Nomad 365 Club: Healthy Habits
Refinement & Discipline
“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit.”
— Aristotle
If I could remove all doubt from your mind for two minutes and ask you to think about your dream achievement, what would it be? What do you think it would take from you to achieve it? Would one action be enough for it to materialize, or would it take a longer-term sacrifice?
When I first transitioned from being a fan of music artists to desiring to participate and become like the artists I admired so much, something changed within me. As I'd come home from school, drop my book bag, and turn on the TV to catch today's top 10 music videos on 106 & Park or the latest music award show, I knew that to BE the artist on the other side of the screen, I would have to work to get there. The talent could be within me, but I would have to embody the elite artist it would take to reach that level of professionalism, and I'd have to make it a consistent habit to create art that resonated on a global scale. I fell in love with writing and recording music. I did it just about every day for over a decade. And I got good at it. Some may say better than good at times, and I can do it efficiently.
I grew up in the height of hip hop's blog era, before everyone and their mother had a camera phone and a microphone. The internet was an accessible platform for artists who took the craft seriously to share their music. Coming up watching artists like Wiz Khalifa, Curren$y, and Mac Miller, I admired their independent approach that stood just left of the mainstream revolving door of artists. I knew as a late teenager that I wanted to be an independent artist before I really even knew what that title required.
The road of the independent artist is not easy. When you work toward anything independently, the brunt of the work falls back on you; creatively and professionally. I'd have to build the daily habits to back up this route toward greater levels in the music business. I couldn't write one song, do one show, or make one video and expect to become famous and in demand. I'd have to create a sustainable process that got me closer, one step at a time.
We've all witnessed a more modern version of this mentality and level of execution through the late Nipsey Hussle who was an artist who started with independent mixtapes, grew locally, learned from the major label system, and then built an independent empire through the fitting Marathon brand, which now lives on beyond Nipsey himself through music, clothing, and even the food industry with Marathon Burger. Nipsey's journey is well documented, and it shows his process of decision-making, his painstaking work ethic, and his tendency to bet on himself even when facing obstacles.
No matter what you're working toward, grand or micro, it's imperative that you don't just have the motivation or belief in the achievement. You have to build sustainable, healthy habits to progress toward it, and to sustain it once you get it. If you want to eat better, you have to start creating habits that reinforce that goal: meal prep, or set boundaries around the food and drinks you know aren't healthy for you. If you want more sleep at night, it's wise to create a nightly routine that winds you down rather than keeps your mind and body alert. Such as a stricter bedtime, putting your phone down before you lie down, finding things that calm you, and immersing yourself in an environment built for rest. If you want to be more social, you have to get in the habit of researching things to do on a consistent basis, or join a social group and commit to showing up. The list goes on, but you get the point.
“ Motivation is what gets you started. Habit is what keeps you going. ”
Now that we've done the work of building clarity and presence, this month is about refinement and discipline. We’re taking a real audit of what you say you want to achieve, the type of person you state you are or wish to be, and what your habits are actually producing in your life. Are your daily habits and rituals reinforcing the life you wish to live, the person you desire to be? Or are you living in contradiction to where you want to go? Clarity shows you the direction. Discipline is what closes the gap between where you are and where you say you're headed.
That's the work ahead of us this month: not just noticing the gap, but making the intentional adjustments to close it. To make that real, and not just theoretical, we're going to put it into practice together as a group, we'll take on a shared fast or challenge, something with enough friction to reveal exactly how strong our habits really are. Discipline is easy to talk about in the abstract; it shows itself in the moment you want to quit and don't.
Napoleon Hill said it best: "When you develop a positive habit, the habit develops you. Your life is the result of the habits you've formed." What habits have you formed? What habits need refining? When you live in a habitual state that reinforces the life you wish to live, that life becomes your reality.