You may be wondering why anyone would want to write an article with such a depressing title. Who would want to live a short life, and not have any success or joy? Not many people would sign up for this life willing. The problem is that many people across the world sign up for this life each day without even knowing it.
Everyone wants to know how to win or how to be successful. Sometimes you look in the wrong places or ask the wrong questions altogether. Sometimes the best way to learn is to ask yourself how to get the opposite result to the one you want. Its easier to figure out the negative than the positive.
“If you want to change your world, you need to start cultivating good habits.” Mina Tadros
YOLO Leads to The Short Life
Canadian rapper Drake popularized the term YOLO. What it means is that You Only Live Once. If you only get one life, you may live it up and live in the moment, right?
YOLO encourages you to forget about your future and doing things that are going to help it. Instead, you need to engage in the most rewarding behaviors at the moment.
If you have been reading Habit Stacker for some time, you will know that living for the moment can lead to some of the most destructive behaviors.
The very thing that sets humans apart from animals is the ability to think through future consequences. Animals live from moment to moment, fulfilling whatever needs they have. If they are hungry, they eat. If they are scared, they run.
Humans, on the other hand, can process through situations and use logic. You can say, I am hungry, but I am going to finish this task because I am going to grab lunch with a friend later.
YOLO encourages you to forget about your future and doing things that are going to help it. Instead, you need to engage in the most rewarding behaviors at the moment.
A Short Life vs. A Long Life
It's important to contrast these two, so you understand how easy it is to get trapped in a short life. The short life is filled with everything attractive, but the long life is filled with the things you want the most.
Behaviors That Lead to a Short Life
- Impulsiveness
- Wanting rewards now
- Spending
- Living paycheck to paycheck
- Drugs and alcohol
- Partying
- Over-eating
- Binge-watching TV
- Eating sugar
- Skipping workouts
- Doing what you feel like doing
- Focusing on Entertainment
Behaviors That Lead to a Long Life
- Thinking through decisions
- Delayed gratification
- Saving
- Living below your means
- Eating for a healthy mind
- Staying in and working on a side hustle
- Eating until content
- Taking courses to keep learning
- Avoiding sugar
- Never missing workouts
- Sticking to your positive habits
- Focus on learning
Hard Habits Easy Life
What do you want the most? That is the critical question that you need to answer. When you know what you want most, it helps you avoid choices that lead to a short life.
For example, lets one thing you say you want most is a healthy mind and body. When you have the choice to eat a tub of ice cream and watch a movie, it will be easier to pass because it won't lead to what you want most in life.
The path is paved with hard habits that create a comfortable life. If you continuously eat healthily and workout, you're making hard choices each day. There is so much temptation that can throw your health off track. But those habits lead to a comfortable life.
Think about it for a second. When you regularly workout and eat healthily, it comes with so many advantages that make your life easier.
- Improved mood
- Boosted self-esteem
- More attractive
- Increased energy
- Fewer health issues
When you walk through life feeling good about yourself, people are more attracted to you, and you visit the hospitable less, your life will be more comfortable in the long run. Your life is much better in the long run.
When you have the choice to eat a tub of ice cream and watch a movie, it will be easier to pass because it won't lead to what you want most in life.
Keep Inverting Questions
You can use the trick used in this article to find many different answers that people want in life. Instead of asking what you need to do to be successful, ask what you need to do to fail.
- What should I do to gain fat?
- How can I make myself dumber?
- What is the best way to crash your car when driving?
- How do I become poorer?
- What things should I do to be more hated?
Many of these questions seem weird because the answers almost seem apparent, and they are. If you can come to the answers to these questions quickly, then invert your answers, and you will get the opposite results.
If the answer to getting fatter is never to work out, then getting more fit must be to exercise regularly. If the solution for getting poorer is to spend everything you make and not make a lot, then the answer for wealth must be to save as much as you can and not make much.
Instead of asking what you need to do to be successful, ask what you need to do to fail.