If you read this newsletter, you're probably an ambitious person looking to grow and level up your life.

Every day, you seek out new things to add:

• New habits and routines to start
• New ideas to implement
• New mental models to make sense of the world
• New people to grow your network

I've been there: In my 20s, I nearly drove myself mad adding more and more new things to my life.

Today, I'm 33, happier, healthier, and more successful than I've ever been—but in this piece, I want to share the secret that unlocked all of that:

I quit.

The truth is that the fastest way to improve your life is not adding new things to serve you, but quitting what no longer does.

Here are 11 things I quit to transform my life:

I quit focusing on my potential

The worst prison in the world is having the talent and intelligence to achieve something great but lacking the courage to go out and do it.

When you're young, everyone cares about your potential. You get accustomed to focusing on it, to celebrating it.

You gather more and more information to build it, but along the way, lose sight of one important fact:

Potential is nothing without execution.

As you get older, no one cares about your potential—they care about your delivery against it.

Stop focusing on your potential. Start focusing on your action.

I quit complaining

My most important rule for life: Don't complain about anything.

If it's within your control, go and do something about it. If it's not within your control, you're just wasting energy thinking about it.

One of my favorite ancient parables:

He who blames others has a long way to go on his journey. He who blames himself is halfway there. He who blames no one has already arrived.

When you complain, you’re giving too much power to the thing. Take back that power.

I quit worrying about the opinions of others

There are two big mistakes in life:

1. Worrying about what other people think about you
2. Believing that other people think about you in the first place

The Spotlight Effect is a common psychological phenomenon where we overestimate the degree to which other people are noticing or observing our actions, behaviors, appearance, or results.

Basically, we think everyone is thinking about us, but they aren't.

You aren't afraid to fail. You're afraid of what others will think of you if you do. Well, no one's thinking about you—they're too busy thinking about themselves.

So go do the damn thing.

I quit allowing negative people to drain my energy

Here's a harsh truth: A person is either holding you back or pushing you forward. There is no in between.

When we allow negative people to drain our energy, we have less of it to offer the positive people that lift us higher.

A question you need to ask yourself:

Who are you saying no to by saying yes to this negative person?

Negative people are boat anchors—they create a drag on your growth and progress. Cut the line.

I quit allowing overthinking to hold me back

There is someone out there living the life you want simply because they took action and you didn’t.

They aren't smarter than you. They aren't more skilled than you. They aren't more resourceful than you.

They just acted when you didn't.

90% of overthinking comes from the single flawed belief that the decision is what matters. The ultimate outcome in any given situation is governed far more by the actions that follow a decision than the decision itself.

Make a decision, then make it right through your actions.

I quit hitting the snooze button

A lot of problems in life are solved by waking up early.

Waking up early is as close to a life cheat code as you will find. There's no such thing as a loser who wakes up at 5am.

Why? It's hard, it requires intense discipline, and it creates evidence of your power and control over your world. That bleeds into every other area of life.

No one Netflix and chills at 5am.

You focus and push yourself in a low distraction environment, before the stresses and chaos of the day begin.

Confidence is built, not born.

Manufacturing evidence of your ability to do hard things is how you create confidence when you're feeling low. Wake up early and you'll start to see yourself in a new light.

I quit planning for perfection

I used to obsess over creating the perfect life plan—mapping out every decision, promotion, and opportunity on a crisp, idealized timeline.

Unfortunately, every tiny deviation from that plan would create immense stress and anxiety.

So I threw it out the window.

Now I focus on direction, not perfection.

I set a general vision for my way of life in the future, then I focus on the daily actions that will compound positively toward that end.

I trust in my action and adaptability, not my plan.

I quit treating my "house" like crap

In 2022, I asked an 80-year-old man what advice he'd give to his younger self.

His response:

"Treat your body like a house you're going to have to live in for the next 70 years."

It hit me hard.

Your body (and mind) are, quite literally, the "house" you have to live in until the end of your days.

And yet, how often do you make decisions that treat that house like crap?

Treat your house with reverence: Build a solid foundation, embrace the daily investments, and make the minor repairs along the way.

I quit seeking novelty

Social media has rewired us to constantly seek novelty.

You swipe away within seconds until you find the new, fresh thing that grabs your attention and holds it (for a few seconds, until you move on to the next thing).

But unfortunately, that desire for novelty is the single greatest risk to building the life you want.

The most meaningful things in life are built through the consistent execution of the very boring basics:

• The business you want is built through years of pounding away on a core, central idea.
• The career you want is built through years of showing up and doing what you say you're going to do.
• The relationships you want are built through years of presence.
• The body you want is built through years of basic daily movement and nutrition.

If you seek novelty in these areas, you'll find yourself constantly chasing the shiny new idea or routine that will ultimately lead to nowhere.

Reject the need for novelty. Find joy in the basics.

I quit "grazing" on low-value tasks

Parkinson's Law is the idea that work expands to fill the time allotted for its completion.

If you don't set fixed windows for managing low-value tasks (like email), you end up "grazing" on them—spending all day doing them slowly and inefficiently.

Block short, discrete windows for processing low importance tasks.

This simple action will "create time" for you to focus on the things that matter to you.

I quit relying on motivation

There's a saying in the marathon world that the real race begins at Mile 20. In my experience, it's true. The first 20 miles are easy—you're energized, fresh, excited, and motivated.

It's when that initial high fades that you have to show the world who you really are

This generalized rule applies to every area of life: The excitement for anything fades after a few days, and that is when the real work begins.

You can't rely on motivation.

Create structure, add it to your calendar, and execute.

You can get pretty damn far in life by just being someone who shows up and does the work.

Unbecome the Old

The human body replaces all of its cells every 7-10 years. Every day, your body literally replaces billions of its own cells—a constant cycle of shedding the old to become the new.

It's time for you to do the same:

Quit what no longer serves you.

To become the new, you have to unbecome the old.