When I meet someone, I consider how normal their life is. I do this not because it’s a one hundred percent accurate heuristic on how much I’ll respect someone, but because it’s damn close. If you have a totally normal life, then there are only two possibilities: you’ve thought through every aspect of your life and miraculously agree with society on each one, or you don’t think at all. I try not to associate with people who don’t think.

Self-discipline is hard to attain, and because it’s not common, sooner or later somebody will deem your behaviors abnormal.

I maintain a healthy weight and physique, but I still fast for 16 to 20 hours daily, and abstain from food for 36 hours or more every several weeks.

My relationship with food is often criticized by other people. If I don’t stuff my face with food every three hours, then surely I’ve developed an eating disorder. The norm is to eat often, and if your behavior differs from it, you’re weird. However, I do what I consider to be best for me, and I refuse to follow different eating habits merely because it’s the most common way of doing things.

It’s difficult to trust your own judgment when everybody around you is doing something different, but if everything you do is in accordance with society’s norms, then what you’re going to get is the same results as everybody else does who follows those norms.

So what if others think it’s weird that you’d rather save money instead of buying a new car every two years? You’re the one who has less financial stress, even if it costs you a little to reject the temptation to spend money unnecessarily.

So what if you’re not partying every weekend like everybody else and instead work hard to grow your business? You’re the one who will eventually enjoy wealth, while those others will complain about their finances for the rest of their lives.

So what if people consider you weird because you go to sleep at nine and wake up at five in the morning, while they stay up until two in the morning watching TV shows? It’s you who’s going to get more done by ten in the morning than they’ll accomplish in the entire week!

Trust your own judgment and think for yourself. It’s better to suffer from your own choices than waste your life away because you were mindlessly following the herd.

People who say it cannot be done should not interrupt those who are doing it.

Some people don’t want to start exercising because they’re afraid that others will laugh at their inability to perform a pushup or run for more than sixty seconds without losing their breath. They might be afraid that their friends will talk behind their backs, taking bets when they’re going to fail.

Thousands of people all over the world dream of entrepreneurship, but are afraid to take the first step because if their business fails, their ego will suffer too hard of a blow.

Self-discipline isn’t only about forcing yourself to do things that are unpleasant for the sake of long-term goals. It’s also about resisting the temptation to stay mediocre in order to avoid criticism. True, staying in your comfort zone is safe and there’s little criticism you’ll encounter along the way. However, there’s a high price associated with this choice: you won’t ever get to change your current situation.

Over the long term, how important is it really that some unintelligent meathead smirks at you at the gym when you’re struggling to complete a set of pushups? Is the momentary pain of that really greater than the pain of regret when you realize that another year has passed without you acting on your goals?