I was in the unproductive state for almost a year. For the most part I know, it happened because of lack of motivation and destructive habits which I’ve unintentionally developed. For example, to procrastinate, complain, underestimate people, etc. Sadly, I wasn’t be able to scrutinize the root cause at that time. After I unconcealed and investigate the root causes, I know that it was due to inability to adapt the current conditions. There are multiple conditions which lead to destruct my motivation, but the most significant one are pandemic and heart breakup 😛. Long story short, pandemic gave me insecurity of being socially isolated while breakup worsen my mental health. Feeling like this in a year degraded my ability to think clear. After I read multiple book about self-help, I come up with conclusion.

What inside your heart will become your thoughts. What you think will become your actions. Repeated actions becomes your habits. Your habits will eventually lead to be your characters. Ultimately, your characters will drive you to your destiny.

So, that’s a key takeaway I’ve got during 1 year of deep contemplation. I see there’s a lot of great people can achieve so much meaningful things in their life. I tried out to copy them, but not as effective as I think. What makes the difference with us? Characters. They have a strong character they have already developed during their entire life time. Basically, our characters are formed unintentionally from our environment during childhood until now. I have never seen a people who don’t have experience on organization will confidently lead the organization, never. Simply because they don’t have a character to run the organization. Unless they bribe. Build a character is a marathon not sprint. It might be, but not long lasting.

The good news is, we can in an elegant way with no effort (but need a great dedication) build the characters we want. By using top-down approach, choose the characters, then habits, actions, until what kind of heart that most suitable for you, characters<-habits<-actions<-thoughts<-soul. Take 1% each day to improve each aspect using bottom-up approach. Dedicate first on your soul, then the rest will follow.