Rob Wood

Boredom is pressure with nowhere else to go, and pressure builds things. My new book traces that pattern across many fascinating breakthroughs, and argues we’ve engineered one of the primary conditions genius needs out of modern life. THE GENIUS OF BOREDOM, coming early 2027.

When you find what you are meant to do then do it with all your might. But beware. The naysayers will come out of the woodwork looking for blood. They will find you. They sense your sense of purpose like a pack of bird dogs. It infuriates them (because they are stuck in their own state of complacency and apathy). They find purpose in pouring ice cold water on your fire. Don’t let them deter you. Pity them. Let it humble you and remind you that you are on the right track. Potholes and roadblocks are part of the journey. Embrace them as such.

You’ve been given this precious thing we call TIME. You were given years and days and hours and minutes and seconds and mornings and evenings. They are not yours to waste. They are yours to steward.

You can’t become wise until your pride has been broken enough times to know the difference between truth and performance.

Repentance grows roots when you stop merely apologizing for the wreckage in your life and start destroying the roads that keep leading you back to it. This means you stop pretending repeated sin is mysterious when you keep protecting the patterns that make the sin possible.

People who achieve great things in life and perform at high levels, tend to be extremely confident about their WHY. This seems obvious to most, but, and here is the key, high performers are also extremely open about the HOW. They know their approach isn’t always the best approach, and their processes can always be better. They are OPEN to finding fresh perspective and new ways of getting ahead.

Track the JOURNEY of your life in a journal. Date the pages and preserve them. If you stumble upon a few successes along the way, an honest recording of the slow MIDDLE shows those who read it HOW the successes were actually accomplished. The middle is where the magic is found!

Far too many people see discipline as restriction. The wise see it as freedom. The more control you have over yourself, the less control the world has over you.

Take stock of the people you spend the most time with. Ask yourself who challenges you, who tolerates your weaknesses, and who pushes you to act with integrity. Be brutally honest. Surround yourself with people who strengthen your resolve and sharpen your character.

High achievers/high performers don’t merely set goals and hope to accomplish them one day. They *constantly* monitor their actions and performance to ensure they are living up to the standards that would all but ensure those goals were fulfilled. This is what gets them ahead.

Time isn’t our friend. It passes like a raging river. We put our noses to the grindstone and suddenly we look up and 10 years have passed. It’s sobering, isn’t it? It’s also what makes life so painfully beautiful.

Discipline looks boring from the outside. Somebody gets up early, trains, works hard, day after day. From a distance the results look like luck, but anyone with half a brain knows better. Pick one thing you’ll do today even if you don’t feel like it, and finish it before noon.

“Follow your passion” is often misguided advice. Most people have no clue what they are passionate about. Focus on building valuable skills instead. Passion has a funny way of finding you there.

“Whatever I have tried to do in life, I have tried with all my heart to do it well; whatever I have devoted myself to, I have devoted myself to completely.” —Charles Dickens

Benjamin Franklin thought everyone should cultivate these 13 virtues... 1. Temperance Eat not to dullness; drink not to elevation. 2. Silence Speak not but what may benefit others or yourself; avoid trifling conversation. 3. Order Let all your things have their places; let each part of your business have its time. 4. Resolution Resolve to perform what you ought; perform without fail what you resolve. 5. Frugality Make no expense but to do good to others or yourself; i.e., waste nothing. 6. Industry Lose no time; be always employ’d in something useful; cut off all unnecessary actions. 7. Sincerity Use no hurtful deceit; think innocently and justly, and, if you speak, speak accordingly. 8. Justice Wrong none by doing injuries, or omitting the benefits that are your duty. 9. Moderation Avoid extremes; forbear resenting injuries so much as you think they deserve. 10. Cleanliness Tolerate no uncleanliness in body, cloaths, or habitation. 11. Tranquility Be not disturbed at trifles, or at accidents common or unavoidable. 12. Chastity Rarely use venery but for health or offspring, never to dulness, weakness, or the injury of your own or another’s peace or reputation. 13. Humility Imitate Jesus and Socrates. As for how to acquire these virtues, Franklin advised: “My intention being to acquire the habitude of all these virtues, I judg’d it would be well not to distract my attention by attempting the whole at once, but to fix it on one of them at a time and, when I should be master of that, then to proceed to another, and so on, till I should have gone thro’ the thirteen; and, as the previous acquisition of some might facilitate the acquisition of certain others, I arrang’d them with that view, as they stand above. Temperance first, as it tends to procure that coolness and clearness of head, which is so necessary where constant vigilance was to be kept up, and guard maintained against the unremitting attraction of ancient habits, and the force of perpetual temptations. This being acquir’d and establish’d, Silence would be more easy; and my desire being to gain knowledge at the same time that I improv’d in virtue, and considering that in conversation it was obtain’d rather by the use of the ears than of the tongue and therefore wishing to break a habit I was getting into of prattling, punning, and joking, which only made me acceptable to trifling company, I gave Silence the second place.”

Your character will shine in a world full of darkness (pending you have developed it properly). You can blunt the edge of those carnal desires by cultivating virtue in your life. To be sure, those desires never fully subside, but turning away from them becomes easier over time. Good character is your greatest asset. Spend ample time investing in it. Strong values will enable you (empower you) to overcome the relentless push of your carnal desires and the near overwhelming evil in the world. A heart rooted in wisdom and self-control is a powerful weapon to navigate life with. While the world goes one way your strong character will pull you another. Always remember: Having exceptional character and high integrity is a choice.

Potential means nothing without discipline. Dreams are useless without work. The man who fulfills his potential fights for it. He grinds for it. He bleeds for it. There’s no other way.

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If you are a middle-aged man (or older) and you have an itch to serve and encourage and equip the next generation of young men (and I pray to God you do), the quickest way to earn their respect and get their attention is to be jacked. Simple as. THEY COME TO YOU. You don’t have to go to them. There is rarely a day that goes by that a young man doesn’t stop me to ask me what I do in the gym, which inevitably leads to questions about work and life and family and faith. Instant respect. Instant curiosity. Instant hunger to learn. Instant desire to follow in your footsteps. Your job in that moment? Don’t be a pompous asshole that is too busy to give them the time of day. Looking down on them. You have failed miserably in that moment if that is you. Absolute failure. Engage. Listen. Drop nuggets of wisdom and encouragement to stir the fire that is raging in their chests. Take them to lunch. Sit down and give them some of your time. Young men gravitate toward disciplined, strong, older men. This is common sense, isn’t it? Don’t you remember being a young man? Who did you want to be like? The fat, lazy slobs with no vision or zeal for life? C’mon.

In your 40s, you’ve got two choices: 1. Let the weight of life slow you down. 2. Pick it up and get stronger. I’ve chosen the latter. Turns out, life gets lighter when you get stronger.