He gifted a classic book that sits on the shelf next to me.
It’s a reminder of what matters most right now.
Also, it’s how I see him.
Hardcore, highest standards, disciplined, focused, getting things done.
Decades ago he helped train me in some of these things and the book reminds me that you can always train more.
The title?
“Will-power”
Published in 1905 it might as well be written today.
Arguably this topic matters even more now as it did back then because your brain is the same, and you’ve got WAY more distraction.
Ultimately, this book is about THE most important life skill that I’ve written about plenty.
It’s the concept I wrote about here as the definition of insanity.
Here we went deep in this monster article on how simple this can be but why most people will never do it.
You see it here on Mike Tyson’s unstoppable programming.
It’s what my book for Building Your Limitless Mind is about and my System for Ultimate Days too.
I decoded it behind the winning methods of Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk.
You see it over and over with top business athletes like Ray Dalio and Warren Buffett.
And top sports athletes like Muhammed Ali and Tom Brady.
It’s not JUST this thing we call will-power.
But the WILL AND SKILL to think how you want, feel how you want, and take the actions you choose.
Step by step ferociously
You might recall that this is the motto for Jeff Bezos’ space-faring mission, Blue Origin.
It’s also a powerful formula for achieving EVERYTHING.
With just your eye on the prize and continuing to take steps you can get just about anywhere, can’t you?
Through this lens even the most grandiose goals are possible.
It never matters how impossible the mission.
How high the likelihood of FAILURE.
Frankly, if anyone thinks success is even possible at all.
Using your will-power to keep taking small steps every day, you make things possible.
Brady’s BIG secret
Some months ago a client sent me a fantastic article on quarterback Tom Brady’s SECRET to winning.
The article was ONLY about one double-barreled word—
Self-discipline.
There is little secret to Tom Brady’s extraordinary performance.
Like perhaps the wisest mind on active investing, Warren Buffett, Brady tells the world EXACTLY what he does.
His TB12 method hasn’t just enabled him to be the winningest quarterback in history but to keep playing the game way longer than other athletes could ever dream.
Brady’s definition of self-discipline isn’t the typical arrrggggghhhhh gotta punch through walls making it happen.
Self-discipline for pros like Tom is knowing your method, and sticking to it.
Bezos Letters
A Wall Street legend said to me that Jeff Bezos’ shareholder letters will go down in history as being FAR more valuable than Warren Buffett’s legendary investment letters.
I agree.
Buffett’s style of investing is zero-sum, meaning ZERO value is created.
Whereas since 1997 Bezos’ letters have outlined how he and Amazon have CREATED trillions of dollars of value.
Bezos told the world what he was going to do (kind of) and documented his ferocious step by steps along the way.
In his letters you see him detail his vision for Amazon, and the will-power it takes to keep him and his team ferociously moving forward every day.
And this is where I’d like to make this CRUCIAL distinction between will-power and the power of your Will.
Of course they sound much the same.
But they connote VERY different things.
And use VERY different parts of your brain.
The Will
Esoteric teachers use the word “Will” with an ENTIRELY different meaning to “will-power.”
It has NOTHING to do with the traditional definition of will-power.
Of “willing yourself” to think and behave a certain way.
“Disciplining” yourself.
You might even say that it has the OPPOSITE meaning.
Will-power is the domain of the limited conscious brain.
It is using your HIGHER conscious faculty to “self-discipline” the LOWER animal automatic brain.
Just like Ivan Pavlov famously conditioned his dogs to salivate at the ring of a bell, this is “Classic Conditioning.”
This will-power is extremely powerful.
But we all know that will-power is LIMITED because like a muscle fatigues you only have so much self-discipline.
On the other side of your brain, The Will is LIMITLESSLY powerful.
Yet, just when you might think I’m about to reveal to you some great secret knowledge for unlocking your limitless potential, I’ll share with you that this “hidden” definition of Will also goes by a VERY common name.
“Imagination”
In your imagination right now you can conceive ALL things that are, and all things that are NOT.
Consider for a moment what this REALLY means.
In every instant, this marvelous machine in your head can think about ALL possibilities, including those that have never been possible.
This is the limitless power of your imagination.
A famous quote from Napoleon Hill’s Think and Grow Rich, the best-selling book on personal development in history, is—
What the mind of man can conceive and bring itself to believe it can achieve.
Do you see what he’s saying here?
If you can get your brain to conceive: Or imagine it.
And bring yourself to believe: Or imagine it’s possible.
You can achieve: Because no matter how difficult the goal, you know you’ll achieve it so long as you keep taking small steps.
In this way your Will is a mechanism for “PULLING” you forward.
Whereas in contrast, you might feel that will-power or self-discipline is more a mechanism for “PUSHING.”
This is a reason why like muscle will-power is a depleting force that tires.
And a reason you want to use BOTH your will-power and Will.
Together they are a “Push and Pull Propulsion System” for achieving as much as you can, as quickly as possible.
Propulsion System
Some of us are better at pushing ourselves.
Others are better at pulling ourselves and others forward with powerful visions.
Few of us are excellent at both.
It takes different parts of your brain to dream and scheme than it does to get it done.
Perhaps this is THE most important “SUBTLE” signal I decoded in my deep research on Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos.
They are EXTRAORDINARY at doing both.
Using the Will they dream limitlessly, way beyond what is “realistic” or “practical.”
And using will-power they keep ferociously taking steps forward, once again, way beyond what is “realistic” or “practical.”
This I refer to as WILL-SQUARED.
Like Tom Brady, they have powerful methods for imagining what they want and the will-power, the self-discipline, to keep driving themselves and their teams toward.
Ultimately, you can bring together this Push and Pull Propulsion System in these 2 steps—
Use your Will to PULL yourself towards your grandest vision while using your will-power to PUSH forward your next smallest step.
What’s not possible for you?
Near EVERYTHING is possible when you first unleash your Will to dream.
Even getting to Mars seems an obvious goal to me having watched countless hours of Elon Musk dreaming and doing it too. (which, you can do here)
Building the everything store Jeff Bezos also proved what is possible when you open up your Will to limitlessly dream.
And back it with will-power to keep ferociously driving forward too.
That’s the will-power this book from 1905 is talking about as well—programming your brain with autosuggestion for believing your goals are possible and taking powerful action.
It’s also a lesson I learned decades ago from the one who gifted me this book.
Your career or business can take you just about ANYWHERE you want when you limitlessly dream in your Will and best use your limited will-power to ferociously keep driving forward.