I’ve been putting a lot of my inner frame on here lately and there’s always something new that comes to me worth expanding on.

This particular area of relevance ties into cultivating a high value frame and keeping it. In my previous posts, I’ve outlined things like – grounding yourself, eliminating the inner bitch, constant evolution, cushion systems & routines, and more.

We’re going to expand upon these, more precisely how to enable your own personal growth mode while maintaining and improving all the other areas of your life simultaneously.

Enabling Maintenance Mode

In our respective walks of life, anything worthwhile takes time and work. One can ask anyone of measurable success and the core themes are the same. A compelling and rough upbringing is typically brought up accompanied by actionable steps taken to pursue their dreams/desires.

That day in and day out pursuit of our dreams/desires are what fill our beings with purpose. There’s no escaping the work. Our time is very limited, how we use it directly dictates our trajectory.

In other words, through input – output gets received. If you’re chasing dirty 4’s every weekend and blowing your paycheck at the club, it’s probably not going to be very fruitful.

Malcolm Gladwell dived deep into this concept in his book Outliers. In case you haven’t read it, he articulates that in order to be successful at anything one has to put in 10,000 hours on the activity. I tend to agree with it.

Eventually when we do something enough, it begins to become second nature. Through input, we begin to receive the output desired.

Now, how does that relate to “maintenance modes”?

The relation is quite the same, as you progress further along that initial starting point – what was once daunting isn’t anymore. Through consistency and dedication, things begin to become much more manageable and routine-like.

Thus, you’re able to enter into a maintenance mode on that particular area. It’s became second nature and you shape your daily routine around it. Fitness is a great example for this.

When you first start off, it’s pretty rough. Eventually those goals you set get breached and new ones are formed. By enabling maintenance mode (following your routine), over time you can turn on growth mode for other areas of life.

Bring on the Growth

Now that we’ve outlined maintenance modes, it’s worth expanding on the real golden nugget – growth mode.

I’ve mentioned several times I have a clear system for incorporating longer term changes. It goes a bit like this for those who are unaware.

  • WTF moment – ex: (I do not like the way my body looks, I should do something about it today).
  • Recollection and drive – ex: (Remember what you used to look like?)
  • Routine – ex: (You may not like it, but this is what needs to be done today).

Growth mode takes a small detour from this system. Since the original system is required to reach that maintenance mode, growth mode is more of an uncharted territory. Thus, it must be treated as such.

The things I would typically lump into a growth mode area consists of career/work, personal, etc. These are more shorter term changes I’m wishing to bring about. The original system is more geared towards longer term changes, not that growth mode doesn’t enable that – it absolutely does.

But, with this I enter maintenance mode for all my other areas of life and take about 1 month to fully immerse myself towards a new goal. The objective is simple, get myself out of my comfort zone and spend my extra time towards acquiring that goal/desire.

I think a great example to tie in here is dating.

Say you’re one who doesn’t have a whole lot of experience in that department. Likely, you don’t pick up on the nuances and know how to vibe with other people – particularly the opposite sex.

By enabling growth mode, you tell yourself the following: “This month I’m going to go out with friends to clubs/bars 2-3 times a week”. The objective is clear, you’re immersing yourself into spending more time on that activity even though it may not be comfortable for you.

Through that immersion, you gain experience. The experience eventually translates itself and your interactions moving forward will more than likely be less daunting. Slowly, that second hand nature begins to shell itself out and measurable growth gets achieved.

Final Notes

Growth mode is an effective tool towards incorporating shorter-term changes. By entering maintenance mode on your other areas, one has essentially nothing to lose from following it and everything to gain.

These inner frames are important to cultivate. Things such as being selfish, constantly evolving yourself, eliminating the inner bitch and more are all hurdles.

Through that struggle lies opportunity and eventually we reach an area in life where things begin to fall in place. With maintenance modes combined through the power of growth mode, the possibilities are endless for each of us in our respective walks of life.

You just gotta do it, like Nike said.