🤢How Getting Sick Relates To Productivity🤢

This is going to sound gross.Just stick with me, here. It will make sense.It’s like throwing up.You know the feeling you get when you feel nauseous and you know that if you just throw up you’ll feel a lot better?

It’s awful and feels hard on your body but you know you’ll be okay afterward.

That’s what a lot of life is like.Difficult conversations, going to the gym, and doing anything else you don’t want to do.

You're just going to feel anxious until you throw up.

Of course, no one wants to endure the feeling of throwing up so we just avoid it as long as possible—but that just makes us stay nauseous longer.Your call.

2 Minute Action

Whats the thing you most want to avoid today?A conversation? The pull-up bar? A sales call?Start with that.You will get some serious confidence and momentum by making it the first accomplishment of the day.

The Reason We're Not All Billionaires With 6-Pack Abs

It's hard to be useful every day.It's hard to do something impactful every day.Sometimes it's just hard to do anything, at all.

And of course, we all know that if it were easy, we'd all be billionaires with 6-pack abs.

Still, that doesn't always motivate us to start or to keep going.

The easiest way to change our inertia or to keep our pace is to make the task smaller.

Fine, don't run 5 miles at a 7 min/mile pace. Run 2 miles at a 10 min/mile pace.Fine, don't make 150 phone calls. Make 65.Fine, don't write letters to all your students. Just do 30%, today.

There are at least two strange and productive things that happen when we break things into small chunks.

1. We maintain momentum and we're more likely to pick up where we left off later.
2. We are more likely to do more than we set out to.

One of the lessons I've learned over and over is to stop getting in my own way.This is such a great example.I get big eyes! I bite off more than I can chew. I dream so big and I want to make so many great things happen, that I run the risk of getting nothing done because I spread myself too thin.It's not uncommon.

2 Minute Action

Here are some options for today:

• If you also have "big eyes," take at least 1 thing off your to-do list, today.
• If you have a huge task, break it into smaller pieces.
• No matter what, do 2 minutes of exercise. Planks, pushups, burpees. You have 2 minutes and you won't get sweaty.

If taking on too much sounds like you, reply here and let me know.We have to look out for each other.Let's make a ruckus, today.

How To Get Past Writer's Block

I've had a few people ask me recently "how do you come up with ideas?""How do you become creative?"There's no cure.Just like there's no cure for "having an idea" or "starting a company."You're not going to magically come up with something brilliant.But if you just start . . .Just start writing. Just start building. Just start calling.Whatever it is you're trying to do, you'll narrow in eventually.Let it be garbage. Let it be bad.Don't throw it away. Don't delete it.Just keep going.The goal isn't perfection, the goal is momentum.Once you get over the anxiety of starting before you can see the ending, you might find that you're quite unstoppable.People (and sometimes the voices in our own heads) are very happy to tell us all the reasons something won't work.Yet, people tend to get out of the way once you're moving.That's the punchline. There is no cure. You just have to start.It's probably not going to be good, so toss out the idea that it should be perfect.The goal isn't to hit a home run in your first at-bat.

2 Minute Action:

What's something you've been putting off?

• Working out?
• Writing a book?
• Start a company?

Start right now in 2 minutes.

• Do 10 pushups.
• Write a blog post.
• Make a sales call.

I promise you can get started on any path in under 2 minutes.Practice that habit enough and you'll forget "writer's block" even existed.