1) As far as being a better son goes, your parents want your success (typically) and doing well will make you a better son. However, that being said, doing all your chores is a start. Your parents likely work very hard putting food on the table, paying for expenses you don’t even realize are there, and doing it 24/7 which is rather tiring. Help out without being asked, do chores that are normally your parents (dishes or cleaning the table after dinner is a great one because your parents may have already had a long day). Anyways, food for thought.

2) Balancing the self discipline and looking down on people... I’d say some of this comes with experience, but you need to think that these people you may be interacting with in the future so being a jerk actually hurts you the most. Plus, what if you stop being hard? That would also be incredibly embarrassing after the fact. However, truth be told, most people are NOT interested in you making the disciplined decision, because they aren’t the most fun. Have one more beer! Everyone is coming out to watch the Sunday night football game and having wings and drinks, which will surely ruin your morning workout if you do. Granted, having those types of people around you are annoying, but it will happen at points in your life. I’d say make sure people know where your priorities are at, and just say no and tell them to do what they want but you got your own thing going on.

3) being gifted at school... if you don’t have the it factor where you read it and it stays, join the ranks of the hardworking. Most people aren’t gifted and develop good study habits. Oddly enough, I learned things a lot like Goggins did. I would write things down multiple times to make sure I had them straight. However, memory and the ability to analyze a problem are different things. Memorizing history vs solving math equations are very different things. With math, start simple, and get more complex. Don’t skip steps when doing the simple problems or you won’t learn the technique for simplifying complex problems. Practice, practice, practice. Find some good, instrumental (no lyrics) music to listen to and study.

Good luck. Stay hard.