I used to be a trainer at a gym. Almost without fail, every client who came to me for help was eating a shitty diet.

So the first thing I gave them was an awesome diet.

The female clients would hear me out and happily commit to my diet.

The male clients however, instinctively flinched at the word “diet”, especially the college-aged men. They didn’t want to be on a diet. “Diets are for girls” I could feel them wanting to say.

But here’s the thing: everyone has a diet.

Whether you call it a diet or not, what you eat is your diet. A squirrel subsists on a diet of nuts and fruit.

These guys didn’t realize it, but they already had a diet! I just wanted them to swap out their shitty diet for the fantastic diet I was recommending. In other words, I wanted them to go from not thinking about what they should eat, to thinking about what they should eat.

Because most people don’t think about what they should eat, someone else does it for them (happily, and for a large profit).

Processed food manufacturers engineer their products to be hyper-palatable so it’s hard to resist eating them. Fast food restaurants spend billions of dollars on advertising to sway your choices.

They want dollars. You want abs. If you want abs, you’re going to have to stop letting them decide what you eat. Otherwise, they’ll get your dollars and you won’t get your abs.

But it doesn’t end at diet.

The whole world is full of people who want your routine to benefit them.

And guess what? Just like diet, you have all manner of routines whether you like it or not.

There are some we’re pretty good at, like brushing our teeth 2+ times per day. And most people have a decent morning routine.

But even in the tiniest elements of your life, in every nook and cranny, there’s someone working hard to make you do what they want (and to make it feel like the path of least resistance).

Packing a healthy lunch is harder than going to the Subway sandwich shop down the street from work. Investing in a low-cost index fund of your own choosing is harder than buying a mutual fund with silly fees for the convenience.

Every minute of every day, you need to decide what to do with your time.

I recommend moving that decision up to the front. Instead of counting on yourself to make good decisions all day every day, make one good decision now to implement a good routine. Then just follow it.

Scrolling through your news feed on Facebook is way easier than doing something productive. It’s no surprise that Facebook makes a bazillion dollars a day.

The more time you spend on Facebook, the happier Facebook is. But the less happy you are (unless spending hours/day on Facebook is actually something you want).

I’ll bet it’s not. Most of my clients in the gym came to understand that like it or not, they had a diet. So they should be the ones deciding what it is. Just like you’re realizing now that you make thousands of decisions per day. And to get what you want out of life, you need to be making CONSCIOUS decisions, instead of going with the flow and letting others decide for you.

But making conscious decisions all day everyday is really fucking tiring.

So decide on a good routine.

Because, like it or not, you have routines. If you aren’t mindful of them, someone else will choose what your routines are.

So take control. Think about what you want. And build your own routines.

You’re going to like the results.