| Hey there, Recently, someone asked how I maintain a sense of urgency and necessity instead of resting on my oars. You may think this is where I crib some quotes on embracing our mortality, prioritizing the present, and preventing procrastination. Or confess that my meat and bones are quickened by an ancient blood pact with my Gorgon masters. Perfectly reasonable assumptions. But this email will be different. While I neither can confirm nor deny details of any occult operations, how about I squirt some of my artisanal wordsauce into your brainpan, and we can see if it sizzles? DEAL? DEAL. My urgency and necessity stems from something I call my "personal constitution." I picked this up from the book The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, and it addresses three areas of our existence: 1. Our character (or who we want to be) 2. Our contribution (or what we want to do) 3. Our achievements (or what we want to have or experience) This exercise has been helpful for me because it forces me to think about my priorities and standards and how to express them as values, precepts, and intentions. To tap a tired metaphor, imagine that you're out at sea on a boat, voyaging to a far-off destination. Your boat springs a leak. Water comes rushing in, so you rush below deck and start pumping the bilge but forget that nobody is steering the ship. One day, after bailing water for a while, you poke your head over the bow and wonder where the heck you are and how you got there. This is the life that isn't guided by prudent policies, principles, and purposes. This is how people lose their bearings and become preoccupied with just staying afloat. My personal constitution has 40 points, so I'll spare you the full monty, but here are the top fifteen items (in no particular order): 1. Exemplify extreme orderliness. He who wants to keep his garden tidy doesn't reserve a plot for weeds. 2. Be willing to exert more effort. In this age, which believes that there is a shortcut to everything, the greatest lesson to be learned is that the most difficult way is, in the long run, the easiest. 3. Always be growing. You don't attract what you want. You attract who you are. 4. Make your own luck. The successful person has the habit of doing the things failures don't like to do. 5. Make it go right. There's nothing you can't accomplish if you think creatively and have the character to do the difficult things. 6. Refuse to complain. Savor both your struggles and your rewards. 7. Don't accept something as true unless it's true for you. Better to write for yourself and have no public than to write for the public and have no self. 8. Think for yourself, even if it runs afoul of orthodoxies. To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment. 9. Be truthful and sincere. Truth and sincerity have a certain distinguishing native luster about them which cannot be perfectly counterfeited; they are like fire and flame, that cannot be painted. 10. Don't associate with people who don't share your key values. While there is nobody in the world who will share your point of view on everything, there are people who will share your most important values and how you choose to live them out. Make sure you end up with those people. 11. Refuse to make excuses. Nearly every problem has a solution. It's just a fact. It might not be the solution you want, but there is a solution. 12. Don't need praise, admiration, approval, or sympathy. Real self-respect comes from dominion over self, from true independence. 13. Never regret yesterday. Life is in you today, and you make your tomorrow. 14. Do what's right even when it costs you something. It can ruin your life only if it ruins your character. 15. Give far more to people and society than you take. That the person who lives on the labor of others, not giving himself in return to the best of his ability, is really a consumer of human life and therefore must be considered no better than a cannibal. Service is the rent we pay for the privilege of living on this earth. And how does all of that fill me with urgency and necessity? Well, whenever I consider pursuing a goal in my work or otherwise, even something trivial, I see how it aligns with my personal charter, and if it doesn't reflect at least a few of my tenets, I don't chase the goal. This way, I'm making choices driven by who I want to be and the life I want to live, not other factors like what others think or expect of me or a spiritual hole that I think I can fill with praise, money, status, etc. Accordingly, my work checks many of the boxes, and so do other activities I do, like working out, reading, spending time with my family, and hell, even golfing. And there are many "normal" things I do little or none of because they don't conform to my principles: watching TV, surfing the internet, playing video games, scrolling on social media, drinking alcohol or using drugs, looking at porn, conspicuously consuming, and so on. In short, this approach to living provides me with a powerful carrot and stick. I derive deep satisfaction from using my time to pursue my ideals and work to perfect myself (even though perfection isn't attainable), and if I were to fall away from this creed and become, say, a dishonest and complacent goldbrick who takes more from life than he gives, the emotional pain would cut to the quick. So, YMMV and all that, but if you're still reading, you may benefit from having a personal constitution, too. And if you want to get the most from it, my book The Little Black Book of Workout Motivation may help. Think of it as my personal—and 100% practical and hands-on—blueprint for personal transformation, inside and outside of the gym. In the book, I share wisdom and insights from hundreds of scientific studies and scores of legendary artists, authors, entrepreneurs, philosophers, generals, and conquerors, as well as my own biggest "a ha" moments that have helped me overcome the things that were most holding me back. Check it out here ⇒ https://legionathletics.com/products/books/the-little-black-book-of-workout-motivation/ Go for it! Mike | 
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