Hustle Is Important But Not That Important

Are you familiar with Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs?

Quick summary:

Abraham Maslow was a Psychologist who was able to illustrate a simple order of human needs that could play a huge role in motivation, emotions, and decision making behavior.Basically, you need your basics met first. Like food and shelter.Then you need your social and emotional needs met, like family and friends.Only after that can you go after other things like advancing your career or becoming your best self.We fluctuate up and down these rings of the Pyramid of the Hierarchy of Needs throughout our lives so don’t be fooled into thinking once you’re up, you’re up for good.

Here’s how this relates to hustle, motivation, and your career:

It’s the same with your work ethic, your attitude and your intentions.To be “successful” in your own eyes, you need to work hard. That has to be the first part of the equation.But after that, you need to get adequate rest and recovery.After that you can go after gains in performance and career.After that, you can say “no” to opportunities and narrow your priorities.

Quick pause to focus on the punchline:

I’m sure this all makes sense but I want to be really clear about the process and the order in which all of this can happen.There is a TON of advice out there saying things like “you should say ‘yes’ to every opportunity!”There an equal amount of opinion saying you should “say ‘no’ to more opportunities!”

Not only do you need to figure out what works for you but you need to figure out what works for you right now. 

Remember that a lot of advice is “here are the 8 numbers I used to win the lottery” and won’t apply to you, your industry, your decade, your team, or your circumstance.That doesn’t mean don’t try.It means try more.

2 Minute Action

Where are you in the hierarchy of needs?Do you have your basics met?If not, it might be time to reset your goals to focus only on basic needs.If so, it might be time to get out of your comfort zone and push yourself.Identify this today.Your next moves will be clear, guilt-free, and easier to execute after you do.

How To Bounce Back From Failure Consistently

You know the feeling.You let yourself down.Or maybe you let someone else down.

It can be a weird combination of feelings including but not limited to:

• Guilt
• Shame
• Embarrassment
• Sadness

The problem with this isn’t messing up.

The problem isn’t that you feel this way, either.

You don’t get to choose how you feel.

The problem is what happens afterward.Do you beat yourself up?Do you ruminate?Do you avoid the future?

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again:

There is a 0% Return-on-Investment for ruminating.Do what you need to do to bounce back.Go for a walk. Go to the gym. Go scream into a pillow.That part varies from person to person.What we’re doing now is focusing on speed to recovery.How fast can you bounce back?

2 Minute Action

Take a second to reflect on what has been a successful resilience strategy for you.One that has been very effective for me is reframing my current situation with gratitude.It took me 30 years to learn this, but now I’ve got it.I feel more bullet-proof than ever.(Example: no matter how bad it is, I’m not getting shot at, I have my conscious brain, I have a bed to sleep in, I have food, etc.)If you’re serious about self-improvement you will figure out what makes you more resilient and use that when facing adversity.You can leverage this when life gets hard!All the information you need is already in your head, all you need to do now is DO something with it.

If You Feel Guilty For Taking Breaks, Read This

Do you play games in your phone?I don’t. I would love to write the rest of this post about how I think games are dumb and just steal your attention from important stuff. 

In fact, for most people, I really do believe this is true. 

But I’ve just spent the past 2 days with a friend and colleague who is making some serious impact in the world. He’s someone who works a lot but knows how to take time and clock out to take care of himself. He loves video games. He’s still successful. 

It’s not as simple as saying:

“Video Games are bad.”“TV is bad”“Consumptive entertainment is bad.”

This is something I’ve wrestled with for years. 

For me, I don’t like the feeling I get after getting up from a TV episode or a movie or a video game. If I didn’t get something from it, it feels like I just wasted a lot of time. So it’s not really as simple as saying this one thing is bad and always bad and you should avoid it. 

Please be wary of anyone who gives you broad, sweeping advice like this. 

It’s up to you. It’s up to you to listen to your gut and follow your internal compass. You can be very healthy and productive while also having a few vices. Normal. So, I say all this because I want to get a calibration reading on your internal “Guilt Compass.”Guilt is one of the best ways to kill motivation. Get a good read on this, because your output depends on it. 

2 Minute Action

What’s something you feel guilty about?What makes you feel guilty about it?Is it because that thing is inherently bad?Is anyone getting hurt?Take 2 minutes to find an example and make time in the next week to test out your guilt radar By actually putting this behavior into practice and noticing how you react.