Here’s why you’re not getting closer to your desired results: you’re not taking actions that lead to your desired results. Here’s why you’re not taking actions that lead to your desired results: you don’t want to.
This is a broad generalization and it may not apply to you 100%. But I guarantee you, if you apply the message in this writing to your life it will 100% alter the course of your life. I guarantee it. There is no way it will not; but even with this guarantee, you likely won’t do it. Why? Because that’s how hard it is to do something you really don’t want to.
If I want to have bigger biceps, I need to do bicep curls regardless of how much I hate doing them. Guess why I have weak shoulders? I always skipped shoulder day! Now I have to pay for it by having shoulder pain with every exercise I do (who knew that surfing would be all about shoulders!).
If I want to be flexible, I have to stretch. Since I got into meditation I recognized the need for yoga. I couldn’t sit for a prolonged amount of time and that prevented me from diving deeper into myself. I noticed that even after just one session of yoga sitting felt a lot better, so I kept on at it.
Muscling through things, I kind of got used to doing combat sports. Even though I’m a frail guy I’ve been at this for over five years. One thing I can’t get used to is stretching to improve flexibility. Especially in my hip, hamstrings, and shoulders — I’m as stiff as a stick. So when the yoga pose would require me to stretch those areas I would just be in excruciating pain.
This would make me avoid these areas, which has the cruel side effect of not making the problem any better. Sigh, why must the world work like this? I would ask my wife in pain who smiles back at me because she relishes in my pain. She would tell me, if you hate it that much just be stiff. If you want to be flexible do the pose. Geez, no wonder her clients love her so much. She’s all business.
So regardless of HOW MUCH I hate it, I HAVE to do it if I want the results. Which means I have to do it even if I don’t want to. I have to do it even though I feel like I don’t have the time to. I have to do it even though I have other things to do. I have to do it even though I’m too tired. My hamstrings don’t really care how I feel, they just get flexible as I stretch.
This feeling of biting the bullet, feeling like you’re going through this absolutely miserable time (almost like you’re being subjugated by someone) — this is the ultimate feeling we are all trying to avoid. Which means this feeling is one of the most powerful gatekeeper in the grand gateway into YOUR LIFE.
I experienced this in 108 bows. I would do like 30 and my legs would shake. I would almost throw away my mala because I’m so angry at the fact that I had to do 108. Then I’d wake up the next day at 5AM and want to give up. Some days in the beginning I’d sleep in, which is supposed to make me feel better but it also makes me feel worse because I know I could have done it.
That last part is really important. Because prior to me biting the bullet, I don’t believe that it’s possible for me. But once I do it, even if I do it once — I have no choice but to believe I can do it because I have proven to myself I can. This is how the experience of biting the bullet becomes the strongest motivator for you. You believed you couldn’t, but you showed yourself you can by biting the bullet.
After you prove to yourself that it’s possible, then we can talk about how to do the same thing with ease and how to reverse-engineer the cause and effect relationship of life. We can talk about so many other truths and tactics about taking your life for the most magnificent dance but the thing is it can’t start! IT LITERALLY CANNOT START unless you decide to bite the bullet.
Anybody can believe in you. But nobody can prove it to you but yourself. The proof is in you.
Learn all of this in person with me at Valley Hot Yoga on May 30th, 2025 at 3PM. The event is free for you!
