How to grind without losing your mind

It’s a marathon, not a sprint.

Wow, such advice.

Much success.

When I heard that, I always thought, “How can I practically use this?”

When I first caught the entrepreneurial / productivity / self-help bug, I saw two extremes.

One side shouted that my life was terrible if I wasn’t making $10k a second, benching 600 lbs, and wearing a lab-grown diamond-encrusted Rolex.

Which was conveniently followed by a CTA for their “free training.”

(cough, upsell, cough)

On the other side, self-help gurus floated around at 30,000 feet, offering fluffy guidance without tangible steps.

But what annoyed me most, was each side held some truth.

To reconcile the two, I created my own lens.

I call it Grateful Deprivation—trademark pending (not really, lol).

It never felt right to act like everything before now was worthless.

Because if you’re like me, with consistent access to food, shelter, running water, and electricity, you’re already in the top 1% globally.

So, you should count your blessings that you’re not in a third-world country mining for cobalt.

But complacency bothered me, too.

Because you won’t be completely comfortable when building something great.

I wanted more out of life because I saw how work ethic and leverage can create a freaking awesome life.

So how do I try to hold both ideas—appreciating what I have and aspiring for more—together?

I use them as emotional guardrails:

This isn’t always about material things.

It could be health, relationships, or faith you have—and others lack—or vice versa.

Ultimately, it’s about keeping perspective while stoking an ambitious fire on demand.

It could always be worse.

But it’s also in your control to make it better.

So in the wise words of the most interesting man in the world:

“Stay thirsty, my friends.”

— And if you want to find out what you’re missing, head over to readar.ai for the next book that’s right for you.

Keep seeking,

Michael