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- Step 1: Decide Who You Want to Be
Step 1: Decide Who You Want to Be
Step 2: Act That Way Immediately
Marina Wyss
December 26, 2024
Welcome to Gratitude Driven, a weekly newsletter where I share practical ideas and insights across personal growth, professional development, and the world of AI and data science.
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Step 1: Decide Who You Want to Be
This week I finished Oliver Burkeman’s new book, Meditations for Mortals. Toward the end, I came across a passage that essentially said:
Step 1: Decide who you want to be.
Step 2: Act that way immediately.
It’s simple, but that’s what makes it powerful—especially this time of year, as we plan for 2025. It’s easy to get caught up in the fun of imagining what we’ll do next year, instead of just starting now.
I see this in myself. I have a tendency to overdo it with sweets—to the point that the fro-yo shop in my new neighborhood recognized me within a month of moving in. Every so often I’ll take a break from sugar, get my cravings under control, and convince myself it’s no big deal to start having some treats from time to time. But soon enough I’d be right back to personally keeping all the regional fro-yo businesses afloat.
It reminded me of my old pattern with alcohol. The only thing that worked was quitting completely. I’ve known since then that most likely I’ll eventually need to do the same with sugary stuff. This is especially true since I’m starting a bulk soon, which is a perfect excuse to eat too many treats. So, I had decided to cut out sweets after the holidays, once I start the bulk.
Then I read that passage.
I realized that my current behavior didn’t align with my values. It’s not like I want to be someone with iron willpower who denies all joy of food or anything. I just want to be someone who doesn’t care much about sweets—who can take it or leave it and can easily skip them for a while without a second thought.
So, instead of waiting until January 1st, I decided to stop eating treats right now.
It’s been about a week. I’ve had moments of wanting something sweet, but I’ve been managing pretty easily (even at holiday parties) by checking in with this idea: How would my ideal self handle this? Would she care about dessert? No, she has better things to focus on. Snacks will still be there later when the time is right.
This idea applies to more than just sweets. Whether it’s fitness goals, a new career, or a side project we’ve always wanted to work on, we often plan to start “after this vacation” or “in the new year.” Maybe that’s the right call—or maybe it’s just an excuse.
If you truly want to change, don’t wait. Be the person you want to be right now.
Step 2: Act That Way Immediately
I find most of us know what we should do — it’s actually implementing it that’s the challenge.
Most self-help content on procrastination or following through on your commitments to yourself and others is too generic in my opinion. It assumes what works for me must work for you, too.
I’ll be putting out a video on my YouTube channel in the next couple of weeks on how to follow through on your goals based on your personality characteristics. Keep an eye out for that soon.
In the meantime, spend some time thinking about what you really want for yourself. What changes or goals are worth committing to?
This Is the Calculus They Won't Teach You
I’ve been thinking about math a lot recently. This is to prepare for the next course I’m taking in my Master’s program next semester, and also as research for a Math for ML video I’ll be releasing soon. I came across this cute and engaging video on the history of calculus which really helped put everything into context. If you have some down time in the next few weeks, give it a watch.
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