the idea.
Any time you are faced a choice, realize there are always three paths.
- The common path, the path that 99% of the population take. It’s usually the path of least resistance. It’s sometimes called the let’s do it tomorrow path. The ah well, whatever, I’ll sit on this couch and stuff my face with tacos path. Actually that sounds amazing.
No no, cmon don’t give in. You know for a fact these nachos go straight to your ass and then no one will love you anymore. Then there's
- the quarter path, the path you do maybe 1 out of every 4 times you encounter it. You only do it 25% of the time because it takes a tremendous amount of willpower. But if you do get yourself to do it, then oh yah baby, you just rocked it. People hand you awards. Your boss gives you an amazing review. You go out and celebrate with some tacos. And then because you have a trophy, no one gives a damn about your fat ass anymore. See? Much better. But then there’s the last path.
- The lonely path. The path only the 1% take, which basically means most of the time, you will literally be on your own, all alone. When you walk this path, no one’s there to give you a award. In fact, they’ll probably tell you you’re an idiot.
The moment someone starts trying to reel you back is the moment you know. This is it. This is the 1% path and that’s when you lock in even more. Of course, use your common sense. Like if this is what’s you see in front of you telling you to whoa dude, take a chill pill, you know something smells fishy.
If Scooby Doo has taught me anything, there’s definitely pirate treasure stashed in that cave somewhere and so you should push right on ahead.
What does the 1% path look like?
- You’re supposed to only read chapter 1 of the textbook? Heck no, I’m reading the entire textbook baby.
- Rest of the team is shooting 100 free-throws a day? That’s weak sauce. I’m throwing 1000 baby.
- Most people are doing some 9 to 5 job, hating their lives and retiring never but get to have Taco Tuesdays and casual Fridays every other Friday? Actually sounds amazing.
This is what I call the You are Boring Concept: The more people doing something, the less likely it will lead to anything interesting.
- The 99% path gives you a 1% chance.
- The 25% path gives you a 75% chance.
- The 1% path gives you a 99% chance.
Walking the quarter path takes willpower but walking the 1% path takes purpose. It requires an entire paradigm shift, a complete new way of life. You can’t just willpower your way there. I don’t care how many Taco Tuesdays you push through. It ain’t happening.
And so, what does that mean for the millions of mere mortals out there? It means the best that can be done is probably the quarter path. And realistically, they probably won’t even do it 100% of the time. And so they straddle somewhere in between the common path and the quarter path and thus, any chance of anything interesting happening in their life ends up being pretty 50/50.
But for the select few that want something more, you have to figure out something much more fundamental. It’s not about the best productivity systems, habit stacking, increasing raw discipline (all of which I actually love talking about).
It’s about getting to the core reason you are here… why you were put on this rock, in this galaxy… floating around in this universe.
And that’s all on you man.
You know what you should do today? Watch all those youtube videos of old people talking about what they regret most? It’s usually something about boo hoo my family, friends, I should’ve done more of what I actually wanted to do like eaten more tacos and taken dumps wherever the heck I wanted.
What the crap are they talking about? Basically it all comes down to what? Freedom right? Agency. The courage to do what you want.
the action.
And so that’s your job today. Go watch those regret videos or just take my word for it. You are going to regret your life if you don’t at some point in your life, grow the balls and the vaginas to walk the 1% path even for just a year or so. Seriously. Reflect and think about what path you take the most.
Get out your fancy ruler, protractor, all your colored pencils and analyze the crap out of your past year. If you want an interesting life, don’t take the highway. Don’t even take the backroads. Jump into the woods, high five some bears and live off the land. You’ll have an amazing story to tell and may even get a movie deal and book out of it.
the update.
The perfect productivity system is about to drop. I can't wait to share it with you when it lands. Just waiting for the editor put the final touches on it. So far, I've made videos that give you the concept but don't really help you with the nitty gritty execution. This video combination was my attempt to change that. I say combination because I also created an accompanying notion template that walks you through the perfect productivity system step-by-step. At any rate, hope it helps some of you and if not, well, I'll try to send you some horse manure next week instead.
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