The Capacity For Commitment
How I'm slowly getting better at the only thing that matters.
Hey guys. Hope you’ve been well. Been busy over here, but wanted to share something I’ve found useful as I work towards the new city I’m looking to build in Texas.
More on that project soon.
There’s a phrase you’ll notice me saying over and over again if you watch my social media videos long enough… “Here’s the plan”.
This is a very intentionally-picked string of words that reliably gets people to hear me out and keep watching my video about (Taking Over An Island / Running A Pirate Ship Brothel / Becoming Bounty Hunters For The Federal Government).
I’ve gotten extremely good at pitching people to go undertake my plans on social media. My success at executing them in real life? Drastically less impressive.
This isn’t because I don’t intend to do these things.
I hate to admit it, but most (not all) of the plans I’ve pitched on social media then claimed were jokes were concepts I’ve explored quite seriously before losing interest and getting excited about something else for a while.
Over and over and over again, for years.
Every time I come up with an fun and promising idea, I do a bunch of research, and tell myself that “this is the one I’m committing to, for real, this time” - then don’t follow through because it starts requiring actual work and I find myself thinking “oh wow this new different idea is so much better”.
Following this awful pattern has done a ton to squander my potential while leaving me frustrated and broke. Every time I start over, I lose the momentum and the useful knowledge I’ve gained, along with credibility with other people - and even worse, credibility with myself. I lose the benefit of “compounding” on relationships, experience, and trust. It’s just a bad way to live.
A lot of this is unfortunately self-sustaining. If I don’t believe I can or will follow through, I’m simply not going to - and if I don’t, I won’t believe I can in the future.
The only way out of this vicious cycle is to defy my doubts, do the work, and start stacking wins - and “wins” here doesn’t even mean “success”, really - just doing the things I told myself I would.
The more I trust myself, the more others will trust me, and the more incredible possibilities will open up in my life. If I become able to commit to doing something for 90 days before deciding it’s not the right path forward, that’s *at least* 10x better than how things are for me now.
My life coach offered me a really helpful framework for making strides in this direction, rooted in the idea that idea that success and confidence can be built one day at a time.
I’ve spent 10 minutes every morning for the last week planning my day - both in time / schedule terms but also in terms of what I’m promising myself to do *that day*.
First, I start with three “rocks” that stay the same every day - big-picture goals that I intend to achieve in the next 90-180 days.
Right now, for instance, my rocks are:
Build a sustainable / livable income stream from my social media content
Get a consistent gym routine going that I can stick with in the long run
Plan for the founding of the new city I seek to build in Texas.
Then, I use these to decide what my daily goals are and what specific tasks and items I need to complete to achieve those goals.
Finally, I lay out a schedule for the day to decide when I’ll complete those tasks, when I’ll relax, and when I’ll take time for myself. At the end of the day, I give myself a score for how I did at sticking to the plan that day.
A week of doing this has … taught me a lot about myself.
Sticking to the plan I make is hard. I really enjoy the freedom of spending my time however I like at any given moment.
The problem with that, of course, is that just doing whatever I feel like makes me *less free*.
If I can’t credibly commit to simply doing things I might not want to but that I said I would, I won’t be able to make a decent (or great) living. I won’t be able to be the boyfriend or husband or father I aspire to be. My life will be a lot harder and worse.
There’s no freedom to be found in being a slave to my immediate desires.
So… I’ve gotta figure it out. The bad news is that this is a pattern of failure I’ve been stuck in for more than a decade.
The good news? I don’t need to fix it all at once. Getting 1% better every day will leave my capacity - my life - almost unrecognizable in a year.
So that’s what I’m going to make happen. One day at a time. I’m excited to have you along.
Fritz