I remember the days when I used to write every day. I called it freewriting—writing continuously for a set period without worrying about structure, grammar, spelling, or ideas.

The results of daily freewriting were astonishing. It helped me generate tons of valuable content, kept my flow going, made me more creative, and reduced my stress about coming up with ideas and about whether I was writing well.

I did that for over a month. My freewriting days felt lighter than the times when I wrote “three times a week.”

How does writing every day feel easier than writing three times a week? Should it be the other way around? I should feel less stressed because I only had to put in effort three days every week rather than seven.

Shouldn’t more days of doing the thing mean more effort, not less?

That’s what most of us feel. But in this article, I’ll explain that the hard part is never the action. Instead, it is deciding whether today was a “yes” day or a “no” day.

For example, going to the gym three times a week means deciding whether to go today. But if you go to the gym every day, there is no need to make a decision. You just wake up and go to the gym — because that’s what you do every single day.

The Real Cost Is the Decision, Not the Action

Every time a behavior is optional, you don’t just do it or not do it. First, you have to hold a brief internal negotiation. That negotiation is invisible, but it’s not free.

Your willpower isn’t about the difficulty of the task itself, as most of us tend to believe. Instead, it’s about the number of times you have to decide whether to do the task.

Whether it’s a habit you are trying to build or one you are trying to quit, the process of deciding to take action kills the motivation to do it.

A rule you follow without exception requires a single decision made in advance. A rule you follow “usually” requires a new decision every single time you encounter it, which could be daily, or multiple times a day.

When you have the freedom to skip, it makes the habit harder to sustain, not easier. Flexibility sounds humane, but it actually has the opposite impact you are aiming for.

Let’s take a simple habit of flossing. When you do it sometimes, you tend to skip more days. But if you do it every day after brushing your teeth, you don’t have to decide “when” to do it. You simply do it every day. Isn’t that easier?

Why “Sometimes” Quietly Costs More Than “Never”

When you hear “every day,” it sounds extreme. It makes you feel you need to put more effort into a task. Instead, “most days” or “a few times a week” feels a wiser and more sustainable choice. They sound doable.

But the truth is that “sometimes” is actually more fragile because it comes at the cost of decision-making. And that decision, most of the time, makes the task harder to do.

Once you skip a day or two, breaking the rule starts to feel “free.” You start believing that you can do it another day. “What’s the big deal? I’ll do it tomorrow.”

For someone who’s on a diet, having one cookie today might not seem costly. But slowly, they start thinking, “Well, I already broke it today; I might as well eat some more.” But someone who just doesn’t consume sugar strictly doesn’t need to make a decision or have an internal debate.

When I was new to online writing, I only wrote when inspired. That didn’t help me produce consistent output. I had to wait for inspiration and decide whether that was worth writing. However, once I changed my habit to “writing 500 words daily,” I no longer had to wait. I did it even when, sometimes, my writing wasn’t good.

The Essential Identity Shift

In his book Atomic Habits, James Clear uses smoking to demonstrate “identity-based habits.” When offered a cigarette, if you say, “No thanks, I’m trying to quit,” you still identify as a smoker. Instead, if you say, “No thanks, I’m not a smoker,” this permanently shifts your core identity to align with your new behavior.

Identity isn’t just a nice motivational story; it’s a shortcut that reduces the number of decisions to zero. A person who runs won’t have to decide whether they will run today. It’s not a decision anymore; it’s just what’s true.

It took me a long time to identify myself as a writer. I used to call writing my side hustle. It felt awkward to adopt the label before the belief caught up. I never knew that I could call myself a writer, even if I’d only written a couple of blog posts. Once I shifted my identity and made it clear in my social media bio, I started writing more and showing up consistently — something that hadn’t happened before.

How to Build This Without Setting Yourself Up to Fail

It’s so easy once you get the hang of it. The rule is simple: keep it small.

For example,

• If you want to start working out, do 10 pushups every day.
• If you want to become a writer, write 200 words every day.
• If you want to lose weight, walk for 30 minutes every day.

Every action counts, no matter how small. One push-up counts. One sentence counts. One minute counts. What’s important is that you do it every single day.

The brain doesn’t distinguish much between a small daily win and a large one when it comes to reinforcing identity. What matters to your sense of self is the unbroken streak, not its size.

Read that again.

It’s not about doing it perfectly. It’s just about doing it.

Here’s the fun part: There are no specified rules for your thing. You can set your own rules. For example, if you want to become a runner, your goal could be to run at least 2 miles every day, regardless of the circumstances. You have to complete the two miles. When I was freewriting, my goal was to write at least 500 words daily. Some days I wrote exactly 500; some days I wrote 800. And some days, even 2,000.

Pick one thing you’d like to do. Not five, just one. Test this for two weeks before touching anything else. Start by doing it for 2 minutes every day. Then, grow slowly as you feel comfortable. I guarantee it will feel much easier once you start doing it every day.

Final Thought

Doing something every day is easier, not because the doing gets easier, but because the deciding disappears.

Being realistic, you might still miss some days, and that’s completely fine. After all, we are humans. We could get sick, might have to travel, or there could be an emergency. Life will interrupt. But even if you miss a day. Never miss it more than once. Add it to your strict-rule list.

As I said, the goal isn’t perfection. It is to reduce the amount of energy the whole thing costs you.

So, what’s one decision you’re quietly remaking every single day that you could simply stop making?

My uncle has a construction company, where he hires many workers. His employees work hard. They have to do physically challenging construction work. It consumes a lot of physical and mental energy. Unfortunately, those workers have very difficult lives because they aren’t paid for their hard work. And that isn’t my uncle’s fault; it is how the market treats construction workers.

I had a similar experience when my wife and I visited my sister-in-law, who is a nurse. She told us that she works hard night and day, yet she was paid below average.

On the other hand, my father rented out one of his houses uptown and earned thousands of dollars each month, without having to “work hard.” He sat in his home, reading his newspaper and sipping black tea. This made me realize that hard work isn’t always the best way to make money or succeed in life.

Then, the question that stuck with me was, “What is hard work actually paying me for?”

The Story We Were Handed (and Why We Believed It)

When you think about getting rich or being successful in general, you generally tie it to hard work. The human mind has been programmed to believe that working hard will bring success.

Since we were kids, we learned that hard work will help us get good grades in school. Then, as we grew older, the same philosophy applied to our work — hard work equals promotion.

The belief that hard work means success is comforting because it implies control. If wealth were purely about effort, anyone could get there by trying harder.

However, that’s obviously not the truth. Building wealth is about structure, timing, access, etc. But that is less comforting for us to hear. So we choose to believe what we have always believed.

Hard work does correlate with some success, but that’s often because it’s a prerequisite, not because it’s the cause. Everyone has to work hard to succeed.

Even my dad, who makes money easily by renting out his house, worked hard to build the house, deal with contractors, and make sure the tenants live in a comfortable environment. He worked hard before so that he doesn’t have to now.

Hard work is necessary, but that’s not sufficient.

I’m writing this, but I still want to believe that effort is the best lever because, as I said, it’s the one thing fully within my control. When I started writing online, I worked really hard trying to put out the best articles. My belief: “If I just push harder, the money will flow.”

But the reality was different; working hard didn’t make me money, but it did help me become better and learn other skills to understand writing and money.

Wages Are a Price, Not a Reward

Why is a janitor paid less than junior staff at a company, even though the janitor works harder? His work is exhausting and requires more time than that of someone who sits in a chair and works much less.

The truth is that just because your work requires a lot of hard work doesn’t mean you have to be paid more. The market prices scarcity and leverage, not difficulty.

The janitors’ work isn’t scarce. Anyone with the physical ability to do cleaning work can do that. His skills are easily accessible in the market. Therefore, he is paid less than a junior staff member with a proper skill set who would benefit the company. And so, they are paid more than the janitor.

Some effort-based work compounds, meaning that hard work will pay off more in the future. But only when the person eventually converts skill into leverage — a firm, a following, a rate only they can charge. In our example, the janitor cannot expand his skills to earn more because his work is usually the same. However, a junior staff member can develop their skills and get promoted to earn more. They can even start their own business to build something bigger.

Effort matters, but only as a stepping stone.

Money Follows Risk and Ownership, Not Hours

In the popular book Rich Dad Poor Dad, the author says that the rich own assets and the poor own liabilities they think are assets. The rich aren’t paid for how many hours they put into something. Instead, they are paid for exposure to outcomes — owning something whose value can rise (or fall).

Owning an asset is the best way to make money. That’s because assets don’t need sleep. They keep generating value while you’re doing something else entirely. This is the actual definition of leverage, and it has nothing to do with working harder.

Making money is also about risk. The people who look like they’re “working less” for more money often took a risk earlier that the hard worker never did — quitting a stable job, investing savings, building something with no guarantee of payoff.

The reward isn’t for effort; it’s for absorbing uncertainty.

Yes, it’s unfair, but it is what it is.

Elon Musk risked every penny he made from the PayPal days and invested in SpaceX and Tesla. Now, he’s the world’s richest man. I’m not saying he didn’t work hard. In fact, he is also one of the hardest-working men in the world. But the point is that he took a risk that looked reckless at the time, but it worked out, not because he worked harder than everyone else, but because he owned the outcome instead of renting his time.

Consider two people who are paid the same income. One of them earns a salary, while the other earns rental income. Even though they earn the same amount, the difference is that the first person’s income requires them to work additional hours, while the other’s doesn’t.

Wealth is the price of bearing risk and owning outcomes, not the price of effort.

How Hard Work Can Actively Block Wealth

When you work hard at something, you are giving your time and mental energy to it. If you are doing it in the wrong area, your hard work is actually blocking you from success.

For instance, working hard at a job consumes the exact time and energy that could be spent building things that actually create wealth, such as a side project, an investment habit, or a skill with leverage.

Every hour of hard work you put in the job you dislike is an hour not spent building an asset. The effort at a job can be, in effect, a subsidy paid to someone else’s wealth rather than your own.

I’m not asking you to quit your job or work less. It’s an argument to address where your hardest hours are going and whether they’re building something that’s yours.

It feels tempting to work hard at something because of the false belief that it will actually make you wealthy. It feels productive and safe, even when it isn’t moving you towards ownership.

Again, I’m not asking you to stop working hard. What I’m saying is that you must be aware of what you are working hard for and who owns the result.

Do This to Shift the Equation

The goal isn’t to “work less” but to redirect a portion of effort toward something you own, even in small, unglamorous ways. In other words, work hard for the things that matter, that actually will make you successful.

To give you a few examples:

• Negotiate equity/ownership instead of only salary when possible.
• Start something small on the side that doesn’t require quitting your job immediately.
• Treat consistent investing as buying small pieces of other people’s risk-taking when you can’t take the risk yourself. Start small, but build a habit of investing.

I get it. You might not have the time, money, or security to spend on these. This shift is in direction, not identical for everyone. But if your goal is to make money or become successful at something, you must be intentional about where you put your effort and what results it brings.

I began writing online while working a corporate 9–5 job. It began as a side hustle to make some extra cash. But as I built my skills, I learned how to leverage them to earn more without working more. For example, I published e-books and sold the copies for hundreds of dollars each month.

It’s time you understood that working hard isn’t the problem. The problem is when you don’t work hard at building something of your own.

Conclusion

My uncle’s construction workers will never be rich, even if they keep working harder at their jobs. The only way to wealth is for them to use their experience in the construction business and start their own company. It’s the sad truth that hard work isn’t related to wealth or success. Effort without ownership is effort wasted.

Hard work will always matter, for dignity, mastery, and stability, not just for a specific job of building wealth.

The solution isn’t working less; it’s to make sure some of your hardest hours are building something that’s yours.

When was the last time you worked really hard at something? Were you happy with the outcome? What did you benefit from your hard work? Did you own the outcome of the hours you put in?

My uncle retired at sixty-two and was dead inside by sixty-four. Not literally — he’s still alive, still sends forwarded emails — but something left him. He’d spent thirty years as a civil engineer, fixing drainage systems in small municipalities nobody cared about.

He complained about it constantly. The bureaucracy, the ingratitude, the low pay. And then he stopped, because he’d earned it, and he had absolutely no idea what to do with himself.

I keep thinking about him whenever someone asks me what I want out of life. The usual answers feel hollow — I want to be happy, I want financial freedom, I want to travel more. These aren’t wrong exactly, but they feel like things you say rather than things you actually believe.

The idea I keep coming back to — and I’m not fully sure I’ve earned the right to say this yet — is that the point of being here is to be useful. Not in a noble, self-sacrificing way. Not in the way people say it on LinkedIn with a graphic of a lighthouse.

Happiness as a byproduct

The happiness thing bugs me the most, honestly. We talk about happiness like it’s a destination — something you arrive at and then maintain, like a good posture. But I’ve never met anyone who was consistently happy because they were trying to be happy.

The happiest people I know are sort of… incidentally happy. They’re absorbed in something — a project, a person, an argument they care about. Happiness is a byproduct, not the goal.

What my uncle actually lost

He wasn’t unhappy at work because the work was bad. Towns stopped flooding because of him — the problems were real, and he was good at solving them. He was unhappy because he never connected the work to that fact.

He experienced the bureaucracy but not the outcome. And then in retirement, he lost even the bureaucracy. He lost the friction that proved he existed in someone else’s life.

What pulls me out of a bad stretch

When nothing feels meaningful, and I’m just sort of moving through days, what usually pulls me out isn’t a realization about my own happiness. It’s being needed for something specific — a friend stuck on a problem, a situation only I’m positioned to attempt.

The mood lifts not because I feel good, but because there’s suddenly a shape to the day. A reason the day has to go one way rather than another.

I realize this might sound like workaholism rebranded. I’ve had that thought too. But busyness and usefulness aren’t the same thing — you can be extremely busy and useless, and very slow and essential.

The problem with chasing money

Obviously, money matters — it buys stability, and stability is the precondition for almost everything else. I’m not romanticizing poverty. But I’ve also watched people organize their entire lives around accumulation, and the finish line keeps moving.

There’s always a higher number that would finally feel like enough. The goalposts aren’t moved by external forces; they’re moved by the accumulator, unconsciously, because the accumulation itself became the point.

What usefulness actually feels like

Usefulness has a different quality. It’s specific, particular — this thing, for this person or situation, done as well as I can do it. It doesn’t scale endlessly into abstraction.

It arrives, and then it’s done, and then there’s another one. That rhythm is stabilizing in a way that happiness-seeking never is — because happiness-seeking has no natural end state, no moment where you set down the tool and say: yes, that’s what was needed.

“What’s the secret to success?”

The question is common, but the answer varies. Some say it’s discipline. Some say it’s focus. And some say it’s willpower.

The truth is, there isn’t a single, correct answer to this question. One common factor won’t help you succeed. It’s actually a mixture of all of them.

For instance, relying on willpower alone won’t do much because it is unreliable. It fades when you’re tired, stressed, or distracted. High performers don’t rely on willpower alone. Instead, they design environments that make good choices easier and bad choices harder.

I used to write only when I was motivated or had a great idea. But it didn’t help because motivation didn’t come every day. I lacked consistency. Then I decided to show up even when I wasn’t motivated. I built a writing routine that helped me publish at least a short piece of content daily. It made a difference, but it was still not enough.

I thought willpower was the answer — focusing on discipline instead of motivation, as they say. But willpower limited my mental resources. Decision fatigue made discipline weaker throughout the day.

I learned that when temptation is constantly around you, resisting it becomes exhausting.

Consider these scenarios:

• Trying to eat healthily while keeping junk food in the house.
• Trying to write while your phone keeps buzzing.
• Trying to focus in a cluttered environment.

Will you be able to achieve your goals in these situations? Surely not.

The human brain seeks comfort. It feels good — addictive, in a way. But it’s dangerous. The more comfortable you are, the more you want it.

I used to think being comfortable meant I had freedom, and that I was happy. It took me some hard knocks to realize that comfort isn’t good and, in fact, leads to stagnation.

Lesson learned: Your potential rarely grows in environments that demand nothing from you. For instance, I felt uncomfortable showing my face and publishing articles online. I didn’t want to come off as a know-it-all by posting about my life lessons. But the truth is that those who can share their stories and lessons and be honest achieve greatness.

Having a personal brand meant success, and I was running away from it.

Thankfully, not anymore. I published vulnerable stories, even when it felt uncomfortable. I showed up and spoke about my struggles and failures, even though I didn’t want to. Fortunately, those moments of difficulty helped me grow as a writer and storyteller.

Remember, growth almost always requires friction.

Comfort = No Growth

When things feel easy, you stop pushing your limits. You adapt to the environment that feels natural to you. As I said, the brain prefers predictable routines over challenging tasks. So, you begin to choose convenience over improvement.

Here are a few examples:

• Staying at a job you’ve outgrown
• Consuming content instead of creating
• Avoiding difficult conversations
• Not taking risks

Comfort keeps you safe, but it also keeps you small. Growth requires exposure to difficulty. For example, to grow your muscles, you need to lift heavy weights. Even though it feels uncomfortable, and your brain keeps telling you to stop, the only way is to expose yourself to the pain of lifting heavy weights. That’s the only way to build muscles and get fit.

In the same way, new skills come from struggle. There is no other way. You won’t grow from doing nothing or sitting on the couch watching Netflix. You need to expose yourself to new scenarios.

Confidence is built by doing uncomfortable things repeatedly. The more you can expose yourself to difficulties, the more self-confidence you grow.

Every meaningful achievement usually starts with uncertainty. Whether it’s publishing your first article, starting a business, or sharing ideas publicly, it feels uncomfortable at first.

Discomfort is often the price of becoming who you could be.

Sometimes, you don’t realize you are too comfortable. It happens unconsciously because you have become too familiar with it. Here are a few common signs you are living in your comfort zone:

• You avoid challenges that might make you look foolish.
• Your days feel repetitive and predictable.
• You spend more time consuming rather than creating.
• You keep saying, “I’ll start later.”

If you want to change, you must ask yourself this:

Am I choosing what is easy, or what will help me grow?

Once you learn to embrace discomfort, your life begins to change. It’s not just in business, social scenarios, or health. It works in all aspects of life. In fact, many religious texts and stories prove that growth lies on the other side of comfort. It’s just how life works.

Do this to escape the comfort trap.

If you have realized you are living in comfort, it’s time you escape the trap. You don’t have to panic or do things quickly. Small, daily actions can help you escape this trap and become your better version.

1. Do one uncomfortable activity every day. Publish something, reach out to someone, or learn a new skill. As I said, it doesn’t have to be anything massive. Perform a small act that is unfamiliar to you.
2. Create small habit changes. For instance, wake up earlier, exercise a bit longer (or lift a much heavier weight), or brush your teeth with your non-dominant hand. It will tell your brain that you can handle discomfort now.
3. Reduce passive comfort. Limit mindless scrolling. Having a smartphone has made us too comfortable. Instead of using it or doing anything that entertains you, replace that time with creation. You can also read a book, something that builds your knowledge.
4. Measure progress, not comfort. Did today move me closer to my potential? Ask this question and analyze your daily activities. If you are still doing things that make you comfortable, it’s time you took things seriously. Try again tomorrow. Do it until you finally feel comfortable being uncomfortable.
5. Reframe discomfort. Your mindset makes you who you are. So, instead of thinking, “This is uncomfortable.” Think, “This is where growth begins.”

Discomfort is not a signal to stop. It’s a signal that you are growing. If life feels too easy for too long, you’re probably not challenging your potential.

Try being uncomfortable. Embrace it instead of avoiding it. Start small, and be consistent.

Let me know what uncomfortable thing you did today in the comments below.

When I started writing online, I didn’t know how to monetize my work. I wrote over 100 articles without earning a single penny. Then I got into freelance writing, taking on a few clients and earning a decent income. Some months were great; others were ghost towns. I was always chasing the next project, the next invoice, and the next “yes.”

Then I stumbled into the world of digital products. I saw so many writers and creators earning “passive” income by selling courses, e-books, guides, checklists, etc.

At first, I didn’t think it was possible, and it felt like a scam. But I kept seeing creators, regular people, talking about selling $20 templates, $49 e-books, or $200 courses — all on autopilot.

So, I wanted to give it a shot.

How It Started For Me

I used to obsess over goals — income goals, fitness goals, writing goals, and relationship goals. The problem wasn’t my ambition; it was my identity. When I learned how to change my identity, I became unstoppable, and achieving my goals became way easier.

Every year, you set goals and feel motivated for a week or two. “This is the year I’m going to change my life finally.” Then, life happens, and you get back to your old self. You won’t achieve your goals that way because you are only thinking about the outcome, without changing the identity. Your old habits and mindset keep you the same.

The core shift you must make is from goal-setting to identity-formation. The truth is that goals focus on outcomes. But growth comes from identity.

You don’t rise to your goals. You fall to your identity.

Read that again!

The problem with traditional goal-setting

Most people set goals and work hard to achieve them. And once they are successful, the motivation drops. They relapse into old habits. Then, they chase the next target without internal change. That might seem like a success, but it won’t help you make a life-altering transformation.

Goals don’t change your behavior. For instance, wanting to “write a book” doesn’t make you a writer. Or wanting to “get fit” doesn’t make you disciplined. Desire doesn’t lead to action. Identity does.

Setting goals increases pressure instead of progress. It creates an outcome obsession, which leads to anxiety. You measure yourself by results, and when you don’t see them, you feel like a failure. There is no real progress for change.

If you’ve failed to achieve your goals before, it’s not because you lack ambition. It’s because you tried to change outcomes without changing yourself.

The identity shift

When you set a goal, you ask, “What do I want?” You make a list of things and start working towards them. However, the real question should be, “Who do I need to become?” That’s identity-based change, which is necessary for you to get results more quickly (and more effectively).

• Wrong: I want to make $10,000/month.
• Right: I want to become someone who creates consistent value.
• Wrong: I want to lose 10 kg.
• Right: I want to become someone who doesn’t negotiate with workouts.
• Wrong: I want to grow on social media.
• Right: I want to become someone who publishes consistently.

Try this:

Pick one goal that is the most important to you. Then, rewrite it as an identity statement.

Align your behavior with your identity. That way, you don’t rely on motivation. You act because this is who you are.

Four years ago, I made a major shift in my identity that has helped me achieve massive results. I wanted to write online, help creators, and build a writing business. But the problem was I kept telling myself, “I want to become a writer.” In my bio, I wrote that I was an “aspiring” writer.

I learned about identity-shifting and how it helps achieve your desires more quickly. Then, I stopped calling myself an aspiring writer. I changed my bio immediately to “writer.” I started calling myself a writer because that’s who I had to become to achieve my writing goals. Then, my actions aligned with it too. What does a writer do? What does their daily schedule look like? I did what a writer does to become one.

How to become what you want to achieve

Identity shift might seem confusing at first. However, with a few easy steps, you can learn this life-altering strategy to achieve your goals.

Step 1: Define the identity clearly

• What does this person do daily?
• How do they think?
• What do they tolerate?
• What do they refuse to tolerate?

Write three to five identity traits. For example, if you want to become a content creator, write:

• I publish weekly.
• I don’t delete drafts out of fear.
• I improve something every day.

Step 2: Build micro-proof daily

You don’t have to go big straight away. Tiny actions daily can help you make an identity shift and slowly tap into a new one.

Do the smallest action that reinforces your new identity. For example, write 200 words daily, do 10 pushups, or post once per week, no matter what.

Remember, small wins matter more than big intentions. As you move forward, focus on continuous improvements. Increase the reps, experiment with ideas, and slowly grow into your new identity.

Step 3: Stop announcing goals. Start showing habits.

Less talking; more doing. Let your actions speak.

Do this: Write down your goals first. Make a list of things you want to achieve. That’s okay. Furthermore, write down the same goals as if you were already someone who has achieved them. Then, practice becoming that person every day.

Step 4: Track identity, not just results

Instead of asking, “Did I hit my target?” Ask, “Did I act like the person I’m becoming today?” You can create a Yes/No daily checklist if that helps. Reflect on your behavior every week. That’ll help you keep track of your path.

Conclusion

You don’t achieve success and then become disciplined. You become disciplined, and success follows. You don’t achieve confidence and then act. You act, and confidence grows.

Your identity helps you do the things necessary to achieve your goals. If you look at the outcome first, you will never become the person who achieves what they want. You will only focus on getting that thing.

Start building the person who naturally produces the outcomes you desire.