Take Responsibility, Save Yourself
Take Responsibility, Save Yourself
No one is coming to save us. Take action, or take cover.
Doctors won’t make you healthy. Nutritionists won’t make you slim. Teachers won’t make you smart. Gurus won’t make you calm. Mentors won’t make you rich. Trainers won’t make you fit.
Ultimately you have to take responsibility. Save yourself.
Naval Ravikant
There are an unlimited number of resources that can help us achieve any goal. Millions of Youtube videos, countless hours of podcasts, books written by history’s best and brightest, and even paid professionals whose sole job is to help us achieve our goals.
We live in a time of unprecedented access to knowledge. It’s easier than ever to learn and grow with limited resources, but even with all of the leveraged tools at our disposal, the responsibility still lies with us.
The world’s most impressive race car is useless without a driver. The perfect diet is futile if we can’t follow it. Techniques, strategies, and tips aren’t worth the ink they’re printed with if no one puts them to use.
This isn’t to say some approaches aren’t better than others, but the method doesn’t matter if we don’t take action. One blind step forward will always move us farther than having the best information in the world but standing still.
We can’t rely on flashy techniques or cutting-edge technology to save us. We can’t put our faith in others to move us forward. We can’t wait to have all the information or the perfect approach before getting started.
The only thing that matters is action, and the only thing we can trust is our commitment to ourselves. Knowledge, techniques, coaches, and doctors can amplify our actions, but 0 multiplied by anything is still 0. We have to move forward before optimizing anything we’re doing.
We'll get nowhere fast if we try to outsource the hard work that creates progress. We have to save ourselves. Circumstances change. Best practices change. Science changes. The economy changes. We can’t rely on things we can’t control.
No one can force us to eat healthy, exercise, create meaningful work, remain calm under duress, or do anything we don’t personally set our mind to. There are no shortcuts, no secrets, and no tricks.
The only thing we can rely on is ourselves. If we want to go from point A to point B, we must commit to action and execute. Nothing else will move us closer to where we need to be.
Prompts
Where have you been searching for a magic bullet or a new strategy to accomplish something important?
What does changing your focus from strategies or techniques to action look like?
How do you need to “save yourself”?
Deep Dive
A collection of Naval’s wisdom and experience from the last ten years shared as a curation of his most insightful interviews and poignant reflections.
Thanks for reading! I’ll see you next Sunday.
Kevin