Happy Tuesday!

Last week, I had the chance to plant trees in one of the highest neighborhoods of Medellín, Colombia. It was organized by a charity foundation serving the neighborhood.

Even though it’s one of the poorest neighborhoods in the city, the streets were relatively organized and clean. An employee of the foundation attributed this to a local saying:

You can be poor, but choose not to have a poor mentality.

The expression got me thinking about “public” and “private” wins.

What is a “private win”?

For me, a private win refers to the small things we do to keep our life together.

For example:

• 🏋️ Working out
• 🛏️ Making your bed
• 🥗 Preparing healthy meals
• 👖 Doing laundry consistently
• 🧽 Washing your dishes promptly

If you’re privileged enough to outsource these tasks, a private win would mean “keeping the promises you make to yourself”, like:

• 🏃 Working out even when you don’t feel like it
• 📕 Keeping up with a journalling habit
• 🧘 Meditating for at least 5 mins

We often skip the celebration of our private wins because they’re not “flashy” enough to post on social media. The result?

• We compare ourselves to others’ public wins
• We destroy our self-esteem using our perceived lack of wins

Private wins are essential for…

🧘 Keeping your life together.

Disorganization consumes valuable mental headspace that your public wins need.

It also leaves problems for your future self to solve. But our future selves might not always be able to solve them due to emergencies or other unforeseen circumstances.

🏋️ Building your consistency muscle.

The Law of Entropy states that:

Everything goes into disorder eventually when left alone in natural states.

Our lives will always seek to become disorganized, so you need to be consistent with your private wins.

This is why morning routines work and why most successful people have a morning routine. If you can be consistent in private, you can be consistent in public.

To summarize today’s message into the Medellín saying:

You can be failing in public, but choose to continue winning in private.

Celebrate your private wins and use that confidence toward your public pursuits.