How To Grow As A Person (A Straightforward Plan To Counter Entropy)

"My room is a mess."

I realized this today all of a sudden. Last week it was all clean and tidy. It's weird because the only thing I do in my room is sleep. How can my room become a mess?

I started to think about this. And found out that I was not the only one with this problem.

I discovered that it is a universal law that can be applicable to any situation and system. And so also your life.

It's called entropy.

Entropy

Entropy is a measure of disorder. In a closed system, entropy increases. It's a universal law that states that basically all systems have a tendency to turn into chaos.

And this chaos situation is the 'default' mode of the universe. A situation of order has to be artificially created.

And that, my friends, is exactly the reason why it feels like life is getting more and more complicated.

When you were a kid, troubles didn't exist in your world. You would wake up, go to school. Play with your friends and do it all over again.

Life was simple back then. As you grow older and older, entropy increases. Disorder and chaos increases.

Now, we have all these responsibilities. All these different thoughts and feelings. And don't forget about the stress that comes with it.

Every system has the tendency to turn into chaos.

It is simple, really:

Imagine that you take a box of puzzle pieces and dump them out on a table. In theory, it is possible for the pieces to fall perfectly into place and create a completed puzzle when you dump them out of the box. But in reality, that never happens.

Why?

Because there is only one way in which all the pieces are in the correct place, and a million different ways to be in the incorrect place.

The odds are extremely against it.

You have to put attention and energy in the puzzle to get the pieces in the correct place.

And so it is exactly in your life.

Your life also follows the rules of entropy. Your life also has the tendency to turn into disorder and chaos.

For the same reason a puzzle turns into chaos: There are a million incorrect ways your life can turn out, and just a few, correct, worthwhile ones.

And these worthwhile ways to live, require energy and attention. Otherwise, everyone would live a perfect life.

And we all know, that that's not the case.

Complacency

The above story tells us that your life requires constant attention, otherwise it will move towards disorder.

When you look around you, this is exactly what you see. After a certain age (mostly when people get a job), people stop working on themselves.

People start living in a state of complacency and ignorance. That's why most people are unhappy. Entropy sneaks up upon them.

Your life requires constant attention, energy and intention, to lower the entropy.

If you are not willing to do this, chaos is upon you.

On the other hand, intentionally lowering the amount of entropy in your life, will lead to growth and the so called 'good life'.

The Remedy Against Entropy

For most people, the day runs them. Instead of the other way around.

That is a prerequisite for chaos and disorder of course. If you aren't in control of what you do, the world will be in control of you.

And that can't be good.

What you need is a project. An intentional, meaningful project to lower the amount of entropy in your life.

Like a puzzle, you have to put the pieces of your life in the correct place. Otherwise it moves towards chaos. 1 day at a time.

The 3 realms of life

I divide my life up in three parts:

- Physically

- Mentally

- Spiritually

You could come up with more realms, but let's stick to the basics for now.

For each part, each realm, you outline a meaning project. That is, meaningful to YOU.

When you've done that, set a big, quantifiable goal and break it up in small goals.

Then, plan your days and weeks and months to achieve those goals. That is how you fight disorder: by creating order.

Physically

With physical, I mean everything that's connected to your body.

If you want to get into fitness, set the goal of bench pressing 200 lbs in 6 months for example.

Create an environment in which you can achieve that. Plan your work outs. Plan your meals to get enough protein. Go to bed early to get enough sleep.

You could pick running. Any other sport that attracts you.

It's not about the activity itself. It's about bringing order in 1 realm of your life that would otherwise move towards disorder and chaos.

Mentally

With mental, I mean everything that's connected to mental well-being.

The easiest way to lower entropy is to start reading a book. Set the goal of reading 1 book a month. Plan the hours in the day that you will be reading.

But there are countless other ways to increase your mental well-being. You could pick Sudoku's, puzzles, whatever.

Again, it's not about the activity, it's about bringing order to this area of your life.

There's a big chance that you are not intentionally reading every day. The alternative that a lot of people pick, is watching Netflix.

Netflix (and other TV shows) increase the entropy in your life. Have you ever felt clear and well rested after watching a TV show? Me neither.

Spiritually

Spirituality is tricky. There is no clear definition of what this means. To me, it means seeking, and improving my 'higher self'.

If you are religious, you could spend more time practicing your religion.

To me, it means meditating and contemplating on the beauty and absurdity of life.

I usually meditate for about 20 minutes.

All these projects and activities don't have to take up all of your time. You want to create an environment for yourself in which it is easy to maintain order.

Chaos, entropy, will sneak up on you again. Because that's the default mode of the universe.

This is exactly the reason why I don't like the winter break around Christmas.

For no reason I stop working out, I stop reading and meditating. And within a few days I feel completely lost.

Having a plan in place to battle this, is a must.

Create order

Entropy is the tendency of things turning into chaos. By creating order in your life, you automatically counter the disorder. The chaos.

When you start to take this seriously, this 'mission' against entropy, you'll notice a lot of distractions.

Most of these distractions come from friends and family who 'demand' your time.

Friends want to spend time with you. You family and job requires your time. This is all causing chaos in your life.

You have to learn to say 'no'.

No to your friends when they want to go to the movies. No to your relatives when they want to have a dinner party. No to your boss when he asks you to do extra work.

The world demands your time and energy. And if don't set boundaries, you just might give it.

You might give so much energy to everyone else that you don't have enough energy left for yourself.

You will look like a jackass to your friends in this process.

Choosing yourself, by definition, affects others. But you have to choose yourself first. you MUST create order in your own life.

You can't pour from an empty cup.

Become the outlier

I dare to say that 99% of the world population don't understand the principle that we just talked about.

Because of that, you can't expect them to understand you.

Creating order in your life, means taking your life seriously. Something most people don't do.

You create projects that will help you grow as a person. You take these projects seriously and work on them every day.

Whether it's building your body, building your business, building your mental well-being. Doing something every day compounds. And you will become great at it.

In a world full of complacency and mediocrity, you will become the outlier.

You will not fit in anymore with your friends. And you have to be okay with that.

You can't live a life of mediocrity and chaos just because you want to fit in.

Life is too precious for that.

What's next

For now, create 1 or 2 projects. There are always facets of your life that you can improve, otherwise you wouldn't be reading this newsletter.

Set out a big goal. Break it down into smaller parts. Plan your weeks and days and incorporate the project.

For example, I'm trying to become a runner.

I want to run a marathon at the end of the year, so that's in 12 months.

That's 21 kilometers in 6 months. I'm now running 6 kilometers. So every month I have to increase my distance with 2 kilometers.

I plan my days around this, so I can actually do nothing but succeed in this case.

Final note

Life becomes exceptionally more fun when you have something meaningful to work on. Waking up early to work on your future self, is fun.

If you want to fight the boredom and complacency in your life, and along the way become a better person. Lower the entropy in your life.

VK