Read This If You Want To Make Your Life Easier
Okay, sure. This is sort of a click-baity headline, but I couldn't resist.
Yesterday was a challenging day for me.
I started out exhausted. I slept in until almost 8 AM, which is not something I do.
I then volunteered my time for nearly the whole day. And I was pretty uncomfortable doing it.
I was talking to people who did not want to talk to me back. Everyone I talked to the entire day was someone who I'd never met before. I also was doing work I'd never done before, which meant that I had to learn new tricks and be proficient quickly.
Being good at stuff comes with time. A new challenge helps you develop.
But then what?
Once you're good at that new thing, you've finished developing. You're no longer challenged. Being challenged further seems really hard--and it is.
But that's the point.
Growing and developing means you're constantly in a state of being uncomfortable.
So, forget the idea of being comfortable.
If you're in shape, you're constantly in a state of some kind of soreness.
It's not that you're not recovering, you're just rotating through which muscle group or body parts are recovering and which ones are active.
So, here's the punchline:
If you want to make your life easy, don't.
If you have an easy life, it might be a sign that you aren't developing!
2 Minute Action:
Let's take 2 minutes to challenge ourselves today.
Make a phone call to a family member or colleague that you've been avoiding.
Ask your supervisor for a new kind of work, today.
Sign up for that "how to be a DJ" course you've been putting off.
The more you get out of your comfort zone, the more confident you'll be.
The pain won't go away, that's the point, but you'll be building a habit of going into the unknown and feeling confident going there.
A Little Known Shortcut To Instantly Increasing Efficiency
You're not going to like this one.It's one of those "simple but not easy" idioms.
If you want to increase your efficiency or productivity:
Delete most of your tasks. I get that this is a bit of a clickbait-y headline, but stick with me.It's important to focus on what matters.Email is everyone else's to-do list for you--so don't start your day with that.Phone calls feel urgent, but if it's important enough to pick up, they'll call you again.Meetings can either be delivered as an email or scheduled as a phone call instead. If you absolutely HAVE to go to meeting try standing up. We tend to get straight to the point when we're standing instead of sitting.You get the point.What else do you NOT have to do, today?
2 Minute Action:
Check your to-do list and run through it with this question in mind:What would happen if it didn't get done? How bad are the consequences?Just remember that every item on that list should fight for its life to stay there.Delete a few excess tasks every day and then multiply that by a lifetime?Now we're talking.
What To Do With Giant Goals
What do you do when your dreams are so incapacitatingly huge?What do you do when you have a BHAG (Big Hairy, Audacious, Goal)?This one, I learned from LEGO as a kid.The picture on the box can be so incredible, but so intimidating.The trick is taking it one step at a time.Simple, but not easy.It turns out that big, hairy, complicated things are actually made up of lots of small, achievable, actionable things.By breaking the big goal down small enough, you enable yourself to see a starting point, mico-missions, and tasks that are manageable.So what to do when you're feeling stuck?Make it smaller.Practice the habit of asking "can it be smaller?" and you will start developing the confidence you need for even bigger, hairier goals.
2 Minute Action
What's something you've been meaning to do but haven't gotten to?What's something you'd like to have finished in the next 10 years?Why can't you start?How would you start if you knew you could never get around that obstacle?What's a step you can take right now? (send an email, make a phone call)Can it be smaller?Breaking big things down into smaller things will help you score a lot of small wins.Small wins will develop the trust in yourself to take on bigger challenges.Don't think you're going to bench press 500lbs on your first day.Get practical.