This week I met a friend.

He told me "how did you lose so much weight"?

I told him —"I started working out, eating clean and being aware of what I put in my mouth".

He told me "What?, you must've certainly have some kind of secret".

I knew he wasn't go to make it when he said this.

This mentality is common.

Expecting quick results and quick fixes to problems that require years action.

I was overweight 3 years ago. I hit over 90kg.I didn't like the way I looked

I didn't magically lose weight. I run 3x a week, worked out 5x a week and took notice of what my diet is about.

It was painful. My knees were hurting, calves overworked but I pushed through anyways.

But I know you feel this as well.

You want better habits but expect one big action to fix your life.

You think small steps like one pushup are pointless that they "won't work" or "aren't realistic".

You're stuck chasing quick results instead of building small actionable steps.

I know because I was that guy too. I searched for months how to lose weight in under 2 weeks. Get abs under a month. And achieve a 10/10 physique in 3 months.

This mindset is killing your progress.

Every time you skip small habits thinking they aren't realistic or they're too small and won't lead to results, you're choosing to become the undisciplined version of yourself. The fat and ugly one.

Dismissing consistency for intensity. Rejecting the fundamentals will make you quit. You'll crash, quit and fail.

Then you'll complain thinking "this isn't working out".

People like to say big action equals big results. WRONG.

Growth is slow and messy. You will hit plateaus and you'll need a lot of patience.

I've been there.

I meditated for months and didn't see results. I worked out for a year and my body barely improved.

I felt like a failure but I stuck.

I thought if I keep this up, gradually results will show. And I was right.

Quick fixes didn't save me. Every time I would want quick results —it always lead to nowhere.

I started with 1 minute of meditation and 5 minutes of exercise. I journaled for 1 sentence only.

I set clear goals and tried different things when I knew I could do more.

By year 3 here I am. My mind and body aligned. Tough and consistent.

If you want to do the same, then read the rest of this letter. I'll tell you exactly how I stuck to doing good habits, what I did to make progress and different good habits you should implement.

But first let's talk about the 6 mindset traps people fall into.

1) NPC mindset: Being sub-human.

The best gift you can ever give to yourself is to build a strong mentality.

You must believe that you are meant for more and that settling for less is not the answer.

The way most people work is not applicable to yourself.

Most people do not have value. They don't even respect themselves.

They allow disrespect to happen, tolerate bad behavior because they're friends and gaslight that they're alright even though deep down it's damaging their self-esteem.

You must become indifferent.

By now if you've read at least 4 letters from The Improvement Letter your perspective would've have shifted a bit.

You're now aware of how most people just exist and don't live.

Most people live miserably. Following the traditional path. Being loyal to a boss who would fire you if they had better options. Friends with low quality people who always vent about their problems. And having no purpose in life always feeling lost.

If reading that sentence hurt you, that's a good sign. That means inside you —you have a fire that wants more. Good. Keep it that way.

Sub-humans are common. You see them complain about their miserable state how they'll change and improve their life and sh*t on other people who are doing better but a year or 2 they're still the same.

Sub-human behavior is everywhere.

Only so few have the drive and the ambition to do great things. Most get destroyed by their parents and peers.

I can talk about this for hours but let's keep it short.

2) Fear of failure: Another perspective

Found this comment. It's a very real testament to why most people amount to nothing.

In the last letter I talked about fear of failure but I'll give it another perspective this time.

The clear reason why people fear failure is the "fear of criticism". People dislike knowing they were wrong and hate being corrected.

It's very uncomfortable to be criticized about something you had dreams about.

It's painful to fail a goal you wanted to achieve. It's hard to keep going when everyone around you says "It won't work" or that "that's unrealistic" and people internalize that even though it's not real yet.

Your mind convincing you that you've already failed is stupid.

Other thing is most people are so ego invested to the point they would rather self-destruct than to correct their ways that could've lead to a better future.

There are endless egotistical people. They have no shortage. And most of them fail by not trying.

Grand dreams and vision keep playing in their fantasy. Never made into reality.

It's sad realizing this is common.

If you are a parent reading this, make sure to protect your child's innate confidence.

You will not notice it, but everyone of us had natural confidence.

We would show our parents what we draw, show to our teachers how we wrote our name correctly and show that we can do things.

The problem with this is negative reinforcement.

So many people think it's alright to blatantly destroy a child's perspective.

Childhood is the most crucial aspect of success. It's true that childhood trauma results to undying resolve to succeed sometimes (Like the case of David Goggin's) but it's rare.

Much better is to protect your child's vision and dreams.

Most adults are insecure.

If they see a child can outshine them —be sure to know they will have intent to destroy it.

Jealousy is a big emotion. That little thing you feel inside can destroy someone's future and dreams.

3) Ambitious yet fearful.

Many people suffer from lack of action.

Because they fear.

• Failure

• Criticism

• Starting from zero

I'm repeating myself here but listen.

Many dumb but ambitious people become successful.

Do you know why? They don't questions whether they'll make it or not.

They just believe they can. And when problems come —they adapt.

But most people lack this. I see people that are incredibly intelligent yet fearful.

Afraid of being seen a loser. Afraid of judgement from people who wouldn't care about them if they died.

Enough potential to be a ruler but died as a peasant.

I know this hurts but you probably are one. If not you would not be reading this newsletter. But that's a good thing.

Since you're now aware of it.

Most people die never knowing their potential. They keep replaying their small achievements to numb their inners selves who is saying "you know you can do more".

Then there's another one. Those who always complain but never take action.

4) Victim Mentality: Always complaining never taking responsibility.

This happens when you've given up on yourself without realizing it.

As I've said - a lot of people just exist. And when they exist their existence is miserable.

And when a person's existence is miserable —what they do, what they say and the results they get is also miserable.

Not because the universe hates them. But because they have believed things will never get better.

Well they aren't hard to know.

You can easily spot them.

• Not apologizing for a mistake.

• Making the situation worse by pointing fingers.

• Never taking responsibility for future consequences.

They are whiners. Never offering a solution but always causing problems.

They intensify problems by gossiping, pointing fingers and blaming someone else for their fault.

No they are not venting. A person that is venting will not complain.

He/she will talk about the emotions he/she is feeling. Most people fail to understand this.

Better to leave them alone or you become a collateral damage.

5) Expecting quick results.

Oh boy this one's the best so far. Because everyone suffers from this even me.

Remember when I said that I failed my first newsletter?

I expected my first article to go viral. I thought that would get me 100 subscribers first (no I'm not exaggerating, this was my real thoughts).

I thought around 3 months I'd hit 10k subscribers. By one year I would have 100k subscribers.

Because I read about how a creator grew to 400k subscribers.

How ironic.

But this is the reality we live in. Results come late.

Very late if you count in times of years.

But that's how it works. A worthy goal does not take months to complete. It takes years.

Months are merely progress checkers. To see if you are going in the right direction or not.

Measurement is a must. That's how you know if the path you are walking on is right. But not everything can be measured.

Success has no measurement. That's why it's a paradoxical metric.

You could be writing for a year straight and have no subscribers and then suddenly become viral in a random weekend.

You will hit plateaus, boredom, failure and set backs.

To grow —you need to adapt.

You will have to dissect why it's not working. Then create a new strategy that will allow you to solve the current problem.

It's key.

6) Not planning for failures.

This is exhausting but worth it.

Every time you face a setback you must mentally visualize how you are going to solve the problem you face.

This sounds common advice but most fail to follow. Causing them immense stress and anxiety.

As I'm writing this letter —I just finished taking care of some problems.

Water leaking out, roof not being sealed properly etc..

I knew this would happen so I prepared tools. I bought roof tapes, a sealer and gloves.

Sounds irrelevant but you should know this truth.

Whatever you do you are going to face some kind of failure. Be it big or small.

And it's going to cause you a lot of stress especially if you didn't see it coming.

Train your mind to become comfortable with problems. You will build mental toughness in the process.

Eyes will get sharper and you will develop the skill of being witty.

Positive and negative future consequences: Your habits either make you — or Break you.

Now that you've learned about the psychological aspect of why most people stay stuck.

Let's now talk about how you can build good habits. I went a bit astray in the first part but those are necessary fundamentals to know.

If you are serious about improving in life - what you need is a system of good habits.

Where you can grow automatically by doing habits that nurture your mind, body and soul.

Sounds cringe but listen.

In the next 10 years you will be the same person if nothing changes. Worse you will end up more depressed, fat and lazy.

If you don't want that to happen then listen.

• A good habit is a repetitive behavior that is initially deemed boring by the mind at the first phase of exposure but gradually as the person doing the said behavior sees the improvement —it becomes an addiction (in a good way).

• A bad habit on the other hand is the opposite. A negative reinforced behavior due to influence, peers or media. You feel good right now but after a month, a year or a decade it compounds. Suddenly you have cancer, lung damage and a mentally capped brain.

It's scary how many people are willingly k*lling themselves without realizing it.

Avoid that kind of future. Build a better you instead.

How to build and stick to doing good habits.

The following is an action step you can follow to gradually build yourself discipline.

I've talked 2 times about how to overcome laziness. But this time I'll introduce another strategy.

1) Bare minimum strategy: Making the bar so low it's cringe to make excuses

I see a lot of people start habits the wrong way.

They meditate for an hour, do 100 push ups in one go and give up the next week.

Bro you don't need to do a lot of things at once.

You just have to start.

Turn 1 hour of meditation into 1 minute. Turn 100 push ups into 10 pushups.

The goal is to stay in the game and do it for the rest of your life.

This is not some kind of game you have to win. There's no finish line to cross.

You do this everyday until you die.

Stop trying to make up for the lost time you wasted by trying to get the fastest way of getting results. It doesn't work.

I started with 1 minute of meditation. I worked out for 5 minutes a day only. I journaled with 1 sentence only.

I did this and stuck. Then I added more the following weeks.

1 minute turned into 3 minutes. 5 minutes turned into 10 minutes.

3 years later I meditate for 20 minutes daily. Work out at least 1 hour 6 times a week.

You can't skip stages. You have to go through it one by one. If you don't then your current self will continue to suffer.

2) Goal: Road Map for clarity.

You must have an aim in life.

Goals give you direction. Without a goal you will be lost. You'll be like a ship just floating around in the sea waiting to get ship wrecked.

You won't know what to do or pursue what you deem to be worthy.

If you don't know how to set goals read this other letter I have written before. Why You’re Lazy And How To Fix It.

In the last part I wrote how you can dissect your goals into daily, weekly, monthly and yearly goals (No need to read the letter at one go. Read it daily bit by bit. 10 minutes a day is enough).

3) Expect boredom.

Doing the same thing again and again can get boring quickly.

To make sure you don't get bored and retain the fire inside you. Continue to consume content that aligns with the life you want.

This kind of programming as influence to your subconscious mind is necessary.

Add changes or new variations to your habits as you progress. Either make it harder or easier.

It's up to you. But stick to your habits either way.

Boredom teaches you patience. That's also where creativity thrives. If you always feel bored —that's probably because you're not doing anything that sparks fire inside you.

4) Patience: Never expect quick results

I talked about this above in the 6 mental traps but I'll repeat it again because of how easy it is to forget this lesson.

I see a lot of people complain how doing good habits don't work for them.

They try it for 3 days and quit. Because "I don't feel like anything has changed".

The first 1-3 months is the hardest.

Because progress will not be visible. It will be underneath and it's easy to be discouraged when that happens.

You will struggle and you will want to quit. But the process stays the same.

Growth comes after not immediately. You'll have to toughen it out and be patient.

You'll need to stick to your habits or miss the benefits by quitting.

Action Plan: Putting this all together

Here's a simple framework you can follow to start building good habits

• Pick 1 good habit for your body, soul and mind. For the body it can be body building, cardio, martial arts, yoga etc. For the soul I highly recommend meditation and praying. For your mind it's journaling, meditation (repeat), reading, writing (practical, fiction, creative, essay) basically anything that gets your mind to think.

• Follow the bare minimum strategy. Do your best to not let your lower self win and say you'll read 100 books this month or do 1 hour of meditation starting tomorrow. It never works Start small.

• Consume content online. Yes, keep consuming content that's educational (like this letter). Continue to rewire the way your subconscious works by consuming non-fiction and practical knowledge.

• Allow guilty time. Like 30 minutes of scrolling, 1 movie this week, or 3 episode to watch for the day. No matter what you do —you'll never be perfect. There will be a time where you will mess up. Instead of letting that happen on accident and hate yourself for it. Schedule it and (own your faults).

This was long.

I hope this letter helps you out.

I realized the past discipline articles I've wrote were for medium-intermediate disciplined people.

This one is for complete beginners. And even if you're not —there's a lot you can learn from making the foundations stronger (good habits).

Thanks for reading and see you next week.

-Noat

PS: Share this to some friends if you found this weeks letter useful.

P. PS: What did you like about this weeks letter the most? (Reply below I’ll respond.