In This Episode…
I get flashes of insights on a regular basis. Unfortunately they don’t always come when they are most needed and don’t line themselves up in an orderly queue. I might have to wait ages for one and then suddenly three come along all at once – just like waiting for a bus. And that happened today. So I go insights on these topics today:
- The importance of feeding your mind with good stuff
- Why it’s the little things that make a big difference
- The power of marginal gains
- How asking the right question can open up the mind
But it’s not all hunky dory in the land of my productivity development as you’ll discover if you listen to today’s episode.
Episode Show Notes…
Garbage In Garbage Out
I listen to a lot of motivational material. I’ve realised over the years that if I fill my mind up with a lot of negative, then that’s what I tend to focus on.
Conversely, if I only let positive messaging come into my mind, I tend to have a more positive outlook on life. I am much more of a possibility thinker and tend to go about my day with a much better attitude. Bad stuff still happens but I handle it way better.
My positive input usually comes from listening to motivational videos on YouTube and watching uplifting podcast interviews. My channel of choice is Tom Bilyeu’s Impact Theory. He has a bunch of excellent motivational speeches based around his thoughts on inspirational quotes.
I find them most uplifting.
I usually play them during my morning routine when I’m doing my breathing exercises and press-ups. So I get a daily does of positive right at the beginning of my day.
It’s like having your own personal motivational coach whispering positive affirmations and great ideas in your ear whilst you exercise.
It gives me strength; it reminds me my quest is a marathon and not a sprint; it reminds me that to be successful I have to raise my game; it reminds me that it’s not going to be easy; but most of all it reminds me that if I put the work in, I’ll achieve my goals.
It’s The Little Victories That Make A Difference
Tom Bilyeu quoted Jocko Willink today when he said that failure is the cumulation of small events where we say no when we could have said yes. I’m paraphrasing and summarising quite liberally there.
However it is true – success and failure are the culmination of the little things we repeatedly do over time.
One of the little things I do is have a cold shower every morning. I’ve been doing for the last 18 months or so on and off. This year I have doubled down on it and have been doing it pretty much every day since March with the occasional blip.
I am currently on a 71 day run of a cold shower every day.
However, something has crept in that has started to eat away precious time.
After having my conventional shower I enjoy the hot water for a while before switching to cold. I have found that as the weather here has cooled going into Autumn, the cold water temperature has dropped.
Meaning it is more of a shock when I have the cold water hit my body.
So I am delaying it longer before I pluck up the courage to go cold.
And that means occasionally my schedule drifts by 5, 10 even 15 minutes because I’m putting off the inevitable.
And sometimes I have even missed my usual target of starting work at 0730 every day.
That is the drift I referred to in Episode 286
So today after finishing my conventional shower, instead of rinsing off in the hot water and then luxuriating in the comfort of the high temperature, I went straight to cold.
That speeded things up!
It’s all about marginal gains.
I’m Not good Enough…Yet
I discovered that approach after listening to Tom Bilyeu say something about how the things that I want to do that seem impossible for me right now are impossible for me at the moment. Because I’m not good enough….yet.
The key thing is not to bemoan that I’m not good enough but to ask myself the “How Can I…?” question.
And that’s what I did this morning.
I realised my approach was not working and that spending too long in the shower was wasting time.
So I asked myself – How can I deal with this?
And my solution was to go straight to cold after lathering up.
Worked a treat.
Now this isn’t about reducing my shower time.
This is about seeing something that isn’t supporting my goals and aspirations, and then doing something about it. It’s only a small thing… but that’s all it takes for success and failure.
Struggling To Get Focused….Again
I found myself wandering around wondering around what I should be doing today. Had to go get a walk to get things going today. I think it is about having so much to do – what if I could purely focus on one task to the exclusion of all others – that would be easy for me to do.
It is something that is worrying me.
However, after my cold shower experience this morning, I have a new way of approaching this challenge.
