What To Do First When It’s Hard
The hard stuff is usually depicted in movies and other media as some kind of grueling, physical test of will.It’s a race, or a hockey game, or a POW camp.While this can be true for some things, it’s usually not.More likely, the hard stuff is something social, emotional, or psychological.Usually, the hard stuff is just simply: the thing you’re avoiding.It doesn’t have to look hard. It just has to make you feel like you’d like to avoid it.If you’re afraid of it, that’s probably a good sign that you’ve sniffed out the hard stuff successfully.
So what do you do?
Stop me if it’s obvious by now . . .Break it into smaller pieces and then do the first one as soon as you start your day.Building a habit of small actions will accumulate like compounding interest.
2 Minute Action:
What’s the thing you’re dreading doing today?Do it right now.You might not be able to do the whole thing in 2 minutes, and that’s fine.Just start.Putting your shorts on is generally the hardest part of going to the gym.
Use This Difficult Constraint To Your Advantage
I was reminded, yesterday, of the life changing effect of urgency.You know the feeling, it’s FOMO.
- Buy now, only 43 left!
- Limited Edition only available for the next 24 hours!
- Order in the next 15 minutes and we’ll throw in the Chop Chopper and the Double Chop Chopper free!
You’ve seen all of these before.But why?It’s not because there was an error at the factory and only 50 units were made.And it’s not because the limited edition models will expire and be in some violation of FDA regulation.They can make more units. They can expand the sale.
The punchline?
When things are important AND urgent, we take action.When things are important and NOT urgent, we mere humans are pretty inconsistent and bad at taking action.I’m not just talking about buying behavior.
I’m talking about just about every other aspect of life.
Its important to exercise, sure, we can agree on that. But since our bodies aren’t falling apart, it’s not urgent enough for us to have the motivation to go to the gym.It’s easier to just go tomorrow, when you’ll be more motivated.It's important to take your car in for a checkup, but if nothing is broken, why bother spending the money to bring it in?It’s important to us to learn that new language, but since we’re not going to travel for another 9 months, we can start practicing next week when we’re less busy.You can see where I’m going with this.Action often requires both importance and urgency, but especially urgency.Understand that you have a lot of control over the urgency part. It’s a seriously useful tool.You have the choice to use it to your advantage!
2 Minute Action:
What’s something you’ve been meaning to do?How can you add urgency?Here are some examples:Schedule a 5k run with a friend. Put a simple, weekly training schedule together and tell them not to let you off the hook.Place a “reverse bet.” Write a check to a trustworthy friend for $1,000. If you bail on your goal/deadline, tell them they are allowed to cash the check.Carve out a block of time on your calendar for that project you want to finish. Let it be sacred and schedule other things around it.
The One Thing That’s More Important Than The Results
More important than hitting the 6 minute mile . . .More important than writing the whole book . . .More important than making the sale . . .Is the habit.Even when it’s small (a mile a day) or incomplete (a blog post instead of a chapter), the habit of output is pivotal.Build the habit first—no matter how small or incremental.its the compounding interest on this habit that will give your return on investment
2 Minute Action:
Just do jumping jacks for 120 secondsJust write one paragraph.Just make one sales call.These are small examples of incremental buildingNot only will you realize your confidence and trust in yourself, but once you’re out there taking action, you’ll find that the water is fine and you might want to just keep going.Its the momentum of the consistent habit that will drive you to improving your stats. The first step, though, is just getting out there.Make some noise, today.