My starting point was being a mediocre college student dissatisfied with every part of my life, and disappointed in myself generally. My romantic relationship was dysfunctional in many ways and I was quite distant with my family.

Listening to Jordan made me start by putting effort into understanding myself. I began to try to notice and write down what was bothering me, how I was feeling, and why. I wrote down regrets, things that made me dislike myself, things that I wish were different, problems I had, things that bothered me, etc. All this really helped in figuring out what my values were: I wanted to improve my relationships, do well in school, be successful and benefit others, and be in shape/healthy. Then, I made plans for how I could accomplish all these thing.

A major problem I had was that I was very undisciplined. A concept that I got from Jordan helped me to become quite disciplined. He basically said to be as self disciplined as you can manage at the present moment, and your discipline will grow over time. For example, if you don’t have the willpower to go to the gym and work out, then do short workouts at home.

In the words of Martin Luther King: “If you can't fly then run, if you can't run then walk, if you can't walk then crawl, but whatever you do you have to keep moving forward.” To that I’d add: yes, but trust that if you keep crawling, you’ll soon be able to walk, and if you keep walking, soon you’ll be able to run, etc.

So, building up discipline over time allowed me to make great progress in health, fitness, and schooling.

With my relationships, it wasn’t as simple as just applying discipline. What I tried to do was to be as honest as I could with my family and girlfriend, and also to try and listen/understand/empathize with them as much as possible. Understanding them better helped me figure out how I could be a better son/brother/boyfriend, then I did that.

Doing all this allowed me to make great progress on all the problems I listed above. The progress continues to this day