How to Reinvent Your Life In 6 Months

If this email was forwarded to you, please subscribe below, and share with anyone you think would like it. Enjoy!

People stay stuck for a lot of reasons.

People grow frustrated without progress for a lot of reasons.

But we rarely admit to ourselves our failure to make the necessary changes.

I’ve been guilty of this in my own life, countless times.

I’ve set fitness goals but failed to execute the required actions. I’ve lost momentum in my work because I lost consistency. I’ve played the victim card in relationships when I should’ve played the ownership card. 

I’m guessing anybody reading this has had a similar story.

We say we want something to happen in our life. But we don’t do what it takes to make it happen.

There’s a gap between where we are and where we want to be. 

And now more than ever it seems we fill that gap with more information, more dopamine, more excuses — which leads nowhere. After all, the next best thing to not achieving something is using our phones to Google ‘how to…’ whatever goal we have in mind.

But no matter how long we study, research, and scroll our phones for the solution, we are still stuck in the same place, wanting more from our lives.

Trying Being Naive

In September 1986, Bo Jackson made his major league debut for the Kansas City Royals. The opposing pitcher for the Chicago White Sox was future hall of famer, Steve Carlton.

Carlton, who at the time was arguably the greatest left-handed pitcher of all time and in the twilight of his illustrious career, was a 4-time Cy Young Awards winner, 10-time All-star, and 2-time World Series Champion.

The stage was set: Rookie phenom vs. aging legend. 

Bo Jackson would get his first major league hit that night off of Carlton, legging out an infield single. 

But the lesson from the night would be revealed years later and retold by Jackson’s biographer Jeff Pearlman: Bo Jackson, in the biggest moment of his baseball life wasn’t aware of any of those accolades, who Steve Carlton was, or even what side of the mound he threw the ball from.

That night Bo Jackson went out and attempted to fill that gap. He didn’t have all the information or maybe wasn’t even aware he needed it. But what he did we could all apply a little to our life. 

Stop worrying about every little detail.

Normalize executing what it takes to achieve what you want to change.

You don’t need all the data to start closing that gap today.

Focus on your future.

Any change you’re highly motivated to make will force you to sacrifice something you’re invested in today. Your identity, habits you enjoy, things you don’t want to let go of, and even relationships that don’t serve you. There’s no progress in your life without this sacrifice.

This is where many people get stuck. As bad as they want the new version, they don’t want to kill off the old version. 

You have to be willing to make the sacrifice. Cut off what’s not working. Say goodbye (hopefully, permanently) to the parts that no longer serve you.

If you have any chance at reinventing yourself, it’s going to take a complete focus on moving past the old you and building the new you.

(Journal prompt: What are you avoiding that stands in the way of where you want to go?)

Get Started.

Don’t delay. 

You don’t need any more information. You don’t need to start tomorrow or wait until Monday or “once I …”. Just start. Now.

Best-selling author, John Grisham, didn’t know much about writing novels or storytelling or where to begin. He was a lawyer, not a writer. But he had some vision for something he wanted to do. 

So before he could spend hours researching it online, he just started:

Now Grisham has published 50 consecutive best-sellers. It all started with motivation “for all of the right reasons.”

The strategy could work in our lives. It doesn’t have to be perfect, especially if it comes from the right place.

You don’t need to plan out all 9 innings. You just need to step up to the plate and keep coming up to hit. 

The planning and analyzing and researching is really just you looking for a way to guarantee success. And that’s impossible — even more so if you don’t start.

Start today.

(Life Hack: Whenever you want to change something significant or start a meaningful goal, pretend it’s the 80s and there’s no internet. Just start. Research and study as you go if you want, but get started first.)

Show up every day.

Most diets don’t work.

Because you aren’t changing your behavior — you’re just pretending for some time, knowing in the back of your head, that you can go back to the old way of eating at any point.

If you want to create progress in life, you can’t avoid the inevitable fortune that unfolds through consistency: Compounding.

Your reinvention will require the compounding to add up through time. 

Not perfection. Consistency.

“The days can be easy if the years are consistent,” writes James Clear, “You can write a book or get in shape or code a piece of software in 30 minutes per day. But the key is you can't miss a bunch of days.”

Consistency in anything for 6 months will add up. It might seem like you’re going nowhere in the day-to-day grind of life. But you are and you can’t lose confidence in that.

(Pro tip: Focus on what’s achievable and sustainable here. If you want to get in shape, don’t start with daily CrossFit WODs. Start with a daily walk that you refuse to miss. Add on gradually.)

It’s Not as Hard As You’re Making It

I don’t think it’s unusual for people to be filled with doubt and uncertainty when we are making real changes in our lives.

But when you sit down and get to the root of most people’s inability to make the change desired, it’s not as complicated as we make it. It’s not easy, but it’s simple.

We simply aren’t executing.

Let’s get out of our heads. Let’s get focused. Let’s do what it takes to become who we want to be.