✴️ How I'm Making... #10

✏️ Summary

Growth looks (and feels) like this.

In order to actually keep improving, I need to remember these points:

• There is no single smooth path

• Action alleviates anxiety

• Impatient with actions, patient with outcomes

• Sort out the basics so you can take bigger swings

Most crucially, I need to remember that I can’t give myself a choice. If I have a choice, I will always take the easier route. There is no choice - the decision was made when I decided to do it.

📈 Lesson: On the Jagged Edge of Growth

God I can be so lazy.

This week I’ve been struggling with waking up on time.

For those of you who don’t know, I’ve woken up at 4:30 every day for the past year, so I can get a few hours of work done before I go to my day job. (This includes weekends - it means I can get a full day’s worth of work done by the early afternoon.)

For the past couple of weeks, I’ve been sleeping in more and more.

This has also been impacting the way I work.

I’ve been thinking about why this is. Here are my thoughts, laid out completely bare for you to enjoy ;)

1. Giving myself a choice

When I look back at the past year, I can think of a few exceptional accomplishments.

1. For weeks, I woke up at 4 before work, cold called agencies in India, got rejected hundreds of times

2. After not working out for a few months, I did 100 pull ups in one hour

3. I got two raises at work in 12 months

When I look at each situation, a few things are clear.

First, I had a clear definition of the input, and how long it would take. 

Second, I knew what the output would look like, and what I was aiming for

Third, I gave myself no choice.

I DECIDED that these were inputs that I would put into a larger goal of who I wanted to be, and what I wanted to do.

I realize now that I have been giving myself an option to not work in the mornings. I need to remember that there is no choice. It’s a decision that is already made. And every morning, I can become more like the kind of person who decides on things and makes them happen. 

The choice is not just the action I take, but the person I choose to become.

2. Forgetting where I’m going

I have things that I need to make happen. I know I will make them happen at some point, because I know I will not quit until they do.

What I’d forgotten is that the outcome matters much less than who I become as a result of them. 

When I make an outcome my goal, I have to be much more patient. I don’t want to be more patient than I have to be.

So I need to remember that where I’m going is who I’m becoming - and that the actions I take are the only ways to get there. 

3. Forcing stability, and getting bullets in the chamber

I talked about this last time - but I’m trying to find a place to live, and also applying to a visa that determines if I can live and work here. 

The instability may not be making me anxious, but it’s clouding my judgment. 

I cannot take big swings if I don’t know how long my bat is. 

Since I don’t know what my monthly living expenses will look like, I cannot spend half my paycheck on an experiment.

This is the price of the lack of clarity. Not knowing what pieces I have on the board makes it much harder to know what move to play

Control the basics.

Achieve clarity. 

4. Patient in the macro, impatient in the micro

Every day, I can get closer to my goals. But if I only think about the goals I will  be tempted to take shortcuts. 

I try to remember where I’m going. 

The result I seek is on the other side of the work I'm putting off.

🔗 Service: Community Management

A community is the best way to engage your fans. If you want a group of raving customers that think about you without you telling them to, get in touch!

What’s Next?

I have a lot of work to do, way more than I’d been giving myself permission to do.

I’m excited to get stuck in!

That’s all for now!

To everyone that joined this week, what do you do? I’d love to hear 🙂 

Cheers,

Ben

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