Congratulations! You've successfully finished the warrior rank, and you're now at rank 5, sage. I hope for you that you've implemented everything you've learned thus far into your life; otherwise, all of this is pointless. By completing this rank, you'll have reached the halfway point, and you will be on the right path for a fulfilled and successful life. Let’s get right into it, shall we? In this rank, we will rank up our brain and establish a healthier and smarter mindset. The sage rank is meant to "reprogram" your brain; that doesn’t mean you’re getting manipulated; actually, the opposite rank, 5, is meant to help you think more for yourself and if the things you're doing are actually beneficial for you and your career. Many people nowadays act out of impulse, myself included, when I was in my teens. This varies from person to person. The next ten tasks will help you think in a way that you can only benefit from. You will see exactly what I mean when I start the first task. Are you ready? I hope so. The first task is fairly easy but important for your decision-making and rational thinking. The next time you’re not sure if you want to do something or if it’s worth doing, think about the consequences it might have. If the consequences are low and the reward is high, then you’re obviously going to do it. Ask yourself if the reward is worth the consequences.
The second task is similar to the first one but also quite different from it. Quick and rational thinking is key. Fast decision-making is a very important skill that everyone should possess. If you’re naturally tempted to overthink things, just like me, this task will help you immensely with that, just like it helped me. The way I've upgraded my decision-making and trimmed down my overthinking habit is fairly simple but very effective. Before doing something, ask yourself if the pros outweigh the cons. If they do, you should take action and not reconsider. The more you think about something, the more complicated it gets, often for no reason at all other than that you're not controlling your brain in the right and most efficient way.
Taking responsibility is important and shows how mature you are. If you harm another person or make a mistake, you should always take responsibility for your actions. Many people only take responsibility for the good they did or the things they've accomplished, not for the bad. Next time you make a mistake, take responsibility for it; this not only makes you jump over your own shadow, but also shows how mature you are. Claiming responsibility is important.
This task is different from person to person. Let’s say you want to be an athlete. If you really want to be an athlete, you have to change your identity, and what I mean by that is to change the way you think about yourself. If you want to be an athlete, think and act like one by exercising every day, drinking enough water, eating enough, and eating healthy. Start to develop the habit of self-fulfilling prophecy. No athlete thinks of himself as something different. They know who they are. What I need you to do for this task is start developing the mindset of the very thing you want to become in life. Start picking up the positive habits and traits of people who are what you want to become by "imitating" them and acting accordingly.
Believing in yourself is more powerful than one might think. I picture it that way: it’s me and my family against the world. There is so much competition out there that you have no choice but to believe in yourself if you want to achieve your goals. Why listen to other people who don’t want to see you win? That’s a concept that never made sense to me. It's literally you and your family against the world. You are the only person who believes in yourself other than your family members, and that’s the hard truth. In some cases, not even your own family believes in you, and if I'm going to be brutally honest, it's you against the world. Accepting and developing this mindset is the fifth quest.
Practice positive affirmation. Forcefully implant words in your brain every time you think about something negative. By doing that, you start to develop the habit of thinking about the words you've implanted in your brain every time you doubt yourself or think about something negative. It’s going to be hard because you might think about it for a few seconds, and then your brain is on to the next topic. So, what you're going to do for this task is writing down keywords or phrases of habits you want to develop. I've done this myself, and I came to the conclusion that you have the option to repeat these keywords and phrases hundreds of times a day. And overtime, I started seeing results by actually developing them.
Nobody is perfect; everyone makes mistakes. That's why we're humans. The thing is, some humans learn from their mistakes faster than others. I've noticed that to not repeat a mistake or to lower the chance of repeating a mistake, you have to think about how that mistake happened. Analyze what went wrong. Next time you're making a mistake, analyze and think about the things you did that led up to your mistake, so you can prevent yourself from making the same mistake more than once and even avoid future mistakes that way. Turning failure into lessons.
Don’t become complacent. The reality is that most people stop putting in the effort they did after achieving their goal, but that’s actually not the right way of thinking. That’s the difference between ordinary people and successful people. It's not easy to develop the mindset of always pushing forward, and that’s why it’s important to always set yourself new goals in life. Without the things you want to achieve, life would be pretty meaningless. So, what I did to fix the habit of becoming complacent was, after achieving something, I set myself new goals and told myself that who I am today is nothing compared to what I could be. I want you to do the same thing. Be proud of what you achieved, but at the same time, tell yourself all the things you could achieve when you put in the right amount of effort, energy, and sweat. This mindset pushes you to be better than you were yesterday and the day before.
I myself had a very pessimistic outlook on life for many years. Not because I hated life, but because I didn’t really focus on the positive. I often focus on the negative attributes I possess. I know that, especially nowadays, people are very pessimistic about a lot of things. You shouldn’t focus on things that make you weak or insecure. With that being said, the task is to hold beliefs in your mind that make you stronger. Don’t have beliefs about yourself that invoke more weaknesses. I know that this is easier said than done, but eventually I myself managed to overcome this mindset of thinking negatively all the time. Think about everything you've accomplished so far; this task, in conjunction with all the quests from the other ranks, will help you develop a more positive mindset. You have made a lot of progress so far; don’t forget that, but you're nothing compared to who you could be.
Very well, you have now reached the halfway point of Real Life 101! Congratulations. The last task will be the hardest one out of all, but you now have all the right facilities, so I know you can do it. Here we go! If you want to be a winner, you have to start developing the mindset of one. If you see another person with the thing you want, you shouldn’t just accept that; you should take action to be better than that person and to overcome them. It's a primal way of thinking, but it's the only way you should think if you want to be successful in life. Make the person who lives the life you want your "enemy" and crush them by outworking them, out thinking them, and having fewer weaknesses than them and better attributes than them, such as meditation, exercising, eating healthy, etc. If you live by that mindset, you'll have the motivation, drive, and momentum to achieve more than your predecessors. If you have an idol, you should envy them for being in the position you want to be in. Take a person who has what you want and compete with them by out thinking and outworking them. We shall talk again in rank 6.