I’ve certainly stumbled a lot, but that’s how you figure things out.
The first book (4 Hour Work Week) was turned down by 26 publishers.
Get good at being a troublemaker and saying sorry when you really screw up.
When everything and everyone is failing, what is the cost of a little experiment outside of the norm? Most often, nothing.
Greatness is setting ambitious goals that your former self would have thought impossible, and trying to get a little better every day.
I absolutely think podcasts are a great way to “surround” yourself with people who can help you average up. I use podcasts this way, and I listen to Dan Carlin (Hardcore History), Jocko, Sam, and Tony regularly myself.
Regarding getting out of funks and dips in your life, you might find this article of mine helpful, titled “Productivity Tricks for the Neurotic, Manic-Depressive, and Crazy (Like Me)“.
When — despite your best efforts — you feel like you’re losing at the game of life, remember: Even the best of the best feel this way sometimes.
Pure hell forces action, but anything less can be endured with enough clever rationalization.
Learn from your mistakes until you succeed. It’s that simple.
When I’m in the pit of despair, I recall what iconic writer Kurt Vonnegut said about his process: “When I write, I feel like an armless, legless man with a crayon in his mouth.”
Role models who push us to exceed our limits, physical training that removes our spare tires, and risks that expand our sphere of comfortable action are all examples of eustress—stress that is healthful and the stimulus for growth.
With routines, you don’t want your threshold for “success” to be checking 100% of the boxes. Look for 3/5 wins or 2/5 wins. Otherwise, the human inclination is self-sabotage with “Well, I miss A or B, so I failed today,” or “Now today is going to be harder” and it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.
On how to get over analysis paralysis: set deadlines for decisions (put them in your calendar or they aren’t real) and break large intimidating actions/projects into tiny mini-experiments that allow you to overcome fear of failure.
Sometimes it pays to model the outliers, not flatten them into averages. This isn’t limited to business.
Every time I find myself stressed out, it’s because I do things primarily driven by growth.
I encourage active skepticism – when people are being skeptical because they’re trying to identify the best course of action. They’re trying to identify the next step for themselves or other people.
I discourage passive skepticism, which is the armchair variety where people sit back and criticize without ever subjecting their theories or themselves to real field testing.
My perfect storm was nothing permanent. But of course it’s far from the last storm I’ll face. There will be many more. The key is building fires where you can. Warm yourself up as you wait for the tempest to pass. These fires, the routines, habits, relationships, and coping mechanisms you built, help you to look at the rain and see fertilizer instead of a flood. If you want the lushest green of life and you do, the grey is part of the natural cycle. You are not flawed. You’re a human. You have gifts to share with the world and when the darkness comes, when you’re fighting the demons, just remember. I’m right there fighting with you. You’re not alone. The gems I found were forged in the struggle.
Rehearsing the worst case scenarios or negative visualization is a very powerful tool, which paradoxically allows you to become more relaxed and therefore, more response-able, i.e., able to chose your response if you get thrown a curveball question or if you flub and make a mistake in the middle of a live broadcast.
Anyone you have in your mind as an icon is an imperfect, flawed creature, just like all humans on the planet.
