No, I'm not talking about your zodiac sign. Our topic today:

Continuity vs. Intensity

From childhood, especially we, men, grew up bragging about how much/hard we could perform a tough task in one go. The admiration and envy of our peers pushed us to develop ourselves in this direction. If Joe could do 50 push-ups in one set, Jack's goal should have been at least 55; if Joe could dive 5 meters deep, Jack should be able to extract sand from 6 meters.

But nobody advised Jack to do only 30 push-ups, every day.

The harms of pissing farthest

For once, the singular victories you achieve by over-exerting yourself are not sustainable. If you studied until morning drinking several cups of coffee, you will probably walk around like a zombie with purple eyes today and you will not be able to repeat the same session anytime soon. While you can normally do 6 reps with a 10 kg weight, and if you undertook 10 screaming repetitions yesterday, you're probably injured or your arms are so sore today that you won't be able to work out for at least a week.

Let's look at the matter from another angle. Do you think investors like Warren Buffett or Bill Ackman got rich overnight by investing all their money in a company or coin that they heard from a friend and nobody knows about? Or did they invest piecemeal in trustworthy stocks and watch their fortunes multiply over the years?

Turn challenges into habits

You've probably heard this quote from Bruce Lee:

I fear not the man who has practiced 10,000 kicks once, but I fear the man who has practiced one kick 10,000 times.

Think about the small steps that you need to take to achieve your dreams: Your goal should not be to do it as intensely as possible today, but to do it as much as you can every day. Pushing yourself too hard always comes with the risk of getting fed up with it tomorrow, and it's a huge risk, especially in the beginning. It's not time to push your own limits without first making a habit of it.

Earlier, we talked about how important it is to prepare a daily to-do list. You should definitely support your continuity by noting down your progress on such a list. Let's say you want to be a programmer: If you spend at least 1 hour a day coding and write it down, that number will automatically increase to 2, 3, 4... and you will never want to skip a day and drop your streak.

Fire vs. Water

Everyone wants to be fire; we desire its scorching heat and destructive power. But we forget that a bucket of water is enough to extinguish even the brightest flame, and that it is the rivers that flow tirelessly over the rocks that turn them into sand, which the heat cannot cause the slightest damage.

You remember; you be water.