Do Something Difficult Every Day | AMA #1 - Ask Me Anything with Lex Fridman

Miriam asks hello Lex in your interview with Arianna you have mentioned that suffering is good for the soul where did that come from what is your belief system for maintaining self-discipline and strong character no matter what I think a lot of that is quite personal in the sense that you have to know yourself what's the distribution of energy levels that you have like how what makes you lazy what makes you excited what makes you motivate it I think that's different from person person but there are several things I could say I think for me right to do something difficult everyday something I don't want to do I really if you when your mind your ear to the moments where you don't really feel like doing it do it those those kinds of things I think train your mind in the right kind of way to take on the things in your life that you know you should be doing but are hard and so you try to avoid them I mean just training that muscle not on real things but everyday on things as silly as a for example sometimes I'll take a freezing cold shower I usually kind of ask myself is this something I really don't feel like doing right now and I never really feel like doing a cold shower but there's some days where I really don't want to and that's what I'll do it and I'll stand under the water for at least one minute just freezing cold sometimes it could be as silly as you're feeling down but and you go to like a sigh I go to a Starbucks and then you don't feel like smiling or being friendly but you do it that that I I don't feel like doing it and I do it so this is practicing that muscle exercise hekia every every single day I don't really especially running I don't like running that's why I do it I I don't especially don't like starting to run getting out there starting to run the first mile first two miles is it something that I don't want to do in the moment and I do it I think that's those little moments you know it sounds dramatic to call that suffering but it really is discomfort struggle that trains your mind in the way that in other things that you are deeply passionate about that are long-term parts of your life allows you to pursue them long-term through the dark parts through the struggle through the suffering of mental and physical so mental is the self-doubt you know there's so many days that wake up full of doubt and I think those days those moments are not something you can take on without practice it's especially if you do difficult things especially if you do things that are not traditional or so on but really everybody hits the wall often enough if you do something big I think that's something you have to take serious in you have to practice and practice and practice and a big part of practice at least for me is habits so most things I have noticed myself getting good at and most things I care about that I want to solve are things I do every day without exception to me to me it's better to do something for one minute a day every day without exception then then doing it once a month for entire day I think there's something about that ritual that multiplies your minds ability to to really take on the fold depths of whatever the task is you

Channel: Lex Fridman

Views: 138,997

Keywords: lex fridman, lex, ama, ask me anything, lex mit, lex ai, lex ama

Id: wKw1tpN7NVE

Length: 4min 53sec (293 seconds)

Published: Wed Feb 19 2020