Today I learned I have to focus on learning the skills. I went to my Computer Science advisor’s office two weeks ago and ask him basically how long would it take for me to graduate? What I really was asking him was what is the fastest way for me to graduate😂? His response was something I’ll never forget. The first thing he said was “Focus on learning the skillzzzzzz.” As soon as I heard him say that I knew I was coming from the wrong angle. He went on to explain how their were solid opportunities around just for my taking. Internships and scholarships of the sort. He explained how by just focusing on graduating as quickly as possible I would fail to take advantage of those various opportunities. He stated that the most important thing I should focus on is learning the skills. That was something that I really needed to here and will now never forget. By default I just want to do things as quickly as possible and get on to the next step. I think that mindset comes from impatience. I think that mindset comes from being use to instant gratification. I don’t think this mindset is going to yield me the things I want out of life. I think this mindset if continuously developed is going to result in a remarkably average career, with remarkably average relationships, and a remarkably average sense of meaning and fulfillment. What a waste that would be? To come this far and cashout early out of impatience. I made the same mistake when I was doing music. It’s funny how the field changes but the overall lessons stay the same. I gotta focus on learning the skills in everything. Especially with developing my love life. I feel myself becoming patient. I have particular deadlines in regards to we’re I want certain relationships to be. When I don’t meet those deadlines I feel a sense of failure. But now with this new idea I can focus my attention on actually learning how to build an intimate relationship rather than what did I get out of this relationship. I think that’s a better perspective. That way of thinking relieves a desperate sense of urgency. This way of focusing on learning requires grit the calmness though. The clock is ticking and measurements have to be taken. But with a solid resolve and a sincere work ethic skills will be learned and intended results will be produced. With this focal point I think I’ll be more effective.

Today I learned I have to compare myself to who I was yesterday. I got this idea from Jordan Peterson’s book 12 Rules for Life. In a previous podcast I stated it’s good to be competive. The idea behind that podcast was correct but only to an extent. During that period in my life I felt very marganilized and poorly treated. I felt like I was showing loving to people and being given their ass to kiss. For the most part that was true. My response to that was that I was gonna get so successful that I would put everyone who crossed me to shame. For awhile that motivated me. For awhile it got me digging deeper within myself to power through the various challenges I faced to move forward. But the idea of becoming more successful than my peers never really motivated me on a longterm basis. I knew deep down from the very start that that was small minded thinking. I knew that true winners don’t look around to see what everybody else is doing they look inside to see what they should start doing. That’s one of the many valuable ideas I got out of 12 Rules for Life. Though the unfortunate thing was once I got exposed to this idea I didn’t put it into practice until nearly 7 months later. I was sitting in the library 2 weeks ago and asked myself “What are some ideas that could change my life?” And this was the first and immediate idea that came to mind. I’ve found from the short time I’ve been comparing myself to the person I was with yesterday that this is a fantastic way to live ones life. There is nobody that has more data on me than myself. There is nobody that has my exact level of weakness and my exact level of strengths. There is nobody that thinks the same exact thoughts as me. So why would I set myself up against somebody else? The best person to compete against is the person I was with yesterday. It just seems more practical. I know exactly how hard I pushed yesterday. I know exactly how much I let a couple things slide. It’s hard not to look outwards though and marvel at other people’s success. Especially when those people are close in age to you or even younger. And especially when those people rub there success in your face and you just have to sit there and try to be a person of good character. But I’ve found that the best growth strategy comes from internal analyzation. When you know how many goals you set and how many goals you achieved in the day you have a benchmark for tomorrow. You keep achieving that benchmark and increasing it consistently then it seems to me that your capacity increases. Comparing myself to other people will lead me down a road of not being everything I could be. I could still be successful by comparing myself to other people but my success would eventually be capped. I would hit a comfortable point and would be unwilling to push forward and risk failing because I would of already done more than most people. That’s not somebody Never Stops. Somebody who Never Stops pushes themself until their is no more time left. That’s who I want to be.

Today I learned I have to check the numbers. Another thing I got out of that video by Jim Rohn I watched last week was the concept of looking at the hard quantible results. In the video he stated that somethings you have to check everyday. He explained how by taking a measure of the results one can learn about what their attitude really is, what their activity really is, and what their philosophy really is. It’s easy for me and most other people to get lost in the art. It’s easy for me to loose my grip of reality and lock myself in a castle in the sky. That’s exactly what happened from 18 to 22. And thats also what’s been happening ever since I started taking goal setting seriously. Ever since I moved out I’ve been goal setting pretty consistently. I’ve found that it’s something I look forward to at the end of the day. For whatever reason checking off something on a list gives me a satisfying feeling. I thought I was killing it for awhile. I would prepare a long list of goals the night before and I would work the next day to check off as many as I could. But I noticed as time went on that their would be many things I didn’t accomplish on my long list of goals for the day. I would also notice that their would be many things that I did half way. It was only after I sat down and counted how many goals I set and how many actual goals I achieve did I realize that I wasn’t even getting the most out of myself. I realized that becuase I had set an obnoxious amount of goals my effectiveness of achieving those goals decreased. This was excellent quality over quantity moment. I was only able to get this moment of clarity becuase I took a measure. Becuase I checked the numbers. Becuase I looked at the cold hard undebatable results to teach me about my efforts. That’s why I think it’s really important to take count. Because just like me, you can think your really going hard and giving it all you got until you sit down and actually measure the outcome of your efforts.

Today I Learned I have to take the notes. I was watching yet another video by Jim Rohn and for whatever reason I decided to grab a peice of paper and actually take note of the information he was saying. In the past I would watch his videos and would just assume that I would remember all the key points. But as I was watching the crowd listening to Jim delibarately jot down the words they were hearing I paused the video grabbed a piece of paper. Doing that brought me to a dramatically new level of understanding. The act of simply writing down the ideas made then more coherent. I was able to stare at them and take a moment to momentarily reason whether I think this idea is valid. After deciding for myself that the idea I was being sold made sense to me I was positively reenforced to continue to listen for more ideas and jot down and reason more. A video that was about four hours long felt to me like it was far too short. Becuase I would listen, reason, then write I lost track of time and fully focused on the information being despensed. This isn’t the first time I’ve utilize the idea of note taking before. I got the idea really from Jim Rohn himself in a past video. I use to take a note book to church and jot down whatever sounded valueable to me by the pastor. But I would be the only one in the entire church writing stuff down from the sermon and would notice people staring at me. I didn’t care much until I started to get mocked by another church member. After realizing that people thought I looked silly bring a notebook to church I dropped the habit entirely. But in this very same video Jim explained how vitally important it is to note take. He basically stated that your memory will fail you and that by simply jotting it down you get to reflect upon the information correctly and coherently every single time. I got so much out of that video becuase I simply wrote stuff down I thought was valuable. After realizing this I feel really disappointed in the numerous books I’ve read, podcast I listened too, and other helpful videos I watched were I didn’t take a note for any of them. That information is still in my mind but God only knows how to access it. In this video I was watching Jim talks about the path to success is walking away from the 97% and about not being casual. This is just one of the habits nessary to do that. Most people, like I was, will never get a journal and fill in ideas and exerperinces that are important to them. But just imagine what that habit could do for a person? You here something valuable and you put in your journal for study and reflection. That could do wonders for a person’s relationships and career. I got such an amazing feeling note taking the valueable ideas that now I’m going to ensure I do this for the rest of my life. I really feel like I got the most out of that video simply becuase I toke notes.

video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ySBv-HHyK4

Today I learned I have to work in the future. After watching another Jeff Bezos interview I notice he kept using that phrase. At first I didn’t understand exactly what he meant. I though he was talking about making new technology. But as the interview went on he described how he focuses on the financial quarter in three years from now. As his fellow executives are focused on the current financial quarter or the most recent past financial quarter he has his eyes set further in the future. That amoung all the things that Jeff Bezos said in that interview resonated with me the most. I’ve been struggling to stay focus on my goals set for the week and for the month. It’s just easy for me to forget that I need to make sure that my actions of the day should be compliant with the objective of the entire week. I could only imagine how easy it is to fall off track when you have your goal set three years ahead. I think that’s the big difference between winners and losers. The people who can step back and analyze how things are going and in what direction their going are going to have more information and overview of their lives. But the people who constantly are tied up by the tedious repetitive short term occurrences might get fed up and decide to stop playing at all. One can get more done in a week than one can get done in a day. Thus in a sense my focus should be more on the weeks, months, and years than just the day.

Today I learned I have to be really really fast. I was thinking about a pattern that I’ve been recently experiencing. A girl who doesn’t look half bad will signal her interest in me. I’ll take a few moments and consider whether or not I want to pursue this girl. And usually within the time span of me deciding whether or not I want to shoot my shot the opportunity slips away. This has happened so many times. This indecision comes from fear. Fear of rejection and fear of success. After a couple of moments I decided that I will shoot my shot but by then so much time has passed and I’ve already clamed up. This is just the easier thing to do. It’s tough to be decisive. It’s tough to quickly power through that wall of resistance in your mind. I’ve found that the more time I spend debating whether or not I’m gonna say something to the girl that has signaled interests in me the more likely I’m not gonna say anything at all. The anxiety builds up and I get more in my head. The more I sit still and contemplate whether I will run the risk of rejection the more I start thinking about rejection and embarrassment. The funny thing is I’m the polar opposite with my entrepreneurial and creative pursuits. When I get an idea for a creative project I usually try out the idea immediately. I don’t really care or not whether the idea will work I’m just so excited to give the idea a shot. To work on the idea. To grow it and develop it into something more than what it intially was. The process of just doing that is very fun to me. I have to be the same way with women. Upon realizing that a girl has signaled interest in me I have to immediately get up and build with her. That same excitement, decisiveness, and vigor that I have for business is appliable to women.

Today I learned that Alpha males eat Alpha males. Ever since I got a nose ring I’ve been noticing that more women have been attracted to me. But I’ve also noticed that more niggas try me. I didn’t mind it as much. I was strong enough to deal with the bullying and the sneak dissin. But the more I do shit to attract the best looking girls the more niggas are gonna see that and try to bring me down. It just comes with the territory. When I think about why that is the case the only answer that comes to mind is that some people see you exuding peace of mind and they get angry because maybe they haven’t yet achieved peace of mind for themselves. So they think up of clever ways to attack your peace of mind. Some people are passive. But I’ve found that Alpha males are more direct. They’ll challenge you more openly. They try to embarrass you cleverly. The best way I found how to deal with that is to be with the shits. The best way I dealt with these types of guys is just accept that in life your gonna be in a couple fist fights. Sometimes people will see you happy and going in a positive direction and will make it their #1 priority to kill your morale. To rain on your parade. To simply just toy with you. When I notice that behavior pattern the first thing I do is create physical distance between me and that person. But if for whatever reason I can’t shake them I just get them alone and confront them. Literally everybody I’ve confronted backs down apologies. I think the thing that matters the most is that they see that I’m willing to fight them immediately. The cowards comes out of them when they see a chance of danger. I never thought I could do this. I never thought I would be the type of person who initiated confrontation. But one day I started the daily habit of preparing for a fist fight and a little while later the thought of a fist fight didn’t really become so threatening. So dealing with Alpha males isn’t shit anymore once I started preparing to fight daily.

Today I learned the importance of preparing for the next day. Last night I was up really late trying to get as much stuff done as possible on my to do list. I had failed to prepare for the day in the evening prior thus today wasn’t maximumly optimized. There were so many things I could of done with today had I took the time to properly prepare for it. I had no goals for the day set so I was just cruising and going with the flow of things. I did some stuff I would of usually would of done had I set my goals prior but I know in my heart had I planned this day out and set goals for the day I could of done unbelievably more stuff with the time I was given. I would prepare for the next day frequently when I was working on getting down my tuition last summer. I’ve found that taking the few hours the evening before to prepare for the next day creates a thread in between the days. I’m more mindful of where I spent my time becuase their is a written plan of how I intended to do so. When I do make it a habit of preparing for the day I’m able to retrace my steps. I have more data to reflect on because their was a game plan. The objectives of the day are clearly stated thus making achieving them more smoother. It just makes sense that this a good habit to cultivate. And it just makes sense that the successful do this. Day in day out one is able to fully steer the direction of their life. Simply by just preparing ahead of time.

Today i learned that women communicate with nuance. I’ve been noticing how suddly girls will communicate their interest in me. They’ll slow down their pace if their walking in front of me. They’ll cleverly get in my field of view. Or they’ll just stare at me for a quick second. It’s kind of childish. I’m the exact opposite. I’m very blunt and very straightforward. I just walk up to the girls that I want and shoot my shot. If it works it works if it does it doesn’t. But being so blunt and straightforward hasn’t yielded me much success. It seems to me that my directness scares off the girls that I do want. For example if I notice a girl is staring at me I’ll walk over where she is an first ask her if she is single. If she says no I’ll ask her if I can give her my number. If she says no I’ll just say okay and be on my way. But I get the feeling some of the chicks that reply no I am not single are just saying that becuase their shocked and nervous that I just walked over to them. I’m looking at females like I’m looking at a computer. Whatever the computer tells me is exactly what the computer means. But it’s not the same at all with females. It’s my understanding so far that females will say something but mean the exact opposite. Will do something that means one thing but then do something that means the exact opposite the next day. What’s really frustrating thing is that they’ll expect you to figure out their poorly communicated emotions and then solve it for them. I’m only willing to do that for an attractive girl. So that’s what I learned today. Women communicate with nuance.

Today I learned I have to be obsessively compulsively focused on the customer. I was watching a recent interview of Jeff Bezos. In this interview Bezos was reflecting upon the success of Amazon as well as the developments of his latest projects. As he was talking about how he was approaching his low income early education program he stated that he would work on it in the same way he worked on Amazon. He said the most significant reason for Amazon’s success was their obsessive compulsive focus on the customer. As soon as I heard those words i was intrigued. Because it sounded similar to a previous idea that has benefited my life. Focusing on the end goal is something that has given me an unbelievable strength. I think about all the times I was walking back and forth from work and I’m in awe. It was only becuase my goals at the time required me to do so. I thought more about that idea of obsessive compulsive focus on the customer and it just makes sense. If you spend an unusually more amount of time and energy thinking of ways to positively benefit the customer and you actually follow through with those plans the end user is going to feel the difference. If an organization keeps doing that over a span of time the customer is going to develop a habit of going to you first. When I hear a good idea like that I like to act on it instantly. So as soon as I heard that idea I went to the mall and got a bigger nose ring. I was timid about doing this at first. The one I had in intially was the starter stud. It was necessarily as small as could be to form a hole for further nose rings. I didn’t want to get a bigger one at first because I afraid at how obvious it would be. Even though I was getting more female attention with the starter stud niggas try me more. But after hearing Jeff Bezos say that the reason by far for Amazon’s success is becuase they obsessively compulsively focus on their customers not their competitors ot was just obvious that I needed to actually get a mid size nose ring and do all the other things needed to attract the female I want. I really think approaching my love life in this manner will be better. I have to look at the girl I want as my customer. And I have to obsessively compulsively focus on servicing her so directly and indirectly so that she keeps coming back for more.