William James is often referred to as the 'father of modern psychology.' His insights into the essence of the human capacity for improvement and growth still have so much to teach us in the 21st century.

In today's episode we discuss James' important insight that life is rarely about major events that change everything but rather about the continuous daily efforts that shape our destiny.

Grab a free copy of my book Bridging the Gap here:

https://go.jonathandoyle.co/btg-pdf

Hey everybody.

Jonathan Doyle with you once again.

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Let's jump in today.

We're going to talk about a quote from a great psychologist, a great thinker.

They, they refer to this guy as the father of modern psychology.

Let's talk about a quote from William James.

We forget that every good that is worth possessing must be

paid for in strokes of data.

If it all right.

First thing about us as humans is that we gravitate to things that

have value and meaning for us, right?

So most of us gravitate towards things that we shouldn't make us happier.

It could be financial, it could be relational, it could be professional,

could be physical things that we want to improve and change.

Again, our culture is a culture of immediacy and consumption.

So we need to understand that this culture survive.

In terms of late stage capitalism in terms of consumption and immediacy.

Right?

One of the interesting things about COVID and stuff has been the, how

supply chains have been exposed, right?

This idea of that we can always access everything all the time and it'll

always be available, has been put under a lot of pressure, but it's kind of

similar when we want certain things that we think are meaningful for us.

W we, we live in a culture that tells us if he wants something we have.

There has to be a hack.

There has to be a shortcut.

There has to be a way to get what we want really quickly,

like a lottery ticket, right?

I'm going to bypass all the work of building wealth, creating value in

the world, but just going to buy a ticket and it's done and I can work.

And if it works for you awesome.

But great.

But what we're in James is telling us here is, you know, he's pulling back the

curtain on the universe and showing us the way that reality is actually constructed.

So if you've ever saved a personal email from me, my email signature has a quote

from Ayn Rand, which talks about that.

We need to, we need to accept reality as it is, and not try and

avoid it or pretend we can change.

So, what we in James is telling us today is that as we pull back the

curtain here, the truth about life is that things that are meaningful

for us require daily effort.

You know, if you've followed me for a long time, you know, I'm a bit of

an exercise fanatic and, you know, I didn't get fit in 1 24 hour block.

And I didn't improve as a speaker and communicator in 1 24 hour block.

These things took decades of work last week, Karen and I celebrated

our 21st wedding anniversary.

And we're in a really cool place.

Like, you know, w we just we've known each other.

We're at that point where we've been almost been married longer than.

W we've been married longer.

We've been together longer than we were before.

We didn't know each other.

Does that make sense?

I didn't think it did.

Um, we've been married.

We've, we've been married longer than we haven't known each other,

something like that anyway, but we're in a beautiful space and a really

nice space as couple, and just really enjoying our marriage and each other.

And you know, that marriage is built on a whole bunch of factors, not just us.

It's the people that have supported us and loved us on the journey.

And.

It's a faith and it's a whole bunch of other things, but it's also

a lot of daily effort and we are totally imperfect and we fight.

I mean, it's Karen's fault when we fight, of course, but we argue, but in general,

there's a daily care for each other.

There's a daily solicitation in the sense that we kind of we're, we're

sensitive to what the other person might need and how we can help each other.

So it's the daily things that are probably got.

You know, there's big picture stuff that we both believe in and care

about, but it's the daily stuff.

Same with fitness.

You know, most people that build wealth, do it over time and often if it

happens quickly, it gets lost quickly.

So what I'm saying to you today is whatever you want in your life, whether

it's better health, better physical body.

Better finances, better relationships, better professional

life, whatever it is for you, it's unlikely to happen in an instant.

So I want you to look into your life and I want you to say to yourself,

what am I doing on a daily basis?

That's moving me or the further away from what I want or closer to what I want.

And if you can answer that question, that can be really helpful

because it's the day in day out.

That truly matters.

Yeah.

There's big moments in life.

There's big peak experiences we have, but at the end of the day,

I think what really matters is what we're doing on a daily basis.

So that's why I coach people, you know, because I'm trying to help people look

into that system that they're living.

And it's like, well, here's my system.

What do we need to do to change it?

You know, I think a lot of the great thinkers oriented posts around personal

development have been big on this, that it really it's the daily routines.

It's the daily habits, that shift things.

All right.

So let's keep that in there.

I'll keep talking to you about it in the weeks ahead, but please

make sure you subscribe, grab a free copy of bridging the gap.

God bless you.

It's been great doing this.

I hope it's a blessing to you.

My name is Jonathan Doyle, and I'm going to have another message for you tomorrow.