One of the most accomplished men in American history started every morning standing naked.

There’s a story behind that.

This is your daily message from Chad number 1136 to upgrade your mental game today by telling yourself a better story, because the most important story you hear is the story you tell yourself. This message is dedicated to the memory of my birthday buddy the iconoclastic Tim Buividas. He was one of the good ones.

Here’s the upgrade: You can learn everything from the best, but upgraded thinking knows the last mile is yours alone to walk.

Here’s the story: Benjamin Franklin told his sons to study the successful people around them. Lessons from example, he said, are easier won than lessons from experience. Success leaves clues. Life is about developing the curiosity to pick them up. Franklin did exactly that. He read everyone, watched everyone, borrowed from everyone.

And then he went his own way.

His whole era was crazy for cold-water bathing. It was the health fad of the day. Franklin tried it and decided the shock of the cold water was too violent for him. So he invented his own version. In a letter in 1768, he described it: he rose early, sat in his chamber with no clothes on for half an hour to an hour, reading or writing, letting the cool air do the work the cold water was supposed to do. He called it his “air bath.” He swore by it.

Picture that. The man who tamed lightning, invented bifocals, built the postal service, wrote Poor Richard’s Almanac, and signed the Declaration of Independence—sitting naked in a chair at dawn because he decided the popular method wasn’t right for him.

He learned from everyone. Then he did the one thing nobody else was doing.

That’s the pattern. First, see the world differently. You can’t imagine an alternative reality while you’re reacting to every notification and living inside an echo chamber. It takes protected time and new experiences to expand what you’re even able to perceive.

Second, master your amygdala. The moment you propose something different, the pushback comes and the fear rises. Most people fold. The iconoclast approaches the fear instead of avoiding it. Courage isn’t the absence of fear. It’s acting in its presence.

Third, develop social intelligence. You can see the unseen and tame your fear, but if you can’t translate your vision so people trust it, you’re done. Be fair. Be trustworthy. Be likable. Build the credibility that lets your ideas take root.

Perception, plus courage, plus social skills. Master all three and you become someone who does what others said couldn’t be done.

The world needs your uniqueness. The path always runs the same way. First you imitate. Then you iterate. Then you innovate. Franklin started by copying the best. He ended by doing something nobody had done.

The better story to tell yourself is, “I’ll learn from the best, then I’ll go my own way.” There’s only one of you. Be the best you there is. You be you. The world around has everyone else.

Tell me a story of innovating to fromchadsmith@gmail.com. Send someone a text and ask them, “What’s one thing you do that looks a little weird but you know it works for you?” You can get a free copy of my book, The Most Powerful Story in the World, by going to fromchad.gumroad.com. The transcript of this message and hundreds of others are always available at http://www.fromchad.com.