I think I've got it.
I was talking the other day about how having spent my twenties immersed in all kinds of self help challenges has made me numb to the whole concept of personal development. As in, the idea of becoming better just doesn't have the same exciting effect that it used to have, back in when I first became obsessed with it. I thought that self help excited me back then because back then, it was new. And new is always better.
Wrong.
I think I lost the excitement for personal development because I forgot that it's a habit - and if you stop doing a habit, it loses its habit status. It becomes a chore. Something mundane. Something you dread to do.
I realized this as I was doing research to find out where I had originally heard about the two day rule. The research brought me to an episode of Philosopher's Notes TV (now called Optimize with Brian Johnson) where Brian talked about the book Superhuman by Habit by Tynan. And there it was - the two day rule.
But that wasn't the big epiphany of the event. The epiphany was that listening to Brian's voice after all these years brought back the mentality I had when I used to listen to him daily. The personal development mentality.
Suddenly, a switch was clicked in my mind, and I felt motivated.
Personal development isn't something that you're inclined to do when you're young or when you first get into it. It's a habit. It only stays active if you keep it up every day. So if you want to get excited about becoming the best version of yourself, even if you're years into the whole self help game and feel like the enthusiasm is fading, all you need to do is start the engine again in whatever way you can.
For me, it's listening to the same people I used to listen to back in my most exciting self help days: Brian Johnson, Jaret Grossman, and the Academy of Ideas guy. There's something about their voices that motivates me, and since they also use those voices to talk about personal development, it's the perfect combo.
All I need now is some exquisite brainwashing - listening to the videos of those guys every day - and a personal development project to start with.
RK
