How to stay motivated and not lose focus?

[James D]

Guys,

I want to become a master in a field and I'm following Chase's article on mastery. My question is how do you stick to it till the end without losing focus? This is my biggest sticking point: I lose focus easily. When I think of the number of hours I lost not working on my skill when I was perfectly able to, I realize that I could have achieved mastery long time ago.

Things such as TV, movies, reading, I guess contributes to shifting the focus. Should I cut them out and focus only on my skill?
Does becoming a master imply giving up a normal life to one of discipline?

And also, it often happens that I lose motivation when I do not see any immediate results- How do these people of exception stay motivated and stick religiously to the building of their skill?

Any insights would be appreciated and if any of you has experience what it took to reach mastery in terms of sacrifices, please share them!

JD

 

[readjusting]

And also, it often happens that I lose motivation when I do not see any immediate results- How do these people of exception stay motivated and stick religiously to the building of their skill?

It's much more simple than you think.
I operate by a to-do list. Every time I want to do something, I add a task to the list, then at the later time, I draw that task out and do it.

How to stay motivated? No one ever stay motivated all the time. I don't stay motivated all the time. But thanks to the to-do list, I do things even when I feel no motivation whatsoever.

Still you do need some motivation, or inner game. This I honestly think, you either have it or don't have it.
But to-do list will at least help somewhat.

 

[Mr.Rob]

Does becoming a master imply giving up a normal life to one of discipline?

Your life and behaviors should be abnormal in comparison to normal people working on the same skill set. You should put more time into the skill, spend more time breaking down your performance in painful detail, spend more time actually practicing over and over and over what you suck at until you get it right (google "deliberate practice"), and all the activities you do in your day to day life should add to your success of becoming a master (i.e. you stay in shape and eat healthy so you have more mental/physical stamina, you stop watching/reading/listening to unproductive material, you cut out friends that are lame and unmotivated, you surround yourself with experts and winners, you learn how to meditate and get present to the moment so you can increase your reaction time).

And also, it often happens that I lose motivation when I do not see any immediate results- How do these people of exception stay motivated and stick religiously to the building of their skill?

1. Process orientation instead of results orientation (how well did I execute the process? vs. how much results did I get?)
2. Strong faith that the process will bring results as you improve. (Everyone is cut from the same cloth. If one man can do it so can you)
3. Aiming for small tiny results that lead up to the main result that you're after (i.e. in pickup - Main result = sex; Smaller more manageable result = have a conversation that lasts over 10 minutes; Find out what her personal motivations are for entering her field (deep diving); Ask every girl I approach to move with me)

My question is how do you stick to it till the end without losing focus? This is my biggest sticking point: I lose focus easily. When I think of the number of hours I lost not working on my skill when I was perfectly able to, I realize that I could have achieved mastery long time ago.

You just have to want it bad enough to put in the painful amount of work required. A very simple important skill to have that so many people lack is the ability to apply full uninterrupted focus on a task for extended periods of time until it is completed.

This discipline muscle is something you build overtime.

When I took business calculus I didn't know how to do algebra (the precursor skill to calculus) so I had to teach myself algebra from scratch while simultaneously taking 5 other classes, working on a business venture (that failed halfway through the semester), and also dedicating quite a bit of time to going out to meet women. I remember Mon-Fri. I'd be standing at the living room table already working on math problems before my roommates left to go to their 9-5 jobs and I'd still be standing in the same exact spot when they got home from work (having breaked only 30 minutes for lunch and a few deep breathing sessions) and I'd still be doing math by the time they cooked dinner and watching TV before I quit. I got an A+ in business calculus without being able to do hardly a lick of algebra prior to the class (I was so far behind because I cheated my way through high school math classes). My roommates thought I was a sociopath (I'm not) because of my work ethic.

If you want to get abnormal results in life you have to be willing to engage in abnormal behavior. You have to realize that there's probably 100,000 - 1,000,000 working HARD to achieve the same goal as you right now and that every time you pussy out and go watch TV or masturbate or whatever that your just getting closer to being another average dude with nothing special going on to just blow through life like the wind blowing a dead leaf, meanwhile you give up the spot you could've had to your competition that wants it more is now literally living your dreams... are you willing to give your dreams up to some chode that didn't quit when it hurt a little? Or are you going to crush your competitions face in the mud and watch them helplessly squirm as you proceed to then live their dreams, seduce their women, and spend their money? That's what goes through my head at least.

Lastly I always got a lot out of "The Truth About Success" series that RSDTyler put out years ago: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JRVNQonYdNU

Out of curiosity what skill do you have ambitions to master?

-Rob

 

[James D]

Your life and behaviors should be abnormal in comparison to normal people working on the same skill set. You should put more time into the skill, spend more time breaking down your performance in painful detail, spend more time actually practicing over and over and over what you suck at until you get it right (google "deliberate practice"), and all the activities you do in your day to day life should add to your success of becoming a master (i.e. you stay in shape and eat healthy so you have more mental/physical stamina, you stop watching/reading/listening to unproductive material, you cut out friends that are lame and unmotivated, you surround yourself with experts and winners, you learn how to meditate and get present to the moment so you can increase your reaction time).

You just have to want it bad enough to put in the painful amount of work required. A very simple important skill to have that so many people lack is the ability to apply full uninterrupted focus on a task for extended periods of time until it is completed.

This discipline muscle is something you build overtime.


If you want to get abnormal results in life you have to be willing to engage in abnormal behavior. You have to realize that there's probably 100,000 - 1,000,000 working HARD to achieve the same goal as you right now and that every time you pussy out and go watch TV or masturbate or whatever that your just getting closer to being another average dude with nothing special going on to just blow through life like the wind blowing a dead leaf, meanwhile you give up the spot you could've had to your competition that wants it more is now literally living your dreams... are you willing to give your dreams up to some chode that didn't quit when it hurt a little? Or are you going to crush your competitions face in the mud and watch them helplessly squirm as you proceed to then live their dreams, seduce their women, and spend their money? That's what goes through my head at least.

Lastly I always got a lot out of "The Truth About Success" series that RSDTyler put out years ago: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JRVNQonYdNU

Out of curiosity what skill do you have ambitions to master?

-Rob

Wow, this was incredible! Thank you so much for this excellent reply. I love it when you say that abnormal results require engaging into abnormal behavior. I definitely want to rise above the crowd.
As for which skills I want to master, its my academic subjects. I have topped my school for the past 3 consecutive years but now I am up to about +500,000 students- there are scholarships, honor, prestige involved. I want to be number one.

Thank you for your advice and cheers!

James D

 

[Parkour]

Rob’s post is fantastic!
I’ll add a couple of thoughts that more or less complement his sentiment.
Inspired Motivation is a great starter, but habit is a finisher because it doesn’t care about your feelings. - microhabits can be good momentum builders
Cultivating presence is critical to changing habits. - meditation is a good starting point
Toughness building can be self reinforcing. - try getting comfortable with something that is currently uncomfortable
Motivational content consumption, journaling/planning, asking for advice like this can be a thematic habit that will benefit from reinforcement.
I’ve heard that as much as 80% of what we do or think is subconsciously automated by our past experiences and related neural pathways. Changing them often requires using the more conscious 20% to lay down new paths to follow. This ratio improves with more presence.

 

[Mr.Rob]

Thank you so much for this excellent reply.

Sure thing. Glad it helped chief.