How To Win (A New Way To Embrace The Grind)
Want to win at life? If so, I would like to present to you a completely different way of thinking. If you implement this today, you will stand out so far from the crowd that your life will be unrecognizable to the masses.
Tai Lopez Sep 02, 2014
Players First, Coaching from the Inside Out Book by John Calipari

"Players First" by John Calipari is Today's Book-Of-The-Day. It reminded me of this new perspective I want to share with you.
 

First, an assumption that I’m making.

 

Hopefully you agree, because this email hinges on the idea that your life consists of opposing forces:

 

1. Other humans

 

2. Non-humans (bacteria inside your stomach, mosquitos, viruses...)

 

3. Laws of nature (gravity, Newton's laws, weather...)

 

All of these, each day, are acting upon your life.

 

And I call this, for the sake of conversation, ‘the grind.’

 

Last night I was with a group of five friends going to see the movie, "November Man."

 

One of my buddies said, “Imagine if you could snap your fingers and there was no more struggle. No more bills. No more stress.”

 

He was saying that as if it was some sort of ultimate achievement for his life.

 

He isn't the only one with this mindset. This is the dominant way of thinking in modern society.

 

The luxury/vacation outlook.

 

Think about how your friends talk about work. In their minds, what’s the greatest thing they can achieve?  Answer: Lots of vacation time. Maybe a bonus.

 

Why do most people want to make a lot of money - so they can make a big impact on civilization?

 

Nope.

 

They want money to buy shoes, flat screen TVs, and trips to lay out on a beach resort in the Bahamas.

 

Leisure and convenience.

 

But, is this really the way to look at life if you want the Good Life?

 

I would propose it’s not.

 

Your life is more like sports - a basketball game.
 

John Calipari


John Calipari, the famous coach talks about how he got good at the sport:

 

"Weekends, holidays, just about every chance I got I was in that gym working on my game. I’d take shots from different parts of the floor, practice foul shots, work on my ball handling. I wrote down everything I did.

 

I tell my guys now: 'You’ve got to love the grind.' That’s something they probably hear from me more than anything else.

 

You’ve got to love the grind.

Embrace the work.

Embrace the sweat.

Embrace the pain.

 

And keep track of it all, because it keeps you honest. You’ve got to chart a workout and chart your shots. If there’s not something measurable, it’s not real.

 

You say to yourself, 'I’m taking five hundred shots before I leave this gym, and I’m doing it every day.' Count them up and write down how many you made.

 

And if you miss a day, write that down too, so you can look back on that and feel bad about it. You didn’t hit a big foul shot at the end of the game? You clanked a jumper off the back rim that would’ve tied the game? Look in your workout book. Maybe that’s because of the days you slacked off."

 

I can't put it any better than that.

 

Look at it kind of mathematically. I​n the 67 Steps program I talk about Descartes and how he said “The only thing we can really know is math”

 

So, let’s quantify this by saying:

 

If life equals competition, struggle, and grind, then if you eliminate competition, struggle, and grind in your life, you’ve eliminated YOUR life.

 

Simple algebra.

 

If A = B...

 

Then  B = A...

 

You can say this is a bit of a stretch. I don’t think it is. Just look around you.

 

Why do you think great people who make a billion dollars keep working?

 

They probably tried to stop grinding but then they felt the pull, the pang of being of being a little closer to meaninglessness.

 

They wanted to feel alive so they jumped back into the grind - showed up at the office again.

 

Your life is SUPPOSED to have some financial pressures, broken hearts, accidents, sickness, job loss, insecurity, and sleepless nights.

 

Because there will be a day when all these stop - when you will no longer feel this pressure. And you know when that day will be?

 

The day you die.

 

And as you get older and approach that day, you will look back and think, “Wow, I remember when I had to get out of bed and struggle, and fight my way through the day. I wish I could feel alive like that again. I would give everything, all my money, to be back  - young and competing for life again."

 

You see, the new approach to life is to stop trying to remove the struggle - the struggle is life.

 

Don’t remove life.

 

As the Nobel peace prize winning Elie Wiesel says, "Ubakharta bakhaim - You shall choose life and the living."

 

Now, of course you should become more efficient in what you do.

 

You should save more money, invest more, grow your nest egg.

 

Eat better. Workout more.

 

Date and marry someone amazing.

 

I don't mean struggle due to foolish decisions.

 

This is a more broad, overarching principle.

 

Love your life.

 

Perfect your life.

 

Beautify your life.

 

Don’t try to remove all the obstacles; they make you alive, they make you strong.

 

As Chief Tecumseh said in his poem, “So live your life that the fear of death can never enter your life... Seek to make your life long, and its purpose in its service to your people.”

 

That’s your mission. Be of service.


If you change your thinking about life - you will be find more health, more wealth, more love, and more contentedness.

 

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