“Don’t stop when you are tired. Stop when you are done.” — David Goggins

“Don’t fight stress. Embrace it. Turn it on itself.” — Jocko Willink

Embrace the grind. There will be moments in your life where the workload and burden will seem to exceed your capacity and abilities.

I have a secret to tell you. You are nowhere near your limit, not even close.

What you are feeling is the discomfort that comes with doing hard things. This is natural. It is a signal. Your future mind and body will adapt. This is how you get stronger. Take a deep breath, ignore the distractions, and get back to work. Doubling your efforts now will have an outsized positive impact on your life and the opportunities awaiting you.

You live in a world that has created nearly infinite ways to succeed and utilize your talents, creativity, and potential. The future is full of incredible opportunities. However, success will not come to you, it requires persistence, discipline, and sweat. Or as Ann Landers once said, “Opportunities are usually disguised as hard work, so most people don’t recognize them.” You my sons, are not “most people.”

Just as there are infinite opportunities to succeed in life, there are also infinite ways for you to lose focus, get distracted, and fall behind. It will always be easier to watch TV, play video games, or procrastinate when you should be working. Do not fall into this trap. You are a smart but not immune to temptation. Know that the siren’s song of gaming, your smart phone, or youtube will lure your mind away from doing the work you should be doing. How you overcome this challenge is uniquely personal, but I have a few tips: 1) Stack the odds in your favor. Don’t give your subconscious any visual cues to tempt you. Put your phone in another room and out of sight. 2) Build reliable work habits. Do your work at the same time everyday. This creates a routine. Like meals, our bodies respond to routine. Your mind will follow. 3) Try to maintain decent sleep and don’t stay up late. Caffeine can help in a pinch, but she’s a cruel mistress when abused. There are diminishing returns for cramming at the last minute.

Tim Urban wrote probably the best essay on procrastination and modern life. As you are a very intelligent person, I highly recommend taking time to read it. In my experience, smart people are most prone to procrastination.

All hard efforts come to an end at some point. When you finish, then you can relax and play. If you can figure out how to reward yourself for work while managing to stay focused on the task at hand, you will go far in life.