Before you read today’s letter.

I apparently forgot to change the title of the previous letter.

It ended up with a title of: :”How to Unf*ck your Laziness (And Why)” with a subtitle of: “Here’s how you deal with assholes” —yeah pretty weird. I apologize for that.

I received funny replies—others straight up being ignorant (mean comments) and others who recognized the mistake and still appreciated it.

It made me remember how I’ve been sending letters with the correct title for the last few months and yet one mistake was enough to spark a negative reaction.

Humans truly focus on what’s wrong instead of what’s right. Many compliments turned into harsh criticism. This is why most people stay average.

However, I commend those who still appreciated the letter. You’re mature enough to realize the mistake and understand it. You have it. Many people lack the skill of perception.

You can literally badmouth someone—make up stories about how “X” person insulted “Y” person and have them fight without them confirming if what was being said to them is true or not. Such is life.

I will write a letter about this in the future so make sure to look out for it. The Improvement Letter is always blunt. So if you don’t like what I say you can unsubscribe below.

I’ll make sure to also send out the letters in their correct title from now on.

Let’s start

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Many of you have already written down your new years resolution. But I bet most of you will quit in February.

What makes you stick to your commitment is not promises nor words. It’s taking an oath to yourself. A symbol of ritual that you are no longer going back.

When I started losing weight - I watched weight loss transformation everyday at the same time every single day.

I wrote down a big goal in paper: “LOSE 10KG THIS YEAR” and turned it into my personal oath. I brain washed myself that I could lose weight.

Oath taking is not only for knights. It’s also for everyone. The degree of how much you are willing to change - comes from the degree of risks you are willing to take.

Just like how you propose to your wife/husband to commit to each other until the day you die - you should also do something that symbolizes your desire to change.

And here’s how you do it properly.

If you’re fat, throw away all the junk food you have

You throwing away food is not good. But you throwing away junk food to stop yourself from getting fatter is good.

Although I do not recommend wasting food - the act of throwing away junk has a significant signal to your mind.

“I’m no longer unhealthy - I will no longer keep poisoning my body”.

Action makes us commit. Contracts make business men comply with their promises and fulfill the agreed partnership. Couples go on dates to make sure their partners feel loved.

If you want to change - you have to change the way you do things.

That means breaking patterns and beliefs.

Let me explain

Breaking Patterns: The act of rebellion

Look at the greats of the world. Did they follow rules? No

They broke it. They used it. They bent it.

You should do the same. If you want to truly commit and change - you got to rebel from your past self.

• If you struggle with stress eating - rebel by eating cucumber.

• If you struggle with watching porn - rebel by cold approaching girls.

• If you struggle with overthinking - rebel by writing down your thoughts.

The psychology is simple: Personal growth comes from rebelling against your lower self.

Take it from someone who used to devour 5-10 desserts in one go.

The only way I stopped eating so many sweets at once - was by rebelling against my

desires.

• I ate vegetables when I didn’t want to.

• I ate apples when I didn’t want to.

• I ate spinach when I didn’t want to.

The act of rebellion creates change. It comes from breaking habits and patterns.

When revolutions happen in our society - change is always inevitable.

If you want to experience the same not with wars but with personal growth - start by rebelling against your personal desires.

Overcoming Moats; Why challenges are rewarding

When you want something - you want it with a reward. Something that makes you say “worth it”.

Why do you think men want to impress women? They do it out of female validation and need.

They want to score a girlfriend or wife. Men want love and intimacy. Men want lifelong partners. To have a family and raise kids.

The same goes to anything. Why do you think a fat person wants to lose weight?

• To feel better

• To look better

• To experience life better

Moats are challenges in life.

It comes with trials and tribulations along the way.

Just like the iconic scenario where the prince saves the princess from a castle.

Your life is exactly the same.

In order for the prince to save the princess. The prince must slay the dragon and cross the moat. After that - he owns the princess.

Losing weight is the same. Working out and staying on diet is crossing the moat. And staying consistent and working out even when you don’t want to (discipline) is slaying the dragon.

It’s a fancy way of saying: challenges come with reward.

The only difference is “how many of you are willing to suffer along the way”?

Most people won’t even dare look at the moat. They won’t even dare face the dragon and see if they can defeat it.

Life rewards the winners simply because winners are not afraid to lose. They aren’t afraid to take risks and get slayed in the process.

Not all who risk win, but all winners have taken risks.

Reward and Justification: Why action creates consistency.

When we work hard for something, our brain needs to justify that expenditure of energy.

That’s why getting things easily doesn’t work.

To avoid cognitive dissonance the discomfort of thinking “I worked hard for something worthless” we convince ourselves that what we earned must be valuable. Free things bypass this entire mental circuit.

Scarcity triggers our survival instincts and makes us treasure resources. When something comes freely and easily, our brain categorizes it as abundant, therefore replaceable, therefore not worth protecting or cherishing.

It’s why a handwritten letter means more than a text message, despite conveying the same information.

The absence of sacrifice removes emotional investment. Payment whether in money, time, or effort creates a psychological contract with ourselves.

We’ve given something up, so we’re motivated to extract value to balance that loss. Free and easy things to get create no such debt to reconcile.

This is why trust fund kids often struggle with motivation, why lottery winners frequently end up unhappy, and why the sandwich you made yourself somehow tastes better than the one someone handed you.

Our brains are wired to value the hunt as much as the prize.

That’s why if you want to stay consistent and use 2026 for the better - you need to commit.

This is where rewards come in.

Here’s how it works:

When you start losing weight, your body becomes a biological slot machine of rewards that keeps you pulling the lever:

• The mirror becomes your evidence. That first moment when you notice your face looks sharper, or your shirt hangs differently your brain floods with dopamine. Not just from seeing the change, but from the recognition that you caused this. Looking at yourself and realizing you caused change and growth is more addictive than any drugs.

• Physical comfort rewards hit constantly. Walking up stairs without getting tired delivers an immediate endorphin release. Your brain registers the absence of struggle as a win. Bending down to tie your shoes without your stomach getting in the way is another micro-hit of satisfaction. These small things that you notice keeps you wanting more.

• The feedback loop accelerates. Initial weight loss improves sleep quality, which regulates ghrelin and leptin (hunger hormones), making it easier to maintain deficit. Better sleep also means more energy for workouts, which releases BDNF (brain-derived neurotrophic factor), improving mood and motivation. Each reward makes the next behavior easier.

• That first “Have you lost weight?” comment triggers a massive oxytocin and serotonin release. Your brain marks this as a high-value outcome and drives you to seek more. I remember the first time a friend recognized that I had lose weight, I felt an immense happiness for my efforts and progress.

• The progress itself becomes the drug. Watching the scale number drop, even by 0.2 pounds, triggers the same neural pathways as winning money. This is why people become obsessed with daily weigh-ins despite knowing about water weight fluctuations.

• As your body becomes more efficient and carries less dead weight, you have more energy. More energy means you accomplish more daily tasks. Each completed task releases dopamine.

One good habit ends up in a big loop of healthy decisions..

Weight loss creates both immediate rewards (energy, mood, daily victories) and delayed rewards (appearance, health, longevity) simultaneously.

Your brain gets paid now AND later, making it one of the few behaviors that satisfies both your impulsive and rational decision-making systems.

This is why good habits are rewarding. And why some people are obsessed with optimizing their life quality.

Delayed Gratification

Delayed gratification and weight loss create a fascinating psychological paradox - you need delayed gratification to start, but immediate rewards to continue.

• The initial sacrifice programs value. When you choose the salad over pizza, your prefrontal cortex (executive control) overrides your limbic system (immediate pleasure). This creates what psychologists call “temporal discounting reversal” your brain starts valuing future rewards more highly because you sacrificed for them. The hunger you endure today makes tomorrow’s progress worth it..

• Delayed gratification builds reward sensitivity. When you consistently deny immediate pleasures, your dopamine receptors actually become more sensitive. That small drop on the scale hits harder for someone who’s been disciplined - than for someone who hasn’t earned it. You’ve been in a mild state of deprivation, so rewards register more intensely like how food tastes better when you’re hungry.

• The marshmallow effect. The famous Stanford experiment showed kids who could delay eating one marshmallow got two later usually ended up more successful in life. With weight loss, it’s more extreme, every meal you delay gratification on - is a commitment toward losing weight. You become someone who can wait, and that identity shift is permanent.

• Present pain validates future pleasure. The discomfort of hunger, the burn of exercise, the frustration of craving your brain makes your brain recognize all of this as investment. When results come, they feel “earned” precisely because of the delays you endured. Without the waiting, the weight loss would feel hollow and undeserved. Just like how people who take surgeries to lose weight end up getting fat the next year.

Delayed gratification makes immediate rewards more powerful. The person who can wait 6 months for visible abs enjoys every single morning shirt-off mirror look at the mirror more than someone who was always lean. They’ve trained their brain to amplify rewards through scarcity.

This is why crash diets fail, When you try to bypass the delay, which removes both the psychological investment and the neurological adaptation that makes success unsustainable.

If you don’t want to waste 2026 use the information I’ve told you above.

Remember to:

• Promise yourself an oath. Do something that symbolizes your promise to change. It can be anything.

• Remember moats and challenges. In order to get the princess (reward) you first have to slay the dragon and cross the moat (overcoming challenges)

• Acknowledge effort and results. When you feel down - remember the things you’ve been able to accomplish. It doesn’t matter how small or unworthy it looks. Just appreciate your action and get back on the loop.

This is no fancy article for you. There’s no grand plans for 2026 here. Just things you need to remember.

• Break habitual patterns

• Rebel by doing the opposite of what you want

• Delay gratification

• Repeat

Just straight up useful advice you can use to start your 2026 differently than 2025.

I will not share detailed plans in this letter. Those are for the next ones.

Good luck

See you next time,

-Noat

When you’re ready, check out:

• Live Intentionally: 90 Day Self-Improvement Program Program By Harsh Strongman. Over 10k+ sold. Get rid of your bad habits and addiction fast and build discipline in 90 days. A 90 day project which aims to help you control your urges, become more disciplined and replace bad habits with productive habits. I’ve specifically used the tactics described in the e-book in the past to help me work 12 hours everyday. 10k sold and over 400+ 5 star verified ratings.

• The Illimitable Men Audiobook (26.5 Hours of Narration) Learn how to become a top tier man that commands respect, understands women and never gets used by other people again. In this Audiobook you will learn how to play social games and win. “If you hate yourself or do not value yourself, it’s because you’ve not given yourself a reason to value yourself. We don’t just disrespect others who are low value, we disrespect ourselves for it too” a quote from the audiobook.