For: the ambitious person figuring out how to lead, grow, and intentionally build a fulfilling life - one step up at time. From: someone on the journey too. Released every Thursday at 4:30pm CST.
đź‘Ł Step 52: You Are What You Repeat
👣 Step 52: You Are What You Repeat1 year of the Step Up! WOOP WOOP! I’ve had an absolute blast this past year sharing my thoughts with you, and I’m so glad that so many of you have enjoyed reading them. It truly means the world to me when you text/email with how that newsletter’s topic resonated with you. I started the Step Up with a goal to help others along the same life journey that I’m on, as well as help me better solidify and refine my own thoughts and beliefs. One thing that’s been re-emphasized to me during this first year: your life is built on repetition. Your skills, your health, your relationships, your beliefs. Who you are. They’re all built through repetitive exposure. You can’t build that friendship if you never say hi, then follow up with social interactions. You can’t know something until you’ve been exposed to the information, then solidified it to memory through multiple exposures. You can’t get good at that thing until you just start, then keep practicing. You are what you repeat. Question: when does a sand heap become a heap? Or inversely: if you have a heap of sand, and you remove each grain of sand one by one, when it is not a heap anymore? I don’t know. No one does. And the answer doesn’t necessarily matter. We just intuitively know that there’s an ambiguous, invisible line that’s crossed when we think “yeah, that’s a heap.” It’s the same with habits and repetition. When I started running, I wasn’t a “runner.” But at some point along the way, whether it was 20 runs or 100, I became a runner. When I crossed that invisible line doesn't necessarily matter. James Clear said “Each action is a vote for the person you want to be.” Who do you want to be? And are you repeating the actions that will make that version of you a reality? 52 weeks ago, I wasn't a writer. I just wanted to write about personal development topics I believe can help others and expand into thought leadership. Today, I’m 52 newsletters in. I’m definitely a writer now. Cast your votes. You are what you repeat. Here’s to the next year of the Step Up! I look forward to continuing this journey with you. See you next Thursday, Steppers. We will succeed, Grayson ​graysonstepanek.com​ Song of the Week:
This song always brings me back to Summer 2021. First summer post-COVID. Fraternity outings. Twisted Tea and White Claws. Campion pool parties. Summer breeze. And a super catchy chorus that you can just blare in the car. One of those songs like Walking on a Dream that just encapsulates the airy, bright, "je ne sais quoi" side of life. |
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Grayson Stepanek
For: the ambitious person figuring out how to lead, grow, and intentionally build a fulfilling life - one step up at time. From: someone on the journey too. Released every Thursday at 4:30pm CST.
đź‘Ł Step 58: Invisible Labor I'm a music lover. Always have been, always will be. One music award that's always stuck out in a weird way to me is the Grammy's "Best New Artist" award. Because those artists aren't new. They've been making music for years. They just became popular enough in the past 1-2 years for us to collectively view them as "new." But that's wrong, and it disregards a lot of their foundational, behind the scenes work that got them to that place. It disregards their invisible...
đź‘Ł Step 57: Prioritize, Then Prioritize Again Last Saturday, I ran the Courir a la Musique 8k and had a blast! Beautiful weather, amazing friends, a rich Cajun culture, and I actually hit my pace goal with 10:31. Even though I had fun and did pretty well, I wasn't nearly as trained as I planned to be. Over the past month, I've had to prioritize other things, and running just fell into the maintenance category. And that's okay. Prioritization has been a big thing for me the past few weeks, and...
đź‘Ł Step 56: Doing Nothing is Doing Something A few weeks ago, I talked about one of my mottos: "If you want to, you will." I want to note that the opposite is also true: "If you don't want to, you won't." The first form of the phrase denotes action. Doing. The second form denotes inaction. Not doing. But both are still action. And it is very important to truly understand that. As humans, we struggle understanding things that we can't see or measure. We understand when someone's broken a bone,...