You're Killing Your Potential

Monday, 12:32 p.m.
February 19, 2024

Dear Mimi,

This letter is going to be the first of what will be a long series of letters in which I will attempt to share the important life lessons I have learned over my 20 years on this earth, along with what I will learn in the future.

As much as I wish I could talk to you in person, your spirit will always be with me, through the ups and downs, of my constant pursuit to struggle well.

I am going to try to teach you what I have learned about marketing, getting fit and staying healthy, how to get along with other people, and ultimately how to live a good life without having everything get screwed up.

Also, I plan on rereading each letter as it will serve as the foundational material for a book which I have wanted to write for a long time. The book, unless I come up with a better title will be:

The Art of Mental Mastery

These letters might wander a bit. I'll keep them flowing without stopping to edit, so don't expect them to be as polished as my ads and other writings.

Anyway, let's get started. As some of you may know, today marks the 5 week mark on my early morning workouts. Every weekday I wake up at 6:06 a.m. Head to the gym around 6:30 a.m. work out and leave before 9:00 a.m.

I do this to order my day, provide structure for my brain which bounces all over the place. (adhd? who knows? maybe?)

I won’t lie, most days, I do not want to wake up and walk to the gym, to then workout and walk home. (That’s how many people view the gym). Simply that.

However, I read that the greatest things in life take on the most amount of effort. Also, that nothing in life that has been great, has ever come easy.

That idea is in our faces, whether that be in school, sports, and just about anything else in life. If you do not push yourself, you will be mediocre.

And being mediocre my friends, is perfectly okay.

7.7 billion other people are mediocre. You know why?

Because that’s what society has told/shown/conditioned us into believing. It is by far the easiest way to live.

And one day, I woke up, and said fuck it. I don’t want to be just like every other person who has walked this planet. I wanted to be different, I wanted to become a glitch in the matrix.

So Mimi, what did I do?

Exactly the opposite of all of my friends, majority of the kids in my fraternity, and most of humans as a whole.

I wake up everyday, in search of the things I find “difficult” or “challenging”.

From what I have realized through my studies (of the old great minds). It’s that the “difficult” or “challenging” feeling one gets when facing a new challenge or encountering a new situation, 10 times out of 10, get easier with practice and repetition.

I’ve also found it is super helpful to pretty much tell nobody what you are doing. Other than your mastermind (but that’s for another time).

This is because most people do not understand the benefits or reasons for the things that I am doing. To reinforce this statement, one of my friends said this to me when I started this newsletter and overall journey;

“I know you're in a phase, and that he knew someone who had been in the same “phase” and got out of it too.”

That same friend takes maybe 1,000 steps everyday, lays in bed for 9+ hours, doom scrolls and video games another 6 hours while having 2 herniated discs.

I would make the argument that he is in the phase, not me. And that, he’s insulting me based off his insecurities. Which 99% of people do. But;

This shit is a lifestyle, I now live for this. The early morning walk back from the gym gives me the same high that the devils' lettuce does. Its a all-natural high though. (haha, for real.)

Side note: Do you know Crackers the tomcat?

Crackers was a big ole tomcat, who enjoyed picking on and tormenting all the small creatures in the forest.

He would play with the critters, by putting them in his mouth, spitting them out, smacking them around, until they had just about nothing left in them.

And then he would do it all over again, repeating the same cruel process.

The small defenseless creature just laid there, and like a clock ticking, Crackers would repeat the process all over again.

The man who was observing crackers, traveled across town, and started to hear stories about Jimmy. Jimmy was another tomcat who was bigger and meaner than crackers. He would torment and bully crackers every time he came into his town.

In life, everyone must learn to deal with the unnecessary grief from other people.

However, sometimes in life you come across that dick-head with the power in their favor, in that case, the only way to endure with your price is to develop a mental toughness as mental armor for in case you need it.

I hate mean people, especially those who promote cruelty. Once I am aware you are a scum, I tend to develop a strong attitude towards said individual.

Just because someone says you can't do something, that something is impossible, or that you are dumb for trying, just know it isn’t, and you're not.

Don’t listen to what mediocre people have to say about you, they don’t do shit with their life.

They are the 99%. The ones who form opinions based on what’s on their Tiktok and Instagram’s.

People are conditioned.

Most people are quitters, they give up when the going gets tough. Many people have predisposed beliefs which hold them back. There is no benefit in dealing with the people who have nothing but negative things to say.

I have realized that money and opportunity aren’t the only important things in life. To me, growing your wisdom and teaching others is by far more substantial.

Before I go, I'll leave you with this one idea, take it as you will:

Replace the term failure, with “temporary defeat”.

Before success comes into anyone's life, they're likely to encounter numerous temporary setbacks and maybe even failures (Temporary Defeat). When faced with defeat, the easiest and most logical response is often to give up. Do the exact opposite and identify why you failed, or what held you back.

I promise you, if you do that, failure will never feel like failure again, but as a mere learning experience.

P.S. Please get a copy of Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill.

Peace,
Jake