Henry Stanley was a famous 19th-century explorer who mapped out the Congo River now this was by no means an easy task he and his team were plagued by malaria and dysentery many of them starved to death they were attacked by the natives of poison arrows and Spears and many of them drowned. his most famous expedition which mapped out the entirety of the Congo River took 999 days he started with 228 men and ended with only 114 so only half of them made it he was considered to be one of the most self-discipline individuals in the world because he could've stopped that expedition at any time but he persisted beyond all odds
the natives were so impressed by his willpower that they called him the boola Mathari the breaker of rocks now Stanley had an interesting routine that he would do every single day he would wake up and shave first thing in the morning now if you think about it it's quite odd for someone stuck in the middle of the jungle with lack of supplies men dying left and right to spend every single morning making sure that he was clean-shaven but this little habit was actually the key to Stanley success today we're gonna look at how you can cultivate tremendous amounts of willpower make sure you get tons of things done throughout the day all by using a little trick like shaving to your advantage now have you been a prescriber of the channel for a long enough time you've probably heard me talk about cues to refresh your memory cues can be anything that triggers a routine for a habit it can be a sound a smell a time of day an event or even a location
it tells your brain that you should start your habit however cues also do something that's very interesting see we tend to associate certain cues with certain mindsets and feelings for example if you've ever gotten a new haircut from your favorite barber you probably know great feeling afterward you feel confident and excited ready to take on the world but all that's really changed with some hair off the top of your head and that's why shaving was so effective for Stanley see although he was surrounded by despair and suffering in the middle of a jungle he was able to get himself into the right mindset every single day by shaving see he associated clean shaving with being proper it's something that a lot of people do before they head out to work when you're clean-shaven you feel organized you feel prepared to start the day shaving took him away from the whirlpool of negativity that surrounded him and put him into the mindset of discipline this is a concept that I used quite often to my advantage in the past from the age of 18 to 21 I was a door-to-door salesman who had to wear a suit every single day to work and now this meant I spent more than 300 days per year in a suit working my ass off knocking on doors whether it was rain or shine so I started to associate wearing a suit with hard work and perseverance now when I quit my job and decided to build my own business online
I was faced with a major issue I no longer had my boss looking over my shoulder making sure that I was working hard every single day I no longer had my co-workers who could reignite my motivation after two or three days of closing no sales I needed something that could bring discipline and strength back into my life so I decided to start wearing my suit every day to Starbucks where I would work on my computer and it actually worked every time I put on a suit I was instantly transported back to the mindset I had at my old job I felt motivated and ready to tackle on the world building a business online was no easy task because I really didn't know anything I would spend a month building up a business just to see it falling crumble this happened multiple times but eventually I found success wearing that suit gave me the discipline and strength
I needed to persist even though I was only met with failure after failure we all have things that we can do that can trigger these positive mindsets think back to your life what is something that you tend to do on days where you get a whole lot done it could be a shower it could be doing your hair properly it could be putting on makeup it could be shaving just like Stanley it could be wearing your best clothes it could be making your bed honestly it could be anything it differs from person to person figure out what it is and use it to your advantage try to stick to it every single day because by actively trying to stick to this little habit you will also build up the levels of willpower that you have this is a concept that we dive into deeply in the tamed course which I will link to in the description box below but basically our will hower is sort of like a muscle the more you actively go out of your way to use it to do something that isn't already a habit the stronger your willpower muscle becomes this means that you'll have more willpower more strength over the long run to use for other hard tasks try it out the next time you're feeling lazy in the morning get up take a shower shave and put on your best clothes or whatever you think is something you do on your best days and you'll instantly feel better and I'm telling you you're gonna get a whole lot more accomplished throughout the day speaking of Shaving this episode was brought to you with the help of the guys at Dollar Shave Club to be honest
I've actually been using them for quite some time now it's almost been a year I started to use Dollar Shave Club because I was sick of having to go to the pharmacy every couple of weeks to pick up new razors not only was it hard to find high-quality razors that gave me a good shave I also felt like it was a huge waste of time if you're like me and you want to optimize your life focus your time and energy on the things that really matter then I think you should try them out go to dollarshaveclub.com improvement pill to get their shower shave starter set for only $5 that's way cheaper than what you can find at the pharmacy this set is going to include their executive razor and three trial versions of their most popular products that will help you stay fresh and clean and above all get you into the same mindset that our friend Stanley had during his expedition in the jungle oh and I almost forgot to mention shipping is also completely free so act fast guys and stay tuned
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