,
Chad Howse