in order to unlock the next level of excelling at your training, writing, or business, you will have to untie yourself from old patterns to make room for new ones.
while it's easy to get trapped in thinking you can do more while changing nothing (about how you live), it's seldom the case.
depending on where you at and how you live, to live up to the imaginary 'upgrade' you promised yourself, you'll most certainly have to do things that will feel boring for extended periods of time.
lots of this boredom comes from the fact that you'll have to leave or stop doing daily things that you feel are 'exciting' - and replace them with things that you know are necessary.
once boring things stop being boring, it becomes your lifestyle, then normally after a few months or years, it becomes your identity - so enduring through boring will make way to change your identity slowly over time.
i think that's precisely why 'new years resolutions' don't work.
resolutions make it as if you'll wake up anew on january 1st - it neglects the role of this 'slow coining' that happens over time for a radical identity change.
keeping up with productive routines just because it's the start of the year is too loose of a reason to keep showing up for - so ultimately it fades, and people fall back to their older patterns.
i like to think that every new level of mastery demands a new version of me and that i have to adapt quickly lest my life will shrink down to my old version at best.
the thing with versions is, we don't have defined start and end dates for them.
you level up -or down- in what feels like a blurry backdrop of life happening around you.
it's hard to be self-conscious about the change because it doesn't happen suddenly (notice how the quickest people who notice a change on you are often people whom you haven't seen for years - like childhood friends or long distance relatives)
and because the buildup takes lots of repetitions, the challenging part is reminding yourself of it.
i think a big part of 'mental toughness' is just maintaining the bigger picture for as long as it takes - reminding yourself of why you do it, how far you've come, and what are the stakes - everyday.