Vote for Who You Want to Be | How to Elect Your Best Self

In this video, I explore WHY and HOW to become a better version of yourself. I am not Mr. Perfect, but I look to James Clear, Franklin Roosevelt, Richard Nixon as our guide.

We spend so much mental energy thinking about who to vote for. Sometimes physical energy too. "Whose great again now!?" {breaks beer bottle} But imagine if we spent some of that energy investing in a more personal sort of vote… Your identity vote! Every day you vote for who you are! Or as author James Clear wrote, "Every action you take is a vote for the type of person you wish to be." You see we aren't our milestones or our Instagram photos or our waistline. We are who we vote for most of the time, or as James Clear continued… "In any election, there are going to be votes for both sides. You don't need a unanimous vote to win an election; you just need a majority. It doesn't matter if you cast a few votes for a bad behavior or an unproductive habit. Your goal is simply to win the majority of the time." To be something doesn't mean you have to do it every day or else I'd amount to little more than a poop. Monks can get mad. Bicyclists can ride Uber.  how to become your best self motivation Writers can watch TV.  And if your identity works as the electoral college you don't even need a majority! So we must first ask ourselves: "Who do I wish to be?"  And then we should write down the habits we need to do regularly (daily, weekly, monthly) for that identity to be true, specifically in our own eyes, because that's what matters most… strangers will judge you on a first-impression, friends will judge you on what they see you do 2/3 of the time, and for yourself its probably a matter of a majority so that you can at least say in your defense, "I usually… " I usually exercise during the week. I usually write in the morning. I'm usually an optimist. I'm usually a vegan. I'm usually productive… therefore I am a productive person! You are always voting for who you are… until you are no more. The beauty of this is it's never too late to elect a new identity by tallying up votes for the person you wish to become! And we should try to enjoy the incremental progress of becoming more of ourselves because in the end that's what matters most: process over outcomes, habits over goals, campaigns over elections. This isn't just a philosophical theory either; It's a neurological fact that the more we do something the more ingrained that brain pathway becomes. So vote for who you want to be and eventually it'll take less and less conscious effort to be that person. To help you with your personal campaign, you can use all sorts of modern tools to make voting for your best self as easy as possible, such as by using digital tools to block distractions and set reminders. President Franklin D. Roosevelt voted for himself as president long before anyone else did.  Election day is every day. Since he was young, Franklin Roosevelt looked up to his cousin Teddy Roosevelt as a role model of productivity, charisma, and vigor. But then FDR developed polio, which diminished his physical vigor. It was important to FDR and the American people though that the president be physically strong as the human embodiment of America's physical strength. FDR, therefore, pretended he could walk by leaning on one of his guards whenever he came up on stage to give a speech and then he'd thrust himself onto the podium where he'd then use the podium to hold himself up as he gave the speech. What he lacked in lower body strength he made up for in upper body strength (as well as in willpower). But should our public image be this deceptive? how to become your best self motivation I'd say no. Today people are far more forgiving of gaffes, mistakes, and weakness. People crave authenticity more than ever. how to become your best self motivation You want to be a bit more polished than you may otherwise be behind closed doors. As President Obama said, "Generally speaking, people who know me will tell you that my public persona is not that different from my private persona. I am who I am. You sort of get what you see with me.  how to become your best self motivation The two exceptions are that I curse more than I should, and I find myself cursing more in this office than I had in my previous life. And fortunately both my chief of staff and my national-security adviser have even bigger potty mouths than me, so it's O.K.  And the second thing is that I can be much more sarcastic and, I think, sometimes withering in my assessments of things than I allow to show in my public life." how to become your best self motivation Personally, I'm far more focused and productive when I'm surrounded by people in a cafe or co-working space than I am when I'm cooped up in my room. I think this is partially because I want to live up to my identity as a productive writer.