Reddit mentions of Attitude Is Everything: Change Your Attitude... Change Your Life!

Hah no problem. Updated a few things, if you want to copy it again lol. A couple additional notes:

1. A large part of success is being able to operate without excitement. What I mean by that is, that original excitement that got you into whatever it is you're working on - when you first start a project, like saying playing guitar, you're excited, you're motivated, you want to do it, you're pumped up about it. But three months into it, maybe you've stayed up late the night before & you're tired that day and you don't really feel like practicing and you're not feeling that live, electric connection to the original idea you committed to in that moment. Being able to push through that feeling of aversion & do the specific action required today, right now, anyway is a huge key to success because if you can execute those individual tasks even when you're not feeling it, the task will get done, and you will make progress. Two things to keep in mind here are (1) that good intentions don't change the facts - either you executed the task or you didn't, and (2) there's a great quote from the classic sci-fi novel "Dune" by Frank Herbert, where the weapons master Gurney pushes the prince to practice fighting and says he's not in the mood, to which Gurney replies, "What has mood to do with it? You fight when the necessity arises—no matter the mood! Mood's a thing for cattle or making love or playing the baliset. It's not for fighting." Caving to our emotions & quitting mentally before we even start a task is something that everyone does in their lives. Learning how to push through that feeling of aversion, to pass over that speedbump, is what gets stuff done, even when you don't "feel" like it. Our emotions ebb & flow based on so many factors - did you get enough sleep last night, did you have a good breakfast, did your girlfriend just dump you & break your heart, there's a million reasons not to do stuff - but the bottom line is either you got it done or you didn't. So being able to operate without that original feeling of excitement is a huge key to making progress. It's also important to realize that those feelings are temporary - maybe you don't feel it today, maybe you're in a depressed funk for months & months, but again, either your stuff gets done or it doesn't, and when you do get feeling better, you'll either have made progress...or not. The other temporary feeling is that initial feeling of aversion (which is a catch-all word for you don't wanna do it, you don't feel like doing it, it's too hard, whatever) - I imagine it as the project testing me, as a rite of passage to see if I still really want to accomplish what I want to accomplish. And it's almost always a temporary speedbump, because within a few minutes, your brain has shifted gears & accepted that you're going to do whatever the task is & you kind of get into the flow. At least, that's how exercise works for me, as I'm kind of a low-energy person & not naturally athletic, but I recognize that exercise is good for both my health & my productivity, and I want the outcome from that, so I have to pretty much push myself on a daily basis to do it because I reaaaaaaaallllly don't feel like doing it. But I do it, I push through it, and then it's over & I can get on with neffing on reddit or doing whatever else I want to do, you know?
   
2. I forgot to mention attitude. A good introductory book on this is "Attitude is Everything" by Jeff Keller. Basically, when you're faced with doing a task, you bring two things to the table: your energy, and your attitude. When you're low energy, pretty much everything aside from slumping in front of the TV or the computer feels like work. When you feel good, most things are pretty easy. Likewise, the attitude we have determines, to a large extent, how we feel about doing the task. Of course, when you feel good, it's easy to have a good attitude, but it's also important to figure out how to change how you feel emotionally when you're not feeling physically good. We mostly operate off reactionary emotions, and that dictates how we feel about doing things both now & in the future; being proactive about how we want to feel about something is a powerful tool for increasing our enjoyment of whatever it is we're working on. That doesn't mean you need to be a chipper, high-energy person or anything, but you don't have to be Eeyore about things either, y'know?
   
   So the basic structure that we have to deal with is:
   
   
3. What we want
   
4. The haze
   
5. The specific action that we have to do, right now, in the moment
   
   Based on that 3-stage structure, what has helped me to make things happen on a consistent basis is:
   
   
6. Specifically define what I want
   
7. Use GTD to cut through that life-management haze of having to track what I want to do, break it down into individual actions, and create reminders of those actions so that my progress doesn't fall off the map over time
   
8. Have high energy & a good attitude so that those individual daily tasks are enjoyable, instead of drudgery - and remind myself to push through the aversion & get it done anyway, per my commitment to the project, when I'm not feeling it
   
   Another important thing to note is the mode you're in. Reading this stuff gets me excited, that's what I love about self-help & productivity & lifehacker type of stuff, it gets me plugged in & pumped up & thinking about stuff & excited about stuff. But then we go back to our normal, default operating mode the next day, and things become chores again. Understanding all of the things in the previous posts & realizing that life is about as much fun as you make it & knowing that you need some planning & reminders of next-actions and stuff gives you a perspective on those kind of invisible gears that makes life go is important because you'll still be able to make progress even when you go back to your normal line of thinking, once the excitement of discussing productivity tricks & tools wears off.