I used to think I was just a lazy person.
Honestly. I was stuck in a cycle I couldn’t break. Hours would disappear into video games. I’d eat junk food without thinking. I felt trapped by my own bad habits and I thought it was a flaw in my character. It felt like I was at the bottom of a deep well looking up at the sky. Change felt impossible.
But I learned something powerful. It wasn’t about my character. It was about my habits. My daily actions big and small were steering my life.
Changing those habits wasn’t an overnight fix. It was a slow and sometimes messy process. It involved losing over 110 pounds finding my faith and completely rebuilding my daily routine. Along the way I collected words of wisdom that acted like signposts. They kept me going when I wanted to quit.
Today I want to share some of those with you. These aren't magic spells. They are simple truths. Maybe one or two will be the signpost you need today.
The Power of Starting Small
When you’re facing a huge goal like losing a lot of weight the thought of the finish line can be paralyzing. I didn’t lose 110 pounds by focusing on the 110 pounds. I lost it by focusing on the next good choice. Just one. Swapping one soda for a glass of water. Walking for ten minutes instead of sitting on the couch. That’s it. Big changes are just a collection of tiny choices.
- “A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.” – Lao Tzu
- “Success is the sum of small efforts repeated day in and day out.” – Robert Collier
- “The secret of getting ahead is getting started. The secret of getting started is breaking your complex overwhelming tasks into small manageable tasks and then starting on the first one.” – Mark Twain
- “Small, smart choices + consistency + time = radical difference.” – Darren Hardy
- “Habits are not a finish line to be crossed. They are a lifestyle to be lived.” – James Clear
- “Do the best you can until you know better. Then when you know better do better.” – Maya Angelou
- “Don’t judge each day by the harvest you reap but by the seeds that you plant.” – Robert Louis Stevenson
- “The man who moves a mountain begins by carrying away small stones.” – Confucius
Consistency Beats Intensity
I used to believe that to be productive I needed to grind for eight or ten hours straight. That all-or-nothing approach always led to burnout and then I’d do nothing at all. Now I focus on short bursts of deep work. I aim for two to four hours of focused effort each day. It’s not about being a hero for one day. It’s about showing up consistently. A little bit of effort every single day is more powerful than a massive effort once a month. This applies to work exercise and even my faith. A few minutes of prayer and reflection each day connects me to God more than a long sporadic effort.
- “We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence then is not an act but a habit.” – Aristotle
- “It’s not what we do once in a while that shapes our lives. It’s what we do consistently.” – Tony Robbins
- “Consistency is the true foundation of trust. Either keep your promises or do not make them.” – Roy T. Bennett
- “The successful warrior is the average man with laser-like focus.” – Bruce Lee
- “Habit is a cable. We weave a thread of it each day and at last we cannot break it.” – Horace Mann
- “Long-term consistency trumps short-term intensity.” – Bruce Lee
- “Repetition is the mother of learning the father of action which makes it the architect of accomplishment.” – Zig Ziglar
Your Habits Shape Your Identity
This was the biggest shift for me. I stopped trying to quit bad habits and started trying to become a different person. I didn’t just want to stop playing video games for 12 hours a day. I wanted to become someone who values their time and uses it with purpose. I didn’t just want to lose weight. I wanted to become a healthy person who honors the body God gave them. Every time you make a good choice you cast a vote for the person you want to be. Your habits are the proof of your identity.
- “Every action you take is a vote for the type of person you wish to become.” – James Clear
- “First we form habits then they form us.” – John Dryden
- “Your beliefs don’t make you a better person. Your behavior does.” – Unknown
- “Motivation is what gets you started. Habit is what keeps you going.” – Jim Rohn
- “Chains of habit are too light to be felt until they are too heavy to be broken.” – Warren Buffett
- “You do not rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems.” – James Clear
- “How we spend our days is of course how we spend our lives.” – Annie Dillard
Getting Back Up After You Fall
You will mess up. I still do. There are days when I eat something I shouldn’t or waste an hour on my phone. The old me would see that as a total failure. I’d think "Well the day is ruined I might as well give up." That’s a trap. A bad meal doesn’t have to become a bad day. A wasted hour doesn’t have to become a wasted week. The real skill isn’t perfection. It’s getting back on track quickly. It’s about accepting grace for your mistake and making the next choice a good one.
- “I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.” – Thomas A. Edison
- “The greatest glory in living lies not in never falling but in rising every time we fall.” – Nelson Mandela
- “Success is not final failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.” – Winston S. Churchill
- “It does not matter how slowly you go as long as you do not stop.” – Confucius
- “A stumble may prevent a fall.” – Thomas Fuller
- “Our greatest weakness lies in giving up. The most certain way to succeed is always to try just one more time.” – Thomas A. Edison
- “Fall seven times stand up eight.” – Japanese Proverb
- “Forget the past. The vanished lives of all men are dark with many shames. Human conduct is ever unreliable until man is anchored in God.” – General Douglas MacArthur
Building a better life isn't about a massive leap. It's about the next small step taken with faith and consistency. It’s about choosing who you want to be one simple action at a time.
So let me ask you: What is one small thing you can do today?
Not tomorrow not next week. Today.
