What would increase your well-being and satisfaction? More health? More wealth? Better relationships? Whether you want fame and fortune or just peace and quiet, it all starts with one question: Are you serious?

Cost

We live in a zero-sum energy world. The law of the conservation of energy states that energy cannot be created from nothing, nor can it be destroyed; it can only change form.  Everything that you want—everything that you are—requires energy. This means that you have to put in exactly as much energy as it takes to do whatever it is you want to do.

In other, simpler words, nothing is free.

Take the simple act of walking. It requires a certain amount of energy for your muscles to move you forward over the ground. The cells of your body have to create exactly that much energy or you would not be able to walk (i.e. if your Tesla runs out of charge, it’s not going anywhere).

The same concept is true for thinking and sleeping and applying for a job and going on a date and every other thought and action. It even requires a substantial amount of energy to just lie in a bed in a coma. 

This is the basic concept of weight loss through exercise, as well: when your exercise requires more energy than you took in through eating, your body will find other places to get the extra energy. One of the most readily available energy sources is the fat that your body stores. If you burn more calories than you eat, your body will metabolize that fat to create the additional energy.

This is all probably pretty obvious: Energy = Results. Always. Everywhere.

Whatever it is that you want costs exactly the amount of energy needed for it to materialize. You don’t pay up, it ain’t happenin’.

Currency

Before you consider the MSRP, begin to count steps, or calculate the airfare to your destination, you must consider the basic unit of currency for everything that you want. 

Beneath the dollars and Deutsche marks, the yen and euros and pounds sterling, there is a more fundamental unit of exchange. For you to manifest anything in the world, you must take action. And the primary unit of currency, the cost of action, is discipline.

Let’s start with the simple stuff.

If you want to get in better physical shape, you have to exercise. But it starts long before you get on the treadmill or in the pool or hit the trail. You have to get out of bed and get dressed and get yourself to the place of your planned exercise, whether it’s on top of a mountain or in the next room (OK, if you are only going to the next room, you may not have to get dressed, but you get my point).

Not because you are “feeling” it.

Not because you want to.

Not because you are motivated, today, to make it happen.

Not because you are well rested or in a good mood.

You do it because you said you would (even if only to yourself) and it’s time to do it.

You take the action because you made a commitment and you are a person of integrity. Because you keep your word.

Perhaps you say you want to stop eating refined sugar. How can you do this?

Stop. Eating. Sugar.

That’s it; that’s the whole (sugar-free) enchilada.

Don’t read about not eating sugar; don’t talk about abstaining from sugar. Just stop eating it.

Walk past the big pink box of doughnuts at work. Change from mocha lattes to iced tea. Cease the sugary cereals and move away from the muffins. Snack on unbuttered popcorn, if snack you must, and substitute beef for bonbons. Whatever floats your culinary boat, as long as it doesn’t contain refined sugar.

Take the action because you made the decision.

It’s all about discipline.

Complexity

Here’s a more complex example.

Let’s suppose that you want a better situation in your professional life. More money, more prestige, better working conditions, an office with a view, less asshole bosses. Maybe all of the above.

This also starts with a decision to effect change in your life, but that decision leads to thousands of other decisions and most significantly, requires the ability to delay gratification.

Your path to better compensation and improved working conditions may necessitate a college degree. If you are in the trades, you may have to endure the traditional trek from apprentice to journeyman. If you’re fortunate enough to be engaged in the family business, you should probably learn the millions of nuances—from P&L statements and EBITA to customer service and distribution—that it takes to make a profit and stay in business.

The common thread here is that it is not going to happen overnight. Probably not even this year. Maybe not even this decade.

You see where we are going with this.

Here’s another one, much more involved and incalculably more difficult.

Perhaps you want a relationship. Like a permanent, ride-or-die, until-death-do-us-part kind of relationship.

Like all actions, this one starts with a decision. A decision to share your life with another human. So you expend the energy (it’s all energy, remember?) to swallow your pride and contain your fear and you start dating.

And dating, as we all have learned, leads to disappointment and heartbreak and betrayal. But you persevere and finally—after many false starts and massive expense (in every sense of the term), and much pain and learning—you find The One.

Then, after a lifetime of support and love, The One walks from your life without explanation. And you learn what “disappointment and heartbreak and betrayal” really means.

Now the decision has gone from trivial (“Should I buy that TV?”) to life-threatening (“Should I go on?”).

But the song remains the same. Do you have the discipline to carry on? To commit—with action, not just words—to the decision to keep on keeping on?

It is all so much simpler—and infinitely more complex—than most people imagine. It really all comes down to one question: 

Are You Serious?

Can you commit to the decision to be happy? To have a better life?

Will you direct your energy to the actions it will take to move toward your goals? Or will you just talk about it?

Are you serious enough about your existence to intentionally choose your purpose, then pursue it even in the face of loss and disillusionment? Even if it takes a lifetime? 

Being happy is sometimes the hardest thing you can ever do.

But it’s always worth it, in the long run.

It’s why you’re here.




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- JWW