I was wrecked this weekend. Fever. Chills. Ear infection. Respiratory infection. My daughter brought home something nasty and I spent three days in bed.
But even sick, I did my writing. I hobbled outside and shot 21 arrows. Deer season in North Carolina opens September 13th, ready or not.
Today, August 24th, would be my little brother’s 31st birthday. The summer after he died, I drank so many beers “in his memory” that I was too ashamed to face my wife and child. I passed out in the detached garage instead. The next year, I ran 26 miles for suicide prevention awareness in his honor.
This year I still feel the weight, but I’m not letting it stop me. That’s the choice. Setbacks will come. Sickness. A financial blow. Death in the family. Life doesn’t ask permission.
The Stoics knew this truth. Failure can pull you under. One bad circumstance leads to a bad decision and suddenly you’re left wondering how you fell so far. But success can destroy you just as easily. The feeling of having “arrived” is dangerous. Celebrate too long and you forget what it takes.
That man you pity at the bar who can barely stand didn’t get there overnight. It started with one choice. Then another. Decisions compound. Habits take root. The same law works for those we admire. Hanes. Goggins. Hormozi. Vaynerchuk. Jordan. They built themselves by doing the work when they least felt like it.
Do I feel like creating every day? Not even close. Some days I want to quit. But then I remember my anchor. My family’s wellbeing. My daughter’s memory of me. The legacy I’m building for others.
The truth is simple. You have to love the process. Regardless of the bad days. Failure. Rejection. The long stretches where nothing is working or validated. Because what you want stands on the other side of every excuse you make for why it isn’t possible.
And even then, if you reach the goal but hated the road that got you there, you’ll be left wondering if you were chasing the right thing in the first place.
FIELD TIP
When it comes to archery and precision shooting, practice further than you are comfortable. Practice in positions that feel unnatural. Very rarely will you have a perfect setup in the field. By training for the hard shots, you will make the easy ones with calm precision. Remember the mantra: aim small, miss small. The more you prepare for difficulty, the more confident you become when the real moment comes.
MINDSET
Love the process by designing it into your day.
1. Anchor yourself. Write down the “why” that keeps you moving when you want to quit. Keep it visible.
2. Lower the barrier. On bad days, shrink the task but never skip it. One arrow. One set. One line written. Momentum beats perfection.
3. Seek the hard. Deliberately practice in discomfort. Hard shots. Hard runs. Hard conversations. This rewires you to crave growth.
4. Reflect daily. End the day asking: Did I show up, even when I didn’t feel like it?
When you build these actions into your routine, the process becomes the reward. The victories feel good, but they don’t define you. The work does.
The fight is won or lost far away from witnesses, behind the lines, in the gym, and out there on the road, long before I dance under those lights.
Muhammad Ali
What anchors you to keep moving forward when motivation is gone?
