8 · Iron Calendars

What does it mean to truly live for something, to be willing to die for something — and in a sense, to be dying for it? This is the philosophy I will ride, and I know it works for me. There are vows that I made, and no matter what the cost is, they must be done, point blank period. That's where you thrive. I keep telling myself the same narrative because I have such faith in it: I will stake my existence on the work that must be done right now. And you don't even tolerate vision leaking beyond the work in the now. You do the work that must be done today, and you just do that three hundred times. For a decade. No matter how impossible it is, you drag yourself to execute.

The Markov Vows. Whip yourself into the now. When you know what must be done right here, right now, it is futile and meaningless to plan ahead. What is the best usage of this present slide of my life? If it's the execution of a task you know must be done, then the complementary set of that is low yield. What is the Markov Vow now? Finish this paper. Go. Remember that the complementary set of this one goal is mere distraction.

Every yes to a distraction — to anything in the complementary set of the work that must be done — is a no to your dreams. And every no to those is a yes to that one thing.

Being open means knowing all the options, but when the soul chooses, willingly abandoning everything else, trusting God's plan. Life happens through you, not to you.

There will be phases of transition that are extremely volatile, and you just have to live through those moments, because the thing you are aiming for needs everything of you cognitively. You have to make a choice and tell the people around you that you have to strip the noise. That is the cost of the work you are doing — everything else has to fade. Learn to let certain things go in phases of transition. You have to let them go, because the counter to that is letting your dreams go, and that is not something I can bear in this phase.

I will get it done or die trying — at least Jesus will know I carried the cross to death. This will be done regardless of my brain exploding from stress and pressure.

What you can be, you should be, and this is how you win. You might get hate from everybody, resentment from family members, scars from stress. But again — what you can be, you must be.

Whenever you have the opportunity to cheer someone on, to give encouragement, compliments, some boost of positive momentum — don't miss it. It's a blessing.

I made vows, and the week would not end if the goal was not done. A week has 110 hours if you sleep and tick off the bare minimum. It was always something insane — finish a textbook, read the Bible ten times — and I would resist for life the urge to pre-plan the future, because God gave me what must be done right now. Do anything that makes forward progress at the cusp of discomfort, and stay in that discomfort.