First Week of the New Year ✅: Are You On Track?

I wish I could audit myself in spreadsheets, graphs, tables, maps, etc. That would be so cool!

First week of the new year complete.

Take some time to audit it.

What did you like?

What did you not like?

I already wrote about Auditing Yourself here but it’s worth reiterating again.

Auditing what you do with your time and comparing what you are doing to what you say you will do is so critical to establishing whether you are actively matching the expectations you set out for yourself.

This past year, I’ve had the chance to talk to more people and to connect more deeply with friends about how we’re wired. For me, I’m always wired to want to do more self-development or wired to want to learn how to do things more efficiently.

Whether that’s trivial things like finding the fastest route to work with the least traffic lights, stop signs, and traffic jams to more professional duties, trying to figure out whether macros and text expanders are allowed at work (where we can’t install Google Chrome by ourselves - hospital IT protocols).

The take-away is that I’m wired to think about optimizing and doing things more efficiently.

The thing for me, is that it becomes a struggle and hurdle to try something new or try something different because it can feel inefficient or a ‘waste of time’. For me, that means the biggest barrier to growing and learning is with new skills and new interests. I am inclined to watch youtube videos, study up on the subject more, and know more about the subject, but it becomes a barrier to actually trying the new skill because I have this expectation that I can recreate what I theoretically know as ‘good’ work compared with what I can currently achieve.

The kind of life that I want means I have to get over that hurdle.

So here’s my plan.

Over the next year, I want to learn new things on a forced schedule.

By committing to it at the beginning of the year and forcing myself to document my learning, I can establish a habit, make it publicly known so I have external/societal pressure and accountability (even if no one reads this) cause I have to post about it, and create a schedule to accomplish it consistently.

So here’s my SMART goal for accomplish.

I will attempt one new thing every week that pushes me creatively or towards one of my current interests for 52 weeks 100% of the time. This will be documented and posted publicly on my blog to capture the process of learning on a weekly basis. Some will be longer projects if they’re more complex and some will be shorter projects if they are more simple. Nevertheless, I will post weekly.

I will attempt one new thing every week that pushes me creatively or towards one of my current interests for 52 weeks 100% of the time. This will be documented and posted publicly on my blog to capture the process of learning on a weekly basis.

(For added intentionality, it gets its own quoted format to stand out)

My goal is to design the life I want and I want a life where I am comfortable pushing myself, failing, trying, and growing. That will sometimes be successful and smooth and other times, challenging, uncomfortable and frustrating. But I want that process to happen because I’d rather it be uncomfortable and challenging now rather than unknown and unaddressed.

This goal will help me structure my weekly schedule cause I have less time to do random, unrelated things like playing video games, watching TikTok or whatever else that mindlessly eats up my time. If I want to spend 30 minutes on TikTok, then it must be intentional and decidedly important.

Auditing my time forces me to come face to face with my actions and put a spotlight on them. It forces me to come to terms with the reality of how I spend my time and it forces me to make a conscious decision moving forward.

I’m excited and nervous to see this through, but it’s the lifestyle I want. And maybe along the way, it may help you with your own goals too! Seeing someone else chase after their goals can always be motivating.

So, stay tuned!

Hijacking Your Habits for 2023

Welcoming in the 2023 year with refreshed optimism and a clean slate (or perhaps 7 days of newly established consistency if you got a head start last week), it’s time we hijack some bad or less productive habits for better ones.

But first, let’s talk about the make-up of a habit.

What Are Habit Triggers?

A trigger is defined as an event that kicks off the automatic urge to complete a habit.

Triggers are the key to forming new habits and breaking old ones. A new trigger can help form new habits and removing a trigger can help break an old one. Simply put, triggers make the habit action happen.

A trigger can be anything in our environment which our brains associate with a habit. Where we are, who we are with, and what just happened have a powerful and invisible effect upon our behavior.

Every time a trigger successfully triggers a habit, our brains strengthen the association between a habit and its trigger. As an association between a habit and a trigger increases, the habit becomes more and more ingrained until we can perform our habits on full auto-pilot.

Why Are Triggers Important?

In order to break a habit, we need to understand and recognize our triggers. Our old habits are constantly being reinforced by their triggers. We tend to repeat what we previously did in a similar situation. The key though is recognizing what our triggers are in order to be aware, to avoid them if needed, and build a support to reframe them.

If the trigger for an old habit never occurs, the habit loop is interrupted. Without repeated reinforcement, the association between habit and trigger weakens through neglect. Therefore, if we can eliminate our exposure to triggers for old habits, we can eliminate the habits themselves.

How Can We Create Triggers That Work?

Triggers are quite easy to recognize and formulate once you understand them. We can use triggers to program our behaviors in the same way we would program a computer or complete simple logic statements.

“IF [THIS], THEN [THAT]”.

To create a new habit, start by writing it out in the form of an algorithm:

“IF [Trigger], THEN [Do Habit Behavior]”.

The best triggers are all Specific, Consistent, Automatic, and Unavoidable.

1. Specific. When instructions are clear, there is no room for interpretation, loopholes, or ways to misrepresent a trigger.

2. Consistent. The more consistent or frequent a trigger leads to a habit, the more strong that association becomes.

3. Automatic. When a trigger happens on its own without any ongoing effort or conscious/active effort on your part, the more reliably it can trigger. If you have to actively complete a trigger or play a role in the trigger, the more unreliable it becomes as a trigger.

4. Unavoidable. The more unavoidable the trigger, the more reliable it is in activating a habit. If your trigger is avoidable, then of course there is more room for error, room for loopholing your desired habit, and more excuses to not do the habit.

Trigger Categories:

1) Preceding Event

It is important to realize that there are hundreds of pre-existing triggers already happening throughout your day. Every morning we get out of bed, get dressed, brush our teeth, make breakfast, make coffee, and travel to work. Each of these preceding events represents an opportunity to stack on a new productive habit.

If we don’t complete the tasks in this order, there is a visceral feeling of skipping a step, missing something or something being atypical. This is how powerful each event acts as a trigger to the next habit.

How to Use Preceding Events Triggers:

Stack habits together into routines.

In a routine, each of the habits forms part of a structure which reinforces the other habits. This is particularly useful in the morning or before bed when energy and attention are lowest.

By completing the trigger action, you set the first routine habit in motion. This increases the chances of completing all of the habits in the routine.

There is a reason when you enter the washroom in the morning you think about going to the toilet, brushing your teeth, washing your face, putting on face cream, flossing. Those all stack together under the ‘morning routine’.

2) Time

Our biological clocks and forced synchronization with societal rhythms make time a powerful and universal trigger. We wake up, go to work, and eat our meals at similar times each day.

Time can be very useful with habit building because it is not ambiguous and has a recurring predictability. 9:15AM happens at every day. The trouble is that we, as humans, are not reliable timekeepers and lose track of time.

This is why automatic digital reminders for ourselves such as an alarm, a calendar event, or an app notification are so useful.

How to Utilize Time Triggers:

This is why I love my Apple watch because I get tactile feedback to buzz my arm at specific times of day. I don’t need my phone on me and it doesn’t disturb the people around me either. It’s just a tactile cue for only me to know what needs to happen next.

A recurring notification on my watch triggers when I need to start heading out the door in the morning to get to work on time. That trigger ensures I am punctual.

3) Location

Location is a powerful driver of automatic habits. You do certain things in certain locations and it can either work in your favour or disturb your productivity. Putting ourselves in a supportive environment is the most important proactive factor we can manipulate to ensure that we stick to our good habits.

All of our familiar locations have habits (good and bad) already associated with them. If we want to build new habits in these locations, we need to overwrite the triggers that already exist there.

For me, the office space where my desktop computer can be a trigger to playing video games. I enjoy playing video games but I know I will have an urge to game if I sit for too long in the computer room.

Luckily, we can replace some location-based triggers with physical reminders for our desired habits instead of our undesired or less-productive habits.

Knowing what triggers are doing to our behaviours is the first step to addressing those habits.

For me, actively being aware of that urge to game and instead forming new active habits on top of that trigger instead is helping me re-write those habits.

How To Utilize Location Triggers:

So right now, I am still working on weakening the trigger-behavior relationship between my computer room and playing video games. It’s not a terrible habit but it’s not as productive as I want to be.

So while this relationship still exists, I am using it to my advantage. When I have the urge to play video games, that urge is a trigger for me to exercise. If I have already exercised that day, I will allow myself to play video games. But if I have not exercised that day, I will then leave the room (to avoid further location trigger cues) and do something positive for my physical health. Whether that is dancing, strength training, or calisthenics.

4) Emotional State

Emotions are common triggers for our bad habits. We eat, not because we are hungry, but because we are bored. We play mindless games or impulsively check social media, not because we enjoy them, but to distract us from our stress and anxiety. A lot of our ‘maladaptive behaviors’ exist as escapism from the actual pain point.

Being aware of the important signals that are emotions is helpful to acknowledging what is actually happening and how to feel those emotions more productively. We can never truly subdue or repress our emotions in a healthy way so experiencing them in a healthy way is a much more viable option.

This one is going to be a bit more personal because we all can experience emotions differently and respond to those emotions differently. Take some time to make note of the signs that you may be in one of these negative emotional states. Ask your partner or family. They will usually have a pretty good idea of your warning signs or telltale signs.

By taking these telltale signs as triggers for a productive or safe habit, we can create appropriate outlets or avenues to express our emotion. Whether that is taking a break, walking outside, safely expressing pent-up energy into something like art or physical activity, it can be a positive outlet we won’t regret.

Without these habits in place, our energy can be volatile, destructive, or accomplish something we might regret.

How To Utilize Emotional State Triggers:

When I get anxious or stressed, I don’t notice it mentally. Mentally, I stay pretty even-keel but instead, there are telltale physical signs for me. My shoulders raise and get tight. I get a knot in my stomach that takes days to relax. I get irritated with people. Knowing these signs lets me recognize what needs to happen next, what I may need to do physically to ensure I am taking care of myself, and that I can continue to remain productive.

For example, I try to take a bath or massage my shoulders at the end of a stressful day because I know my posture and shoulder pain may come. I also know I have lower back pain so scheduling a massage might help me through the stressful times.

5) Other People

People can act as triggers. Your habits, the way you act, the way you feel can ultimately be a result of person triggers.

Friends and family will reinforce and encourage the behaviors that they value and sabotage the behaviors which they don’t value. They will positive reinforce things they want out of you and negatively suppress the things they don’t want. And this is happening with or without their conscious intention.

When building (or breaking) a habit, it is critical to consider the role your significant other, your roommates, your friends and your extended family’s impact on you. Pretty much anyone you spend a lot of time with.

Let’s say your friends always ask you to play video games but you’re trying to break a video game habit. Well, they’re acting as a trigger for a habit you’re trying to break. Now you’re in an awkward situation where you are avoiding socializing with friends, not because you don’t like your friends but because you don’t want such a strong habit of gaming. Being explicit in communicating your intention will help their buy-in and support of your decisions. They will question your choices less once they understand the motivations behind them. They can also keep you accountable if they sense you are failing.

To maximize chances of success, turn habit building into an accountability partnership with others. If you have trouble going to the gym, a gym buddy can be the answer! You will feel pressure to show up for them and they will feel pressure to show up for you.

How To Utilize Other People Triggers:

I try to have social reinforcement for my goals and habits by making them public to my close friends.

We actively discuss our goals for the year, our hopes and expectations and we keep each other accountable. By sharing with others, we give feedback, are invested in each other’s success and we also have a bet for who accomplishes the most from their goals. Even when my friends are not even living in the same area as me, they still act as triggers through our regular interactions.

So What Happens In 2023?

It’s a brand new year. I challenge you to take inventory of your current habits and what habits you’d like to replace to become more productive.

How will you move forward?

Maybe if you are a perfectionist, once you ask yourself the question, “Am I done yet?”, you can set a time trigger to stop working on a project within the hour. It gives you an hour to add any last minute changes but also forces you to complete something rather than extending the deadline indefinitely. That may be the necessary trigger for you to get more accomplished rather than dragging your feet on finishing a project.

If you are a daydreamer, what are your triggers to start daydreaming? Maybe it’s a location trigger that you’ve been in the same space for too long and a change in scenery may break that habit. Going to a coffee shop, the library or even a different space in your home may break that habit and keep you productive quicker.

What about if you have FOMO and other people are the trigger to getting distracted? What about a no-phone policy between certain times of the day where notifications are off, phone is silent and in a different room and you can focus for deep work. Obviously communicating that intention with your friends is important to make sure you don’t come across as ignoring them, but think of the wonders it can have on your productivity.

What are your triggers? And how will you optimize them for your habit building needs? Let me know if you have anything special or interesting that you do differently in your life. I’d love to hear!

Don't Wait Until New Year's: 5 Reasons to Start Your Resolutions Now

The New Year is only a couple days away.

Why not hit the ground running and tackle a new years resolution BUT 5 days in ADVANCE!

How’s that for productivity. You’re getting ahead of the game by not waiting 5 days.

One of the most common resolutions people make each year is to be more productive, to do the things they’ve put off, to get back on the habits they know are good for them.

But why wait until the new year to start working on this goal?

There's no reason to put off making positive changes in your life, and starting now can actually help you get ahead.

1. 5 Extra Days

You’ll get 5 days of habit formation and then you’ll get a New Year day boost cause everyone else is starting too.

First of all, starting now allows you to take advantage of the momentum you already have.

If you're feeling motivated and focused right now, why not use that energy to make progress on your goals?

Additionally, starting now allows you to deal with any challenges, setbacks, or false starts that may come up along the way.

If you fumble, backpedal, or encounter problems right now? No sweat. People haven’t even started yet. Plus, you can pretend you just started too on New Years so you hit the ground running and can keep the facade that it ‘first try’ if it matters to you.

2. Visualize Your Progress

Starting now allows you to see the results of your efforts sooner. Seeing progress and success can be a great motivator and help you stay on track. By starting now, you'll be able to see the fruits of your labor a little more quickly. But a little more quickly can be that edge you need to stay the course, stay consistent, and actually create life-changing habits.

You’re doing it for yourself but sometimes it’s nice to get external validation sooner. Whether that’s starting to go the gym for the first time. An extra 5 days for a complete noob might get you more comfortable in the space, less anxious about going first thing in the New Year when it’s even more busy, and maybe get you comfortable with a basic routine.

And even that comfort can be enough of a visual of your progress. You may not become the hulking image of a Greek god in 5 days but 5 days of knowing where different equipment is, getting off the couch and lacing up your shoes is a good enough win for you to make the habit stick.

3. Your Fresh Start’s Fresh Start

You know how Thursday is Friday’s Friday? Well right now is New Year’s Christmas. You are this close to the New Year.

The new year represents a fresh start. For many people, the new year feels like a clean slate, a time to leave the past behind and focus on the future. This feeling of a new beginning can be a great motivator to start working on new goals.

But imagine if you got the jump on your future by having your clean slate now before slates need to be cleaned?

Ever thought of that?

via GIPHY

There’s nothing wrong with starting sooner if you have that desire. Yes, New Years can be a social catalyst. The new year is often a time when people come together and celebrate, which can create a sense of community and support. This can be a great time to start working on goals, as you may have others who are also motivated and looking to make positive changes. But, if you have that desire, you can go into those celebratory times already knowing you’re well on your way!

4. Avoid the ‘New Year, New Me’ Mentality

Some people may fall into the trap of thinking that they need a specific date or time to make positive changes in their lives. This mindset limits you and restricts your thinking in that you need an external event to occur for you to take control of your life. It can lead to unrealistic expectations, especially if you have setbacks, and a lack of follow-through, because if you didn’t act, you can’t simply start but need to wait for the next external event to spur your motivation.

Decide now for yourself. Do you have the power to internally start the clock and take control of the situation for yourself and your dreams.

If so, why would you have to wait for the New Year to begin? It’s not a new you. It’s a growing, developing, learning you who has honed your skills and implemented the habits to keep yourself accountable.

5. Momentum Builds

Momentum is important in productivity because it helps to keep you moving forward and making progress. When you have momentum, it can be easier to stay focused and motivated, and to overcome challenges and setbacks that may come up along the way. It can be easier to build on your successes and keep making progress if you do them daily.

On the other hand, a lack of momentum can make it more difficult to get started and stay focused on your goals. It can be easy to get stuck in a rut and lose motivation, which can make it harder to make progress.

Starting now can let you have those small, achievable goals, and easy wins early. You can get the foundations right so that you can track your progress, get your space and head cleared, and hit the ground running.

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So don't wait until the new year to start working on your productivity goals. Take advantage of the moment you're in right now and start making progress. You'll be glad you did!

Boost Your Productivity with ChatGPT: 3 Tips for Harnessing the Power of AI to Get More Done!

ChatGPT, the current latest craze, is a powerful artificial intelligence tool, that can help you be more productive.

Here are three tips for using ChatGPT to increase your productivity:

1. Research and gather information: ChatGPT can help you gather information and research for projects, saving you time and effort. Simply ask ChatGPT for the information you need and it will search the web and provide the results. This can range from generating blogpost ideas, phrasing things properly.

2. Generate algorithm-friendly marketing hook points: ChatGPT can help you market yourself and your delivery to survive in our 3-second world. Whether that is social media content like instagram or twitter, it’ll write appropriate hashtags too! In fact, ChatGPT made the title to this blogpost. Did it work on you to capture your attention?

3. Automate repetitive tasks: ChatGPT can be used to automate repetitive tasks, freeing up your time and energy to focus on more important tasks. For example, you can use ChatGPT to write emails. Want it to write you copy for a standard “Thank you for contacting me” email? Consider it done. What about a “Cold Call Email?” Same thing. You can then focus on the specific details that set you apart and not worry about the flow, the grammar, or the other aspects so you can personalize what sets you apart and how you can help address their pain points.

Overall, ChatGPT is a powerful tool that can help you increase your productivity and get more done each day. By automating repetitive tasks, gathering information, and generating the framework of content, you can use ChatGPT to streamline your work and accomplish more.

Embrace Short-Term Discomfort

Winter is here in Canada and even though Vancouver winters are milder, all I want to do is hibernate under a blanket.

It’s a reminder for me that I have to intentionally and willfully resist my desire to seek comfort.

We’re hardwired to seek comfort, to be pain-free, to run away from the uncomfortable.

The issue is always seeking comfort can ultimately self-sabotage long-term plans for comfort because we are prioritizing short-term relief.

It makes sense during earlier days. You escape harsh winters when freezing to death was a concern. Because if you didn’t survive the winter season, you wouldn’t have a long-term future. So, short-term comfort seeking was a necessity.

Nowadays, many of us who have the luxury of a stable home, source of food, stable job don’t have those concerns with basic needs and instead can plan for the long-term.

But we still choose short-term comfort.

Brianna Wiest talks about this Knowing-Doing Gap coined by Jeffrey Pfeffer and Robert Sutton in “the Knowing-Doing Gap: why we Avoid Doing What’s Best For Us, and how to Conquer Resistance For Good” essay in 101 Essays That Will Change The Way You Think.

We know that working out regularly, eating better, waking up early, choosing affirmative thoughts and such are all good for us. Common sense tells us these things. But we choose otherwise. We choose to eat junk food, we choose to laze around.

But we must focus our mindset on the discomfort we will face if we don’t do the thing in front of you, as opposed to the discomfort you will face if we do.

Let me explain how I understand it.

We must take action and pursue how we want to live.

The knowing-doing gap if left unchecked or unaddressed will only widen the chasm of what we intellectually know we actually want and what we decidedly remain inadequate at.

That understanding that we are constantly not achieving what we intellectually want will cause great stress because we time and again self-sabotage. Recognizing the autonomy we have in the decision only further exemplifies the self-criticism and guilt we have for our self-sabotaging way, leaving us as Brianna Wiest says, “a shell of the person you intended to be”.

You have to take control for yourself, and you can do so by considering the big picture. The alternative. The way your life will be if you don’t do this thing.

Of course it is uncomfortable to work, to push ourselves beyond our current capacity of tolerance, to be vulnerable to new experiences. Even more so now with social media where our curated version of ourselves is on display.

But it is important to do the things we want to do, even when they are uncomfortable. Most things aren’t as hard or as trying as we chalk them up to be. Taking small steps will remind you that this is true. It will soothe you in a way that just thinking about taking action never will. It’s easier to act your way into a new way of thinking rather than think your way into a new way of acting, so do one little thing today and let the momentum build.

So do 5 minutes of whatever it is you theoretically want.

5 minutes to break your comfort barrier.

5 minutes to realize “it isn’t so bad”.

Whether that’s 5 minutes of exercise when it’s cold.

5 minutes of whatever study you want to learn.

5 minutes of discomfort which can have the momentum to get you past your resistance of discomfort.

For me, the biggest obstacle is exercising right now. I just fall asleep under a blanket on the couch. I feel cold and sedentary. And exercising in shorts and a t-shirt sounds like such an uncomfortable experience when I’ve found a cozy space.

And I have to realize it’s okay to be cold. It’s okay to want warmth. Put on a sweater. Start working out. You’ll warm up and end up exercising. You’ll accomplish something you wish to do.

Now I know I will continue to struggle perpetually with this. Winter always comes around. Feelings of cold aren’t suddenly going to disappear. But it’s the fact that cold is temporary, that the discomfort is temporary, and that the long-term goal of regular exercise for my health and well-being is consistently worth that discomfort.

That’s what matters.

Privileged Productivity

Being productive is truly a privilege that I have in the context of health.

Definitely over the last couple of days, my productivity has plummeted because I haven’t been feeling well and largely been sleeping.

And as a result, I’ve come face to face with the notion of privilege in terms of my health, well-being and support system in place that allows me the opportunity to push myself productively.

Without any of those aspects of my health, well-being and support, I would not have the time or energy to focus on being productive.

And I think the takeaway is to make sure you establish for yourself a routine or strategy to optimize your health, well-being, and have a support system in place.

Whether that is:

• Regular exercise and attention to your diet to build endurance, optimize physical health, and balance your nutrition

• Meditation and Mindfulness to focus and ground your mental health, provide a creative outlet or provide a mental anchor amidst the chaos of life

• Having a loving Support System of friends and family to seek advice, to talk to, to rely on, to bounce ideas off of, to hold you accountable.

So develop those things for yourself.

I was reminded of this while watching ‘Stutz’, ,the Netflix Jonah Hill documentary when Dr. Phil Stutz talks about Life Force and the life force pyramid

Work on your Life Force (Always)! Everything else will fall into place.

And I think there’s something stabilizing about the directness and straightforwardness off that advice.

But it goes to show that if one doesn’t have one of these facets of their life in check, that their productivity can be detrimentally impacted. If you have physical health issues, those can certainly make you feel unwell or unable to sustain long periods of productivity.

If your mental health requires your attention, then that too can impact your ability to focus on work. If you suffer from clinical depression for example and lack the motivation to get out of bed, how can you expect to optimize anything?

If you lack the support system in place that holds you grounded in yourself, your values, your community, then you may lack the direction or vision to inspire and foster grassroots growth.

I don’t think this post necessarily has to do with optimizing or overall performance but serves as a gentle reminder and recognition for the behind the scenes impact of these modalities on one’s output. An appreciative post on the spotlight-less side.

After all, we celebrate the person, the icon, the individual more than the circumstance, the support network and the balanced lifestyle they have.

Is It Worth It To You?

Ask yourself the question, “Is It Worth It To You?”

Whenever, I question starting a new endeavour, committing myself to something else, or investing in a new hobby or interest, I try to have a discussion with myself about what I’m getting into.

It’s such a personal question about whether you value the activity enough but it’s worth asking for everything you do.

For me, fancy food or labours of love food is not worth it on the weekdays. I just want a meal that gives me the nutrients and vitamins I need to survive. On the weekend, that’s when food is worth enjoying.

For me, watching most TV shows is not worth it. I’ll watch a few shows for dinner to spend quality time with my wife but sitting and watching television in the middle of the day on a weekend is not worth my time.

For every endeavour I try, I think about whether it’s worth it to me.

Does it bring me joy?

Am I growing and learning something?

Am I scratching an itch in my life that I previously couldn’t scratch or reliably can scratch?

I like intentionally identifying things into these categorizes to recognize and identify for myself my priorities. When I’m level headed, rested, and having an honest discussion with myself, I can better identify what I truly want to do by myself.

We live in a world of abundance. There are so many opportunities and so many options. And it is great. I’m forever grateful to the life opportunities I have.

The only caveat is understanding that options can lead to analysis paralysis, listlessness and wandering.

Sure, we can hang out at the mall. Sure, we can go to the movies. Sure, we can go for bubble tea. Sure, we can stay home and watch Netflix. Sure, we can surf the internet for hours and hours. There are too many activities I can do in a day that if I’m not particular about and choosey about what I spend my time doing, I can find myself negatively judging my day’s activities for how I spent my day.

Why did I spend my day lounging around the house instead of practicing street photography outside for 2 hours? Instead I just watched youtube at home!

It’s only when I sit down and write out what things I actually want to learn and do, that I can more clearly say, “No. I’d prefer to do X instead”.

I think that’s the only way I can keep myself mentally accountable for my actions.

Because in the moment, especially in moments of vulnerability when you’re tired/cold/hungry/bored/distractible, there is always something more comfortable, more relaxing to do.

But what would your rested, disciplined, attentive self want to do?

They would want to do the things on your list. The things you want to do.

So…Is It Worth It To You? What you’re doing right now?

Progress = Traffic 🚗🚌🚐

We have a very romanticized view on what productivity and progress is. How it should feel. And the rate of improvement.

We expect it to be this linear growth - one that progresses as you invest time.

Just work hard and pull yourself up by the bootstraps and you can succeed.

I think a more realistic, representative analogy of the productive progression grind is sitting in traffic.

Let me explain.

1. As a mundane, less-than-favourable task, it paints a more realistic perspective on the ups and downs. It is a non-rose-coloured glasses perspective on what progress can be. There’s road rage, there’s frustration, there’s heightened emotions along the way.

2. The pace varies from fast acceleration and the grinding halt. There are highs and lows, sometimes beyond your control, that dictate your progression. Similar to an accident on the highway out of sight, your progression can be impacted by unforeseen conditions and elements.

3. Persistence and patience dictate how far you go on this metaphorical journey. Sitting in traffic doesn’t do the greatest job in reflecting the amount of effort you put into the process. You’re doing more than just putting some pressure down with your right foot on the gas pedal when it comes to productivity and progress. But the messaging regarding patience and persistence remains. Keeping steady, continuing the stay the course, all of it leads to movement forward.

4. A lot of content on productivity and efficiency describes it as a simple hack. Implement these 5 things in your life or follow these 5 steps and WHAM, you’ve gained back 10 hours of your day. Problem solved, you’re super happy. And you didn’t have to sacrifice anything.

   Unfortunately, I don’t think those are realistic at all. It is the accumulation of tips, tricks, habits, perspective-changes over the course of days, weeks, months, and years that finally design a system that works for you. Because these things have been so ingrained in your outlook and lifestyle do they gain a momentum shift that eventually does equate to hours of saved time, but it’s only in the grand scheme of things that it comes to fruition.

And ultimately, this analogy poses the question.

Can you love this process? Can you enjoy the journey that is sitting in metaphorical traffic? Can you love the process of needing to completely full stop? Maybe you need to take a detour? Take a pit stop? Change your pathing to get to your final destination.

Can you love sitting in traffic with the fortitude to know, you’ll eventually get to your destination. Trusting and enjoying the process.

Make Mistakes. But With Good Intentions.

Making mistakes.

Mistakes are a something that should be celebrated.

They reflect an earnest eagerness to learn.

To try something new and different.

Now the caveat, is I’m speaking specifically about earnest mistakes, not intentional, malicious errors or lack of effort.

The way our society talks about mistakes though does not celebrate that progress though. We are reprimanded for mistakes. We are deemed incompetent. We are seen as less-than or a screw up.

The reason is because outsiders don’t see us relative to who we were in the past. They compare us to the best representative instead of a former version of ourselves.

People are deemed bad at basketball by comparison to NBA pros.

Medical residents are deemed bad at surgery by comparison to world-renowned surgeons.

And I get it, there are some situations where mistakes can be the matter of life or death. There are mistakes where the stakes are far too great.

But we treat all mistakes equally. As unacceptable.

This creates a societal view of mistakes as detrimental, avoid-at-all-costs and ultimately that shapes our view of mistakes as must-avoid’s.

I would argue that a majority of mistakes are times to learn, time to grow, and should be celebrated.

1. They reflect a courage to try. And a courage to try should always be celebrated. We celebrate the story of triumph after struggle. But without persistence in the struggle (aka the moment of mistake), the triumph cannot happen.

2. They reflect a moment to grow. Mistakes humble us. They remind us that we are flawed, that there is room to grow, and that we don’t always know best. In those moments, support from others, patience with oneself and kindness to forgive are extremely valuable.

And of course people theoretically understand this. Of course, people theoretically understand that mistakes are the means to progress.

But in a world where everyone puts their best foot forward, their feed is tailored to display their most perfect self, there’s means to hide imperfections, words hidden to sweep the flaws under the rug, And everyone wants to believe they are above normal - that we have an illusory superiority bias.

So we expect ourselves to be better, to not make mistakes, to improve in a linear trajectory that defies the norm.

So this is simply a reminder. And a praise.

You might have screwed something up today.

Good for you.

You had the courage to do it.

You had the insight to recognize it was a mistake.

And you have the breathing room to try again.

We must learn to embrace mistakes and see them for what they truly are. Moments in time. Not a death sentence. Not a predeterminer for future success. Simply a hiccup in the road to progress. A wrong turn or pit stop on one’s journey.

And one that has value.

The Happiness of Excellence

In Brianna Wiest’s 101 Essays That Will Change The Way You Think - “The Happiness of Excellence”, she references three forms of happiness.

• The Happiness of Pleasure

• The Happiness of Grace

• The Happiness of Excellence

The happiness of pleasure is sensory, referencing the physical sensory enjoyment that the world offers. The physical satiety appeased following an amazing meal, the physical warmth in bed on a cold winter’s night.

The happiness of grace is gratitude. The happiness of insight into what you have. Having an awareness of and inventory of the graces in your life.

And then finally, the happiness of excellence, the happiness that comes from the pursuit of something great. Not exactly the act of achieving it, but the process of loving the journey. The meaningful work. The identity-shaping, character-defining work.

Now we need all three. We cannot live fulfilled on just one. You cannot simply indulge in the happiness of pleasure and be fulfilled.

The happiness of excellence is not instant gratification. It is measured, deliberate and consistent. It is hedged off by discomfort, growth pains, and pursuits beyond your comfort zone. But over time, you develop your skill. You realize the potential of what you could accomplish. And you fall in love with this process, this development, this discomfort - simply reframed as discovery.

“Happiness is not only how we can astound our senses, but also the peace of mind that comes from knowing we are becoming who we want and need to be. That’s what we receive from pursuing the happiness of excellence: not accomplishment, but identity.”

I feel like many times, we place societal labels of happiness on the short-term.

After having a nice anniversary dinner date, a fancy meal, a dessert, maybe a gift. Are you happy?

After buying a new toy, a new PC, a new gaming system. Are you happy?

We disproportionately focus on instant gratification. There are more instances of deliberate evaluation of happiness after these instantaneous events.

Whereas the happiness of excellence is often neglected, not deliberately attended to. We are not particularly happy after graduating college. We are relieved it is done. We are able to move on with our lives. It is simply a checkpoint.

We are not deliberately happy with our relationship with the years and growth and journey. We celebrate the instantaneous singular event that is a proposal or a marriage.

Understanding, acknowledging and keeping an inventory of our own proportional happiness is worth doing. We can foster our own identity and sense of self. We can pursue challenging and hurdle-filled endeavours because we love the journey, and we understand the difference between instant gratification and sensory pleasures to those that give identity. We also understand that all are needed.

Imperfectly Complete is Better Than Not Done.

There is never going to be a perfect time

There will never be a perfect time to start.

I’m currently writing this while sitting in the car while my wife attends a quick appointment. I’ve got about 30 minutes of time before we go continue on with our lives.

It isn’t a perfect time to whip out my laptop to start typing away. It’s actually far from it.

Ideally, this blogpost would’ve been written over the course of several days, ample time for reviews and revisions, edits, a clear outline and all the rest, but life happens and things don’t always come out the way we plan.

But imperfectly complete is better than not done.

I have to remind myself of that pretty regularly.

Imperfectly complete is better than not done. Better than a perfect vision with no real world existence.

I’ve certainly gotten better at sharing myself and my ideas publicly but there’s always a nagging fear, a vulnerability, a risk for judgment. That’s why I’m 100x more likely to comfortably share my posts with strangers over friends and family.

With social media, the pervasiveness of the internet in society and the ease of access, our entire existence can be publicized. Every mistake, misspoken word, ignorant idea can be pulled back into relevance and you are held accountable for all of it no matter how much you’ve changed, how much you’ve learned and so forth.

I think there’s a daunting weight to that knowledge which certainly plays a part in the procrastinatory nature of talking yourself out of publicizing imperfect content, but the wheel keeps turning, time keeps moving, and ultimately…

Imperfectly complete is better than not done.

So just start.

I’ve said this many times on many blog posts before but it’s a recurring theme that I find for myself and my personal situation. Just gotta keep going.

Transient Passions, Pleasures and Interests

Sometimes, I am overwhelmed by the grand scheme of things. I talk myself out of whimsy, spontaneity, serendipity and the fleeting moments of life.

Because they aren’t accounted for.

Because they haven’t been scheduled.

Because I don’t want to waste time.

Our society holds a view that certain kinds of jobs, careers and passions require such effort and continuous devotion and loom so large in the imagination that we really shouldn’t try to hold several of them or acquire mastery later in life. They are something to start early in one’s life and spend the rest of the time mastering said skill or passion.

Nowadays, anyone who changes careers later in life, picks up a hobby and shortly afterwards decides they do not like it, or are viewed as both pitiable and deeply troubled.

This sets us up for collective catastrophe. It means that a large number of people who have no innate wish to pursue a certain hobby, career or apparent-passion are constantly pressured and shamed into unfulfilling duties and responsibilities.

They themselves may see a societal pressure to continue an undesired career path or passion, neglecting or ignoring their own feelings of discontent.

Others may not recognize the negative pressure they force upon the individual or the subconscious judgment, regardless of whether that pressure is ill-willed or innocently applied. And those involved in the deeply ill-suited endeavours, like co-workers, co-hobbyists, who may themselves be well-suited for their positions are subjected to an apathetic or ill-equipped individual.

Now, applying that same concept not to an individual but to specific hobbies, passions or jobs, it is imperative to understand the possibility of a limit to one’s commitment or interest as well - how long interests should go on for. One of the big assumptions of our times is that if a passion or interest is real, it must by definition prove to be eternal. We invariably and naturally equate genuine passion and interest with lifelong passion and interest.

And therefore, there’s this imaginary obstacle to committing one’s productive self towards to spontaneity and fleeting passions. Because it seems almost impossible for us to interpret the short-lived passion as ‘productive’ or ‘efficient’, to see it as something other than a problem, a failure and a waste of time. We appear fundamentally unable to trust that a hobby, interest, passion, career could be at once sincere, meaningful and important – and yet at the same time fairly and guiltlessly limited in its duration. That that is an acceptable lifespan of said interest.

There are, of course, a few very good reasons for a short-lived passion, a fleeting interest, a spontaneous act of passion.

So much can go right with short-term interest:

• When discovering a new passion or interest, every moment is treated extremely carefully as it is new. There is a tender appreciation for any gained familiarity or development of skill.

• When it isn’t forever, we can take with us only the things that we like. We don’t need to compensate, nor jadedly tolerate the pains and frustrations of competency. But when the time is short, we are unthreatened by novelties and dissonances. We are unthreatened by our inadequacies and they are invitations to expand our experiences.

• We should beware succumbing to the debilitating feeling that because it didn’t last forever, it can have been nothing at all. We know that ‘going on for ever’ isn’t the ideal in other areas of our lives. We embrace change more openly in other facets. We don’t necessarily think we have to stay in the same house all our lives, drive the same car, or use the same phone; we’re not betraying those things or destroying them when we recognize that for a range of reasons it would be wisest to change. But it is a challenge for us to recognize that sampling different passions, lifestyles, or interests has its benefits. We don’t bat an eye when trying different food cuisines before determining our favourites, reading different books before identifying our preferred genre or watching a variety of movie titles to find which ones we like best; we’re not wasting time, or thinking it was all for nothing.

We need to have an open-minded perception of interest and passion which allows the possibility of cessation or discontinuing without the assumption of having given up, being weak, or quitting prematurely. To allow for mature intentions and self-awareness as determiners for ceasing a pursuit. For only against such a backdrop can we reduce the crippling stigma of bitterness, guilt and blame. How we see the endings of hobbies, interests and passions depends to a critical extent on what our societies tell us is ‘normal’. If it was meant to last forever, every ending would by necessity have to be described as a horrifying failure. But if we allow space for short-term interest, then an ending may signal a deeper understanding of oneself, not to the external pressures of what is approved, ‘normal’ or appropriate, but to our authentic self and our transitory pleasures.

Furthermore, the idea of a short-term interest has the capacity for lifelong interest. It has the capacity to grow, to develop, to lead you down new paths with new opportunities - if you open yourself to the chance.

If you never said, “Hi” to the stranger in school, you would have never made a friend. If you never made that friend, your friend group would have been different. If you never had that friend group, your interest in sports may have never emerged. If your interest in sports never emerged, you may never have developed the hand-eye coordination. If you never developed the hand-eye coordination, you may have never realized your interest in working with tools and your hands to create. If you never realized your interest, you may never have considered studying to be a mechanic. And so forth.

The point being that what is defined as ‘productive’ or ‘not productive’ is arbitrary and deciding in advance that an interest, hobby or passion is a wasted time, irrelevant to some greater goal is preposterous!

It’s normal to not pursue something for your entire life.

It is normal to stop liking something.

It is normal to want a change, to try something different, to see what else you might like.

It is normal to balance multiple passions, hobbies and interests.

It is normal that they don’t necessarily lead to some productive fruition as a second job, a career switch or some lucrative success.

It is normal that they stay exactly what they are - a hobby, interest or passion.

And that’s okay.

A Good, Productive Listener 👂

It is hard for us to remain deeply productive and disciplined for any extended length of time.

In the short-term, breaks are required. We can’t sit in one spot for 8 hours a day, day after day after day.

In the long-term, there is a life outside of work worth living, worth enjoying, worth exploring.

Our world is too fascinating, too stimulating and too multi-versed with competing, ‘irrelevant’ shiny ideas darting across the mental horizon. It is simply too abundant.

Left to our own devices, we doubt the value of what we are trying to make sense of, of what we are trying to accomplish, and can experience overpowering urges to consume content, to take a break, to scroll on our phones - to be ultimately complacent. As a result, pivotal moments of deep focus are kept just beyond reach and pivotal trains of thought decay before interconnected fruition to our grave productive detriment.

What helps in our attempts for productive accomplishment is the awareness of another productive mind. Accomplishment can sometimes happen best in tandem. The vision of the solopreneur visionary, the isolated pioneer often reflects an incomplete picture of the success journey, cutting out the supporting cast from the individual ego’s view of success. And oftentimes, it can be the tandem success of another that spurs our own success.

The production of someone else gives us the confidence to equally achieve for ourselves. And although not necessarily directly related or in competition, the application of a light pressure from outside us (even if it is internally-conjured or perceived rather than objectively real) firms up the conviction and intentionality within. The requirement to express our intimations aloud marshals our mercurial reserves of concentration and productivity. In simpler terms, sometimes talking to someone else ‘puts our money where our mouth is’.

So find yourself a friend who shares a similar mindset towards production and efficiency. They are an invaluable asset, a fellow voyager exploring the vastness of their own capability and productivity, and very much a potential strategic piece of the puzzle to your success.

More importantly, find yourself a good listener, who is also all of the above. Since the goal is production and efficiency rather than a devolving discussion of socialized egoism where we attempt to out-perform each other, it’s important to distinguish that fact.

Discussions with a good ambitious listener often change the tone of the conversation from shallow niceties to exploratory exchanges with intention and accountability. Whether we’re contemplating more ambitious career moves, we’re having family difficulties, discussing whether a relationship is right for us, or planning any other life-changing decision, a good listener can firm your resolve, provide perspective, and discuss that perspective with you. In moments needing clarity, a good listener helps us move from a confused, agitated state of mind to a calmer and more focused one. They can ground us, keep us on topic, and organize our thoughts into a cohesive framework when sometimes we ourselves are too close to the problem and scattered in our thinking.

Often, we have a fairly reliable gut feeling. We’re in the vicinity of something. On the cusp.

But sometimes, we can’t narrow it down to what’s really bothering or exciting us. A good listener knows we benefit from encouragement to elaborate, to go into greater detail, to push a little further. We need someone who will say the magic words: “Go on…”, “Tell me more…” or “How do you feel?”.

It’s easy for a friend to say vague things. To remain shallowly engaged. It’s easy for people to agree with someone, to rehash what you’ve said, to show shallow sympathies. But is much harder to be genuinely curious, to keep our histories in mind to refer back to, and to constructively seek a deeper understanding. A skilled listener brings to listening an ambition to clear up underlying issues - to help. They hold you accountable to yourself and your words, have a productive, friendly suspicion and have your trust to reveal your weaknesses, follies and desires.

That’s why they are so rare. Good listeners are hard to come by and often times, finding ones with the productivity and efficiency bug narrows that pool further.

But once you do find them, they might be

that unlock,

that gentle push,

that word of encouragement,

you need for your not so fully flushed out aspirations.

Self-Imposed Deadlines.

It never ceases to amaze me how time crunch and pressure spurs one into action.

We are wired to only do things when absolutely necessary and it’s only through self-imposed deadlines that we are thrust into completing things.

The result is people who can thrust themselves into predicaments and perform well, thrive.

Those that do not perform well, flounder.

The secret though, is that those that flounder can learn how to thrive.

Those that flounder, if they can overcome the ego-wounding that is floundering, can get back up and try again.

The second secret is that deadlines will exist regardless of your desire to avoid them.

So you might as well get used to deadlines and embrace them to become better at using them for your gain.

Otherwise, you will flounder with deadlines that will continue to exist in your life because of your passive, escapist tendencies.

And the inspiration for this post all came from cleaning my home. My wife and I were hosting a friends get-together and we had to clean the home. For months, our home has been tolerable. Clean enough to not drive us insane, messy enough to not be tidy.

Totally not an over-dramatization.

Papers everywhere.

A not so put together front space.

Piles of clothes in the bedroom.

Dirty dishes in the sink.

But in the hours before friends came over, we cleaned it all up.

Why? How?

Time crunch and the expectation to be hospitable and presentable.

We agreed it was beneficial for us to host friends more often because it kept us accountable and clean.

We prioritized cleaning our place over lounging around.

And honestly, it was enjoyable to wake up the next day to a house

But then why? Why is there something that I want to do, that I see the benefits of, that would ultimately be way less work and more easily accomplished if I did more regularly?

Deadlines.

Deadlines let us know what is due, what should be prioritized and what can be deferred.

Deadlines cause us to leap into action.

Deadlines cause us to not be overcome with analysis paralysis.

The only thing deadlines do not help with is determining busyness with productivity. That is the one extra cognitive piece you need to control.

Is TASK A, which is due today, more important than TASK B? Remember the Eisenhower Matrix?

Urgent and Not important. Delegate that shit.

That’s the one area of weakness or potential folly.

But honestly, I think there’s an unnecessary aversion or negative connotation to deadlines. Same as work. Sure, I get the capitalist society, working for the man, and the overall destructive nature of working to live. But deadlines can be such a positive in people’s lives if they aren’t fearful of the word, not as anxious about the concept, and see the positive opportunity that a deadline can have on their goals.

Now obviously I’m speaking in broad-sweeping terms. But my point being that deadlines will always exist. They are a necessity in any person’s life. So we might as well learn to see them in a positive and productive life.

Here are some of the personal deadlines I make for myself.

• Plan social events regularly at home so you HAVE to clean.

• Schedule your week fairly busily so you have to be productive during your in-between hours. Otherwise, you can’t get your normal routine right. We’re talking buying groceries, working out, sleeping early. All because your week is otherwise busy with friends, hobbies, events.

• Tell your friends your plans. I’m going to have X done by next week. I’m going to finish Y in a month. If you’ve got a friend who will ask you about it or is interested in seeing the results, that’s who you want to share the information with.

Steal. Try. Do.

Nothing is original.

Steal like an Artist.

Austin Kleon’s “Steal Like An Artist” highlights some not-so-common common sense stuff for creative people, as a guide to spur people in their creative endeavors.

Whenever I read these kinds of books, they resonate with me on parallels or particular use cases for me.

How Do I Apply It To Productivity?

As someone who has self-identified as having less traditional creative outlets but resonates with creative endeavors as they pertain to productivity and workflow - what is it that I can take away?

Sometimes, it’s the conceptual metaphors or frame of thinking.

Sometimes, it’s the perspective taking or the approach to challenge.

I know I’m not going to revolutionize productivity workflow, unlock a previously untapped mindset or discover something new. Again, nothing I do to optimize my productivity is going to be original.

Instead, immediately from the get-go, Steal Like An Artist reminded me of people’s obsession with knowing a productive, successful person’s work habits. How do I steal other productive people’s routines or habits to optimize myself and my workflow.

Tim Ferriss comes to mind.

Optimizing time of waking up, amount of protein within the first 30 minutes, morning routine, etc.

Wake up at 5:30am before your competitors. That way, you’ve already exercised, worked out, done some meditation and entered your deep focus flow work before they’ve even opened their eyes.

Now, in the same vein of stealing creative influence, inspiration, motifs, or artistic style, go right ahead and steal productive workflows, habits and routines. Copy and see if it works for you. Take what works for you, reiterate upon it for your own personal needs, and make it yours.

The Main Takeaway Though Is To Start. Simply Start.

Read about some successful person’s productivity hack? Try it yourself.

Read about the benefits of meditation? Try it yourself.

Try it yourself and see for yourself how it feels.

Does it makes you more productive?

Do you feel more focused?

Do you accomplish more in a day?

Whatever it is, you must start and try it first. Because it’s no good to just read about the benefits it has for other people. It’s only useful if it impacts or influences your personal workflow.

The Second Takeaway Is To Continue To Try New Things.

Being creative necessitates trying new things. You are always pushing boundaries. Bending rules. Trying something different. Testing out a new medium or technique that can potentially better represent what you are wanting to express.

Same goes for dancing. Trying new and unique ways to express yourself in physical form. New sequences of movements to reflect a sound or a rhythm.
But productivity can sometimes insinuate determining a MOST efficient way and never steering away from it. To resist change. To stay the course with one specific method.

This can at times leave you feeling stagnant, boring, and complicit. Yes, being boring is an aspect of productivity because it is the way to focus, clear your mind of unnecessary thoughts and produce results but there must still be room for trial, exploration, seeking out new or different workflows because they may result in even greater productivity.

So make sure to set aside time to try.

To experiment.

To be open to change.

Seek out what productivity hacks others are doing.

See other people’s workflow.

There may be a new product, a new perspective, a new way of doing things that may work better.

And that openness to trying is the thing that will take you forward.

And it’s okay even if that thing that will take you forward is some idea or habit you stole from someone else.

In Charge Of Your Own Happiness

You are in charge and responsible for your happiness

That’s it.

No one is going to bail you out.

No one is going to fix shit for you.

No one is going to give you answers.

Not your partner. Not your kids. Not your parents. Not your friends.

There’s no test.

There’s no do-overs.

You reap what you sow. You sleep in the bed you made.

End. Of. Story.

And that to me, is the best news ever. It’s cathartic.

It means you must create the happiness you seek. You must see, shape, form, design the world you wish for. You must embody, manifest, and perceive your life the way you want to because that is how it comes to be true.

This isn’t simply a lofty, philosophical thought that you can maybe ponder or entertain if you ever develop a desire to do so.

This is the underlying nature of how you think and behave. You either see yourself as a victim of what happens to you, helpless to what the world throws at you, or as someone given opportunity to change, grow, see differently, and expand; an active participant in your life.

You either see uncomfortable feelings as suffering you have to deal with or signals you have to learn from.

I always joke with my wife that I’m in charge of my own happiness and she’s in charge of her own happiness too. She can’t depend on me to make her happy and I cannot depend on her to make her happy.

But to expand on that concept, what I mean is that I need to be happy first and foremost. I can’t depend on her to solve my unhappiness, to fill some void for me. I need to make my mindset be that we create our experience, not that our experiences are created for us by an external force - that happiness is a higher baseline for perception or interacting with the world around me.

I 100% trust her wholeheartedly but in order for me to love her and be there for her, I have to be able to give her love from a place of abundant love for myself. Because if I don’t love myself, I cannot love her to the best of my ability.

I want to love her from an intrinsic desire to make her happy - because it makes me happy to make her happy.

Because. It. Makes. Me. Happy.

That is going to be the thing that keeps me going. Because I’m continuing to pursue the things that make me happy.

I don’t want to be dependent on her to make me happy when I am sad, to make me happy when she’s perhaps not happy. I want to move forward, to be consciously driven to action because I am doing the things that I want for happiness. Otherwise, I am fostering a toxic mentality of needing her to fill a void and not taking control of my own life.

What if she’s unhappy? Should she still prioritize making me happy over herself? Then, our motives and desires are unaligned. Why would she attempt to make me happy when it makes her unhappy and vice versa.

There will always be things that make us unhappy. None of us is guaranteed a happy life.

If we want meaning we have to create it. If we want to find peace, we need to know there’s a purpose for suffering.

So get out and pursue the things that make you happy. Pursue the mindset that embodies that happiness.

You are in charge of that happiness for yourself.

Whether that’s pursuing a passion and turning that it into a viable career rather than a dead-end job to pay for your lifestyle.

Whether that’s pursuing hobbies and interests that others in your circle of friends and family may not understand or appreciate. You will find new friends that do by the way.

Whether that’s finding someone that you are happy pursuing for the rest of your life to make happy.

Your happiness is your own responsibility. And it’s that mindset of seeking happiness and being the sole one responsible for it that it important.

‘Mad’ Thinking 🤔 😈

We often disregard or banish thoughts from our minds on the grounds that they are unreasonable, irrational…crazy.

Some of them are evidently too ill-willed, insane or physically impossible to deserve a second thought.

But, it is an exercise worth valuing and exploring from time to time.

I’d argue that many ideas could have been worthwhile if only we had dared to examine them further.

If only we ignored our first doubtful thoughts;

if we hadn’t been so scared of their less conventional and more speculative forms;

if only we hadn’t been so resistant to an occasional episode of ‘mad’ thinking

as “How to Think More Effectively - The School of Life” puts it.

Many of the greatest accomplishments in humanity, the awe-inspiring, the pinnacle of creation and exploration come from such ‘mad’ thinking.

They all push beyond the settled status quo, challenging the boundaries of normal towards the eccentric, the impractical and the nonsensible.

So why not consider the potential implications for the personal productive life and the whitespace ‘mad’ thinking could fill?

Our productive lives can certainly be arguably seriously limited by a subversive self-sabotaging imperative to appear at all times normal and sane, with the day-to-day practicalities of a sensibly balanced lifestyle.

But maybe it’s worth operating with moments of ‘mad’ thinking; indulging in the nonsensical, the impractical and the unreasonable.

A central step in ‘mad’ thinking is to temporarily set aside the normal restrictions on our imaginations. For instance, time management is almost always a majority consideration in productivity and practicality, but in the spirit of ‘mad’ enquiry, we can ask ourselves how we would approach an issue if time weren’t a factor.

Maybe we would prioritize tasks differently;

we may suddenly see that a particular interest deeply suited our nature;

perhaps we would concentrate more on creativity than industrious production, and artistic expression instead of disciplined formulation.

Sometimes, I find that I cut ideas short, and limit my dedication or pursuit of something because it disrupts a perceived archetypal practice of mental well-being and work-life balance. I feel the parameters of societally-defined life balance dictate relative mediocrity broadly across facets of my life, which in turn may censor out ideas or pursuits, some of which could be highly valuable. It could turn out, on closer examination, that some of our desirable plans, workflows or passionate pursuits were just out of reach, just past the outskirts of a safe, balanced lifestyle; we simply had grown used to turning down more ambitious ideas on the grounds of perceived normality.

If something was guaranteed to be enjoyable but did not align with predominant notions of a balanced lifestyle, is that worth pursuing? Liberated not to think always of our judgmental critics and to embrace ‘mad’ thinking, we might discover that we would like to pursue a business venture after work, if we knew it would be fun or enjoyable for years; or perhaps we would concentrate on new skill or interest, if we were guaranteed to bring us happiness. Whose to say that a more extreme or less stereotypically balanced lifestyle automatically equates to dysfunctional or unfulfillment?

In reality, there can’t be such guarantees, but holding our fears aside, even if only temporarily, helps us to identify our areas of real enthusiasm, longing and ambition that we would otherwise push out of our minds too soon.

What if I enjoyed my deep focus and ate dinner at 10pm instead to pursue that?

What if I enjoyed woodworking and intentionally opted out of a social event because I wanted to do that instead?

What if I allowed myself to sit and brainstorm for 2 hours instead of “optimizing that time” with chores or more standard means of productive work?

Why do I feel guilt in doing these atypical, out-of-conventional things? And why do I have these preconceived notions for what a balanced life should look like?

More broadly, we can use ‘mad’ thinking to develop our productive perspectives. This ‘mad’ exercise helps us to recognize personal and professional ambitions that may have genuine merit. ‘Mad’ thinking is not, as one might knee-jerk suppose, at odds with reality; it is an imaginative mechanism for revealing less obvious but important possibilities for ourselves.

‘Mad’ thinking may not provide precise answers, but it encourages us to be comfortable with and even embrace odd thinking and forego predominant or mainstream constraints. That conscious and intentional removal of one’s practicality filter may lead to unconventional wisdom and progress.

Changes in personal life and in society and business rarely begin with practical steps: they start as a exploratory whim of the imagination, with a heightened sense of a need for something new. Be this for an invention for personal distress, a social movement or a new way to spend time with loved ones. The details of change may not be sorted out at first, but the crystallisation of the desire for change has to take place earlier on, starting as an exploratory whim of the imagination. And yes, it may be an idea that isn’t yet wholly reasonable.

We all have a ‘mad’ side to ourselves. Simply through societal pressures have we often felt necessary to keep it secret or dismissed for fear of accusatory judgment or embarrassment. Yet the road to many productive ideas, precise insights and valuable suggestions has to pass through several seemingly outrageous or ridiculous early iterations. If we dismiss, filter out or feel too much self-judgement or fear that our minds produce their outlandish suggestions, we will stop the thinking process prematurely, and won’t have given some of our best thoughts the chance to flourish into their optimal productive forms.

New Realities 🤯 🔮 🔑

I recently watched a TikTok that resonated with me; that captures the notion of designing one’s life with intention but with Gen-Z energy (I don’t know if @simplifying.sam is in fact a Gen-Z, just simply the TikTok aesthetic).

I thought it was worth digesting, rehashing, and thinking about.

TAKE-AWAYS

• Don’t rely on feelings and motivations. Those feelings can sway and ultimately are prone to fail.

• Who I want to be on this day in this lifetime. What would they do?

• I don’t ask myself if I want to do it. I will say no because in the moment, what I want to do is often taking the easier route.

• I ask myself if my future self would want to do it. If my future, more accomplished self would see this as opportunity in hindsight.

• If I continue to act in a way that my current self wants, I will only recreate the same reality I am already in. Recreating this moment because my actions align with this current reality.

• I need to ask my future self and act in a way that aligns with my future self’s reality to slowly shift towards that reality.

I think these are powerful takeaways because they take into consideration:

• introspection,

• self-evaluation, and

• frame the situation as a you versus you scenario instead of you versus the world problem.

Instead of externalizing the issue to a third party or shifting the locus of control externally, it frames the situation with an internal locus of control and a decision to make now.

But, I think emotions and motivation are important. They are important barometers for happiness and fulfillment. Many people don’t have a clear picture or destination in mind. They are experiential beings that try, test, and have to physically do the things before they understand whether they’ll enjoy it. To those types of people, emotions and motivators are signs they need to read to form an opinion on whether they want it.

I do, though, agree that emotions and motivation can be fleeting, can be unstable or unreliable as steadfast markers to push you to act - especially for those with a clear vision or ideal in mind.

I also liked how she acknowledged her own weaknesses. She is being authentically truthful about her situation, her propensity to want to relax or be unproductive. It isn’t something shameful, something that needs to be hidden or masked. It is simply a truth that she accepts, embraces and plans accordingly around. People, like any other living creature, have a desire for comfort. We have a desire for surviving the current day and aren’t necessarily focused on the life we will live 5-10 years from now.

Finally, it is a powerful mindset to recognize that acting in a way that aligns with one’s future self shapes one’s life trajectory towards that reality. That you have a personal manifest destiny duty at hand.

It reminded me of an Acceptance Speech by Matthew McConaughey that similarly chases a future version of himself.

BUT WHY?

Remember the big picture. We’re looking to design our future lives. To create new realities. So of course, it is important. Of course it is necessary to envision our far off destination in order to navigate correctly towards it. Of course it is important to extend our vision and projected destination as we come closer to our original goals - there is more to do, more to see, more to explore, more to be.

It parallels the old adage:

“DRESS FOR THE JOB YOU WANT, NOT FOR THE JOB YOU HAVE.”

DOES IT HOLD TRUE?

If you present yourself in a certain way, your reality, at least in part, reflects that life. Now if you dress, act, acquire knowledge, associate with, surround yourself, educate yourself, present yourself for a life you want, then you will find that in 5-10 years time, your life will certainly look and feel more like that aspiration.

I’m not telling you to fake it until you make it though. I’m telling you to authentically grow yourself into that person and make decisions like you think your future authentic self would make.

Sacrifice and Focus

For years, you felt burdened with to-do lists, things to accomplish and steps to be better that didn’t seem to make much sense to anyone else. You sometimes wondered if you were going mad. There was always something to do better, some critical flaw to fix, some behaviour to work on, but everyone else seemed to think you were fine, that you should relax, that you should enjoy. You got anxious, feeling you needed to balance everything - the profession, the hobbies, the social occasions, the physical health, the mental health. You felt like you should relax and veg out on the couch because other people were - that it was the ‘thing’ to do. You tried it once, and enjoyed it too but felt like you wasted time thinking about all the things you could’ve accomplished in that same amount of time. Dare I say, feeling shameful.

Then, finally, something clicked. It might have been a TV show, a book, a game, or a sport. You no longer felt guilty investing your time here. You could spend your time here and feel rewarded. You pushed yourself to go as far as you could go. The deeper the invested time, the better.

But this devotion of time sets up in our minds – and in our collective culture – a powerful and potentially problematic ideal: that if one enjoys one’s time devoted to something, then one should always be entitled to time for that thing. That anything that stands in the way of that thing is a barrier to one’s happiness or enjoyment.

Then, inevitably, comes a moment of crisis. Perhaps you received a pivotal career opportunity simultaneously conflicted with a previously planned engagement with your lover. And now, with the sense of deserved enjoyment – in the spirit of having found fulfillment in multiple areas of your life – you mention a desire for both options. But, on this occasion, there was no option for both, only an either-A-or-B scenario, a forced choice. There was no eager accommodation for both your desires, no resolution that neatly fits your needs. Just a simple, painful decision, a sacrificial option for the prosperity of the other.

We come up against a fundamental conflict within the modern understanding of productivity and accomplishment. Not accomplishing everything we desire seems like a betrayal of productivity, a commentary of incompetence. At the same time, the complete simultaneous chasing of competing tasks vying for your attention eventually appears to place the accomplishment of both in mortal danger.

The idea of accomplishment is sublime. It presents a deeply moving vision of how one can maximize their time and it is an ever-growing list signifying success. But there is a problem: we keep wanting to make this same pace of accomplishment for the entirety of our lives. And yet, in order to be accomplished in some things, and in order to achieve the level of success in certain aspects of our lives, it ultimately becomes necessary to abandon or sacrifice the development of other areas of our lives.

We are perhaps too conscious of the desire for success or achievement in all things; we haven’t paid enough attention to the noble reasons why, from time to time, true accomplishment may lead one to sacrifice one goal for another. We are so impressed by achievement, we have forgotten the virtues of sacrifice, this word defined not as a cynical sign of failure, of incompetence, of inefficiency, but as a dedication of focus to the true, prioritized focus.

We should learn from the art of compromise, the discipline of negotiating priorities, of not always wanting the moon AND the stars and the flexibility of not doing every single thing one wants, in the service of greater, more strategic ends. The completion of one of the aforementioned goals.

We will never make progress with the larger projects if we can’t stand to be unaccomplished, at least some of the time, in one aspect or another. It is assigning too great a weight to all our desires to let them all always be the guideposts by which our lives are governed. Some guideposts must be abandoned to successfully navigate to others.

Weighty Words 🏋️

I would self-identify as a quiet, introverted person. Especially when I first meet new people.

I’m quiet. I don’t say much. But I would say I think and overthink quite often.

When I finally do say something aloud, it means I’ve thought thoroughly about it and have formulated my thought cohesively into the words I am speaking aloud.

I don’t embellish. I don’t exaggerate. I try to speak as accurately about things as I can to reflect their authentic perception through my personal perspective.

I’ve learned that not everyone does that.

People speak aloud what they want, speak aloud how they think in that immediate moment, and give voice to emotions, fleeting thoughts, and impulse without fully processing for themselves what they are thinking or feeling.

But then, you check back in 3 months later and they haven’t moved forward with it. There’s no plan, there’s no progress and it sometimes feels like they didn’t really want it that bad.

For me, I feel that words have weight.

And if your thoughts, feelings, or impulses are vocalized before you fully appreciate the weight or gravity of those words, your words lose weight in my head.

Now, typically, I feel like these kinds of themes and concepts often delve into discussions of authenticity, morality, integrity and character. Being true to your word communicates you are a reliable person.

But I think the productivity perspective of it is worth considering.

Like I’ve mentioned before, when I want something done, I fully commit it to myself mentally and don’t negotiate or weasel my way out of my own promises to myself. I previously talked about it and wrote about it so ‘matter-of-fact’ly but forgot some people don’t operate that way.

The reason is because once I have internally vocalized or promised this commitment, my words have weight. I fully accept and embrace whatever commitment I’ve determined for myself.

STARTING FROM SCRATCH.

So, where do you start? How do you do that?

Start with promises to yourself. You don’t need to vocalize it to anyone else. You don’t need that judgment from others. But make a promise to yourself about something that is achievable to you. It doesn’t have to be a grand gesture, a huge undertaking, or anything like that.

Something small works.

• I promise to make my bed every morning after I get up.

• I promise to do 5 squats every day.

• I promise to sit in silence for 5 minutes a day.

None of these break the bank. None of these should take more than 5 minutes to do. None of these are high risk promises.

But promise one of them for yourself.

Better yet, associate them with a specific time of day or alarm so you get that cue or reminder.

And treat it like a huge promise. Because your word to yourself - your promise to yourself - is worthy and important.

As you slowly succeed consistently, recognize that your promises to yourself have value, have weight, have gravity to them.

Feel empowered by the commitment you have with yourself and the ability to make your words a fulfilled reality.

EXCEPTIONS.

Now, it is totally okay to not complete what you said you would do. You are allowed to and can change your mind, or change what will be your decided action. However, not following through with your word to yourself is the issue.

It can impact how you see, think and feel about yourself.

It can make it easier to negotiate with yourself, avoid persisting against struggle, and generate a “I can’t do it” mentality.

If you change your mind about the importance of something because you don’t want to prioritize productivity over fun on a regular basis, then the weight of your words losing meaning.

If you change your mind about the importance of something because another priority was identified which you care more about, then that’s considered progress.

I think the main thing I wanted to communicate in this post is that no one is going to audit your words, your promises, your actions for you. You have to do that for yourself and if you develop the mindset where you cannot even confidently trust yourself when you promise yourself, then you’re setting yourself up with empty promises.

Learning to hold yourself accountable, learning to have weighty words and learning how to get that weight is a skill worth exploring and definitely has productivity repercussions that extend beyond authenticity, integrity and morality.

By learning how to take advantage of those weighty words to design your life, you can make yourself accountable, value your words, and commit once you have voiced something to the universe. It lets you manifest things that you want, feel empowered to do so, and trust yourself in the process.

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Now as always, I’m just a random dude on the internet standing on my soapbox. There’s always going to be more complications, more nuanced cases, some reason that my rant doesn’t apply to you. I know I am speaking from a privileged space, a privileged position.

I guess, I challenge you to fit this mindset onto your own situation. Even if it doesn’t, even if there isn’t a case for it, try to fit this mindset to your situation. Best case scenario, you get something out of this post and maybe you squeeze some productivity from it. Worst case scenario, you continue thinking I’m some opinionated, internet no-name and you already think that anyways.

~ See ya!