Have You Planned The First Quarter?

It's day 21 of documenting 2025.

I've realized something.

Something you may agree with or not.

It all depends on how you see it.

So, I've realized that the first quarter of this year will determine how the rest of this year will go.

The planning and systems you put in place during this month, February and March will either make or break this year.

Agree?

Disagree?

It's your choice.

These past few days, I've been feeling anxious.

I think it's because of the time I waste scrolling through the content of others.

Not learning or creating my own.

I decided to change that last night. 

And I took action this morning, right before I started typing this.

I drew up a table and organized daily must-dos (not to-dos this time).

Then, to remind myself of them, I set reminders and made use of the calendar in my notes app.

Change starts today.

I will:

📌 Link pain to endless scrolling 

📌 Link pleasure to learning and creating 

📌 Condition it until it's consistent.

Besides, there are must-dos for today which I will start on.

I'm learning this from a book I started with this year.

It's called Awaken The Giant Within by Anthony Robbins.

And I didn't put off reading it last night.

I'm still on the fourth chapter that focuses on the twin power of pain and pleasure.

The quote that started the section I read goes like this:

"I conceive that pleasures are to be avoided if greater pains be the consequence, and pains to be coveted that will terminate in greater pleasures."

By Michel De Montaigne.

Then right under the quote, Tony stated,

"The problem is that most of us base our decisions about what to do on what's going to create pain or pleasure in the short term instead of the long term."

This 👆 is a problem I face, truth be told.

But I'm sure that I can overcome it, with Tony Robbins as my coach.

He went on to say,

"It's not actual pain that drives us, but our fear that something will lead to pain. 

And it's not actual pleasure that drives us, but our belief, our sense of certainty, that somehow taking a certain action will lead to pleasure.

We're not driven by the reality, but by our perception of reality".

In my opinion, fear and belief are the real drivers here.

Speaking of fear, certain experiences have made me realize that my biggest fear is being rejected.

Not heights as I usually think 😄

But sometimes, I stare that fear in the face and say, "screw it...I'm gonna do it anyways".

Brings to mind the saying I like to remember:

Feel the fear and jump in anyway.

(Don't know if that's how it goes exactly....)

I ended my notes with a quote from the book:

"Anything you want that's valuable requires that you break through short term pain in order to gain long term pleasure".

I think this applies to building habits.

At first, it's not so enjoyable but with consistency, it starts to bring pleasure.

That's why I like streaks.

Ticks or marks on the days I completed a particular task.

But I don't like losing a streak, not one bit.

This blog for example, is a streak challenge.

21 days in 💪

And I'm standing strong.

But I like to be realistic.... there may be events that will threaten my streak.

And I'll be ready for them.

What are your thoughts on making decisions based on pain and pleasure?

Let me know in the comments.

Thanks for reading, my friend 😊 

You can check out the blueprint I created.

It's all about saving time with ChatGPT, which I do every single day.

By the way, I'm Duon Ada.

And I'm documenting 2025.