1 powerful money phrase to change all aspects of your life NOW

Feb 09, 2024

What if I told you that you could change any sub-par aspect of your life immediately by repeating one simple phrase?

I know.

“That’s B.S. James, what is this clickbait garbage?”

To be honest, if I read the above headline and article lead, I’d probably be thinking the same thing.

But stick with me for a few moments, try the little trick I’m about to tell you about, and then I bet you’ll start seeing some big gains in whatever area you want to improve upon — money, diet, fitness, whatever.

Whether it’s fitness, money, mindfulness, or productivity, I bet you’ll see some gains if you try my little trick. (Licensed by the author under the Unsplash+ License)

Small shift, big changes

Now recently I wrote a piece about how repeating one simple phrase allowed me to pump up my side hustle productivity and get more done in less time.

But what I’ve come to understand in the intervening days is that applying this tiny attitude shift to other areas like diet, exercise, and others has a profound impact on the outcomes of my life.

In that piece, I recounted an anecdote from the self-improvement legend Jim Rohn.

At the time, I was going through a real self-discipline kick, and I was listening to an audiobook called The Ultimate Self-Discipline Library (here’s an affiliate link to the book and another to listen to it for free if you’re new to Audible).

Rohn told a story about how, after a hard day’s work, his dad would always eat what he called his “midnight snack”: an apple, some graham crackers, and a glass of grapefruit juice.

Rohn credited his family members’ general good health and longevity to his mother, who always preached the importance of eating healthy foods.

This brought Rohn to the old saying “An apple a day keeps the doctor away”, but he posed this question: if something as easy as eating an apple a day can keep you in good health, why doesn’t everyone just do it?

And his answer shook me to my core.

It was the most simple phrase but it was also, at the same time, so profound.

It explained everything about:

Why some people are successful and why some aren’t
Why some people are fit and healthy and others are overweight and sick all the time

What Rohn said was this: “It’s easy to do … but it’s also easy not to do.”

Change anything — NOW

I used that example in the context of writing, but as I’ve started repeating that phrase during other resistance points in my life, I’ve started picking up small wins everywhere.

And, unlike the popular stereotype of the overnight success, it’s small wins over very long periods of time that compound into massive victories.

Here’s what I wrote about that phrase in the context of being an online writer:

“It takes me 45 minutes to write a 1,000-word article.

“Working for 45 minutes per day is easy.

“And yet, even as the work I did started bringing in thousands of dollars per month, I would go through these long lulls where I’d do nothing.

“I’d get distracted or lazy or make excuses and piss away the momentum I had built.

“Even if I needed a break from writing, I could have spent 45 minutes working on my YouTube channel, my email newsletter, my KDP products (affiliate link).”

“But I just chose not to.

“I chose not to eat the apple.”

Health, fitness, productivity wins

Now I eat that writing apple every day.

But here are a few examples of how repeating “easy to do, easy not to do” when I have an important choice to make has resulted in small, but not insignificant wins, in my life lately.

Fitness

I love running.

Unfortunately a cold snap here has pushed me indoors, but typically I run the same outdoor route near my house.

It’s a 5K loop that starts and ends on pavement, but mostly it’s a trail run.

By the time I’m getting to that last stretch of pavement, I’m usually pretty tired and sometimes a little sore.

More times than I’d like to admit, I’ve stopped running when the trail ends and walked the last little bit to my house.

But recently I’ve been finishing strong by repeating — you guessed it — “easy to do, easy not to do”.

That’s what I tell myself as I approach the last road portion because, in reality, it is easy to do.

It’s maybe an extra 3.5 minutes of running, which isn’t going to make or break me.

Now I just push through.

Health/mindfulness

Lately I’ve been hopping into the sauna after my gym workouts.

I pump the heat to the max, so it gets stifling.

Early on, I’d tap out well before I intended to, but then I started saying “easy to do, easy not to do two more minutes” when my brain would start telling me to get out because it was getting too hot.

Your mind wants you to quit uncomfortable things immediately.

Unfortunately, the only way you can make real gains in any aspect of your life is to be at peace with discomfort and push through it.

If you can get outside your quitting mind for a moment or two, you’ll be surprised at just how easy things are.

Diet

Typically I eat pretty healthy, but my wife sometimes buys these frozen pizzas that I find hard to resist.

One day I went to grab lunch and my mind instinctually went to the pizza.

But I said it would be easy to eat that, or easy to eat the black bean and sweet potato chili that was in the fridge.

So, that day, I made the easier easy choice.

A man working out with kettlebells at the gym. — Pushing through those last few reps is a choice. (Licensed under the Unsplash+ License)

Make the right choice

There are many more examples like this, but you get the picture now.

So many things we build up in our minds as difficult actually aren’t that hard at all.

I’m willing to bet that, if you try repeating that phrase when you know you’re about to make a weak or suboptimal decision, you’ll discover the same thing.

Publish Every Day project update: Day 98

I’m trying to see if I can make enough money to quit commuter life within 1 year by publishing every day on various platforms and putting my earnings into passive income investments.

How much I need to retire: $250 CAD per day

What I earned on Day 98: $26.40 (writing) + $1.13 (YouTube) + $0.29 (real estate) + $7.07 (email newsletter subs) = $34.89 total

Publish Every Day project, Day 98 (total)

Publish Every Day project, Day 98 (earnings by day)

What I’ve published the last few days:

Hey, thank you so much for reading this piece! If you enjoyed it or have any ideas of your own to share, please let me know in the comments!

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