Doing hard things is a practice for being alive
Fire in the act, grace in the amount. Focus on the trend, not the position. Show up when it's hard. This week: on action, consistency, effort, and meaning.
February 21st, 2026 - Issue #154 - read online
👋 Welcome to Pursuit—your weekly pause for intentional living, self-discovery, and inner clarity. My name is Amir, and every week I share four carefully chosen ideas to help you design a more fulfilling life.
This week’s reflections:
🧭 How to conquer rumination
🔥 7 strategies to be more consistent
🚨 The most dangerous person in the world
💪 The age designed to eliminate effort
🧭 How to conquer rumination
Rumination can be reframed as a smoke alarm for action. If you catch yourself ruminating, reply with How can I take action on this?
One tool to make this easier is to reframe decisions as experiments. You’re no longer a perfectionist frozen on stage with everyone watching your every move—you’re a curious scientist in a lab trying to test a hypothesis. E.g. “I’m 60% certain that moving to New York is better than 40% of staying in Doncaster…Ok. It’s time to Blitzkrieg.” Book the tickets to New York and run the experiment. Success isn’t whether your forecast is correct and New York is perfect, it’s that you tested the hypothesis.
In the 5 years spent ruminating on the theoretical decision to move from Doncaster to New York, you could’ve collected practical living data on New York, Los Angeles, Rio De Janeiro, Tokyo, Sydney, London, and Reykjavík.
The next time you catch yourself stuck in your head, pause and ask: What experiment can I run right now?
🔥 7 strategies to be more consistent
Consistency isn’t about perfection. It’s about managing your imperfection to achieve the things you want. Here are seven strategies that actually work:
1. Every day is easier than most days. It’s easier to do something every single day than it is to do something most days. Every day becomes an identity. It’s a routine, a lifestyle, a structure, a schedule. It’s daily evidence of who you really are.
2. Fire in the act, grace in the amount. Hold yourself to the fire when it comes to the act, but give yourself grace when it comes to the amount. In other words, make sure you do the thing, but don’t worry about how much of the thing you do. This approach gives you the flexibility to adapt to the natural chaos of life without breaking the streak, recognizing that anything above zero compounds.
3. Mornings are your cheat code. Here’s the truth: Willpower fades with energy throughout the day. It’s much easier to take something on first thing in the morning than it is to take it on after work in the evening. Mornings are also less susceptible to being derailed by the unforeseen chaos that life inevitably throws at us.
4. Harness the power of peer accountability. The harsh reality is that consistency is lonely. Few will support you on the path. In fact, you will probably lose friends as you grow. But it’s hard to do things alone. Having one person with whom you can take on the challenge makes all the difference. Find one accountability partner for your consistency journey.
I’m open to being your accountability partner if you want to take something on.
5. Use progressive overload to build the muscle. As a rule, only focus on one new lifestyle change at a time. You don’t need to change your life in a day, but if you slowly change your days, you’ll eventually change your life. Use progressive overload to build the muscle.
6. Never try to make up for a miss. Don’t punish yourself, just get back to it. Never try to make up for a miss.
7. Focus on the trend, not the position. On your consistency journey, your trend is much more important than your position. The trend is built through the daily deposits—controllable factors which create momentum you can build upon. Focus on the trend, not the position.
Consistency isn’t glamorous. It’s not easy. But it’s what separates those who talk about their dreams from those who actually go out and live them. So show up. Show up when it’s hard. Show up when it’s messy. Show up when no one’s watching. Show up when you don’t feel like it. Show up when the rewards are uncertain. Just show up.
🚨 The most dangerous person in the world
🎯 The age designed to eliminate effort
We live in an age built to spare us effort. Every product, app, and service promises less friction, fewer steps, more ease. The message is seductive: comfort equals happiness. But this pursuit of convenience has a hidden cost.
When everything becomes effortless, life begins to feel weightless. Our sense of satisfaction dulls. The small victories that once meant something lose their edge, and pleasure turns into background noise. The more we smooth the path, the less we feel the ground beneath our feet.
Real joy asks for effort. It demands friction, engagement, and a willingness to meet discomfort head-on. What’s hard is personal—public speaking, physical labor, solitude, creation—but whatever form it takes, it roots us in the present. Doing hard things isn’t punishment; it’s practice for being alive. It’s where meaning accumulates quietly through repetition and resistance.
The reward isn’t comfort, but a deeper kind of ease—the kind that comes from knowing you earned your place in the world, one difficult step at a time.
🎵 Music I’m listening to
You’ll find mostly Ethnotronica, Organic House, World, Disco, and Organic Electronic here:
🎧 If you appreciate the music I carefully select and haven't followed my Spotify playlists yet, now is the perfect time to hit that follow button and join me on this musical journey! 🎶
🌒 Pano: Danceable and electronic obscure songs
🌓 Sisy: Ethnotronica and organic house
🌑 Berghain: Dark, minimal techno and tech house
🌕 Heide: Groovy soul and disco house
🌞 Sonntag: Afterhours shit
🦥 Slow rave: Sleepy techno for tired danced
🌎 World: From Latin jazz to Turkish psych
🌚 Super Slow: For your intimate moments
Previously on Pursuit:
