Edition #13

Hi All!

Here is your weekly serving of practical guidance and inspiration to ensure you live your life with purpose. Feel free to forward this along to friends and family. Enjoy!

I wanted to give a quick shout to the 9 amazing individuals who have joined us since last week. Thanks for being here and welcome to the Never Idle team!

Read Time: 5 Minutes

Master Your Mindset

Are You Taking Ownership Of Your Life?

“They keep asking me to go out.”

“There are so many good food options around.”

“The gym here sucks and the good one is too far away.”

These were thoughts I used to have regularly. Thoughts about my health and my habits.

Constantly going out drinking with friends, eating quick, unhealthy takeout, and neglecting exercise.

I was doing all of this, yet I wasn’t taking any ownership of it.

I was blaming friends, location, and the surrounding environment for my poor decisions.

I had a complete lack of ownership.

By passing blame and responsibility onto other people and things, I could maintain my lifestyle without guilt because it was someone else’s fault.

The problem was…that was bullshit.

It was my fault. I just chose not to see it that way. At least for a while.

Eventually, I stopped looking for scapegoats and took ownership of my thoughts and my actions. This was the 1st step toward improving my life and my health. The 1st step in extreme ownership.

Extreme Ownership

If you want to master your mindset you had better take ownership of the way you think and act.

Extreme ownership has 2 extremely simple steps (not easy, but simple).

1. Take responsibility for everything within your control that goes well AND goes poorly in your life.

2. Go through the thought exercise of “What can I do to improve the things that went or are currently going poorly?” Then act accordingly.

Step 1 is absolutely critical because when you accept responsibility, it gives you an important power: the ability to fix it.

You see when you take ownership of something, it’s in your control. When you pass responsibility to someone or something else, you are helpless.

You cannot even think about Step 2 without first being honest with yourself and taking ownership of the good and bad in your life.

Check your ego at the door and accept this.

Then you can look for improvements, which I want you to do right now.

Take Action: Think about a failure or a challenge you previously had. It could be with your health, business, job, relationship, etc.

Whatever it was, accept that it was your fault right now. Not your business partner’s fault, not your boss's fault, not your spouse’s fault. YOUR fault!

Man, I can feel angst coming through the screen.

Remember, if you want to fix it you have to own it.

Okay, ownership taken? Good.

Now I want you to think about how you can improve that situation either right now or the next time you face something similar.

Maybe you failed to communicate with your partner effectively. It didn’t end the relationship but it caused a mental divide between the two of you.

Previously you might have just blamed them.

But with your new mindset, you think:

• I could have listened more and been more open-minded instead of pushing my agenda or belief.

• I could have communicated more effectively instead of just raising my voice.

• I’ll dedicate more moments to spending quality time together, possibly nipping situations like that in the bud.

By taking ownership, you have the opportunity to find and implement solutions like this.

Stop blaming others or ducking responsibility. Take ownership of your thoughts, your words, and your actions, and start owning your life!

Hone Your Habits

Be An Inspiration Seeker

If you have read Atomic Habits you probably already know what an identity-based habit is.

For those of you who haven’t or need a refresher an identity-based habit is a behavior that you perform based on a belief you hold about yourself (either consciously or subconsciously).

Instead of focusing on outcome you focus on identity.

It’s not, “I want to become a rockstar.”

It’s “I am the type of person who practices guitar for 30mins every day.”

The goal can be whatever you want, but the objective is to make it part of your identity not around the outcome (the person who practices their instrument, not the one who wishes to be a rockstar eventually).

I have used this identity-based approach to build a creation/writing habit.

But there is a habit that precedes the creation/writing that I think everyone should incorporate into their lives: seeking inspiration.

Spend 30mins every day looking for inspiration.

• Read a book

• Don’t like to read? Listen to a podcast

• Don’t like audio-only? Watch videos

• Don’t feel like staying inside? Go for a walk or travel somewhere new.

This doesn’t just apply to creators or writers. This applies regardless of your goal or identity.

If you are an athlete, read/listen/watch things that inspire you to improve your performance.

If you are a desk worker, read/listen/watch things that improve your technical skills, your health, or your communication.

If you are a chef, read/listen/watch things that improve your culinary abilities or inspire you to try new creative things in the kitchen.

You see, it is not the discipline that matters. It is the habit of seeking inspiration.

“Everything we do is based on the information that we take in, our experiences in life, what we learned in school, a conversation we had yesterday, all of the things that make us who we are, we bring into all of our projects. So we’re always in collaboration. It’s never our idea.” - Rick Rubin on The Tim Ferriss Show (Jan 2023)

Without information, experiences, and conversations your brain cannot be inspired to create your spin on universal ideas.

If you have ever felt stuck — unable to figure out your next step — it is likely because you stopped looking for inspiration.

Improve your inputs and your outputs flow more naturally and with more potency.

No matter what you want to achieve, be an inspiration seeker.

Build the habit of exposing yourself to information, experiences, and conversations you care about and watch your life and results become endlessly fulfilling.

Words of Wisdom

You can complement this weekly newsletter with short reminders, ideas, and thoughts about personal development by following me on Twitter.

Thanks for reading! And always remember…

Slow and steady. Never Idle.

Until next week,

Austin Sargent