The paradox of the long- and short-term view of success

A couple months ago, former UFC featherweight champ Max Holloway was preparing for a super important fight. Perhaps the most important fight of his career.

Max’s manager, Christopher Daggett, had the following to say about this preparation:

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“Everything with Max — whether it’s finances, his family, brand, partnerships, charity, his health — all of these are long-term things. But when it comes to the fight game, everything is short-term. We’re looking three feet ahead and that’s it. So, to that end, it always feels like everything is at stake. We’re putting everything on the table. At the same time, we know that no matter what, two weeks from now, Max is still Max. That sounds like a contradiction. But really, from a short term, everything is at stake, but everything will be fine two weeks from now and we understand that.”

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The above quote may sound paradoxical, so to recap the essential:

In one instant, Max and his team focus on just the next step (three feet ahead, everything is at stake).

​​In the next instant, they focus on the long-term destination (no matter what happens, everything will be fine, Max is still Max).

​​And they do this over and over.

I bring up this quote to invite you to look at both long term and short term of this email.

In the short term, I want to tell you that:

Looking at your goals both from 3 feet away… and also from 30,000 miles away… is one of the 6 characteristics shared by people who have a positive mental attitude. At least around a specific goal or activity.

Perhaps you think “positive mental attitude” is such a worn-out phrase. Perhaps you are surprised I’m even writing about it.

I’m doing so because read I about positive mental attitude a while back in a book I liked a lot and found very valuable.

But more importantly, I’m doing it because well-worn doesn’t mean well-near-worthless.

​I hope you can see that. And I hope you don’t just jump on every bandwagon passing through town, trying to lure you to the new success and self-help circus that just pitched its tent down at the old horse track.

The fact is, the 6 characteristics of a positive mental attitude have helped athletes recover from serious injuries… star Wall Street traders win at the stock market… and have probably responsible, consciously or unconsciously, for much of the success in this world.

For example, once I found out about these 6 characteristics, I recognized them from my own life. I wasn’t always aware of them. And I didn’t always have them. But when I achieved the things I have achieved in my life, these characteristics were there, whether I knew it or not.

So that’s the short term. ​​T​oday’s email. Where I told you about you one of these characteristics, about the short-term and long-term views to your goals.

As for the the long term, meaning next few days, I will tell you the remaining 5 of 6 characteristics. In case you’d like to read about those characteristics as I write about them, you can sign up for my email newsletter here.