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| Photo Credit: Track by Dean Hochman |
PLANNING (task, scheduling, and WT = DT): This week I planned to watch another marketing video on Chandler Bolt's the self-publishing site. I planned to complete this task Wednesday after school, in the study. In terms of turing WT = DT, I read excerpts from Ramit Sethi's book "I Will Teach You to be Rich" to turn.
IMPLEMENTATION (strategies used): I learned an new strategy that allowed me to complete the weekly task, but the task itself actually was different from the one I set out to complete at the beginning of the week. This will happen in your process of discovering, pursuing, and achieving your dreams, so market it down and use it in the future. As always, I used my core set of strategies to this week and they are listed below, with new ones listed first:
1. CVFA: This strategy really helped me be aware and release judgement. I have been using this Implementation Intentions strategy where I schedule a task to be completed at a certain time and place. This takes the choice of not completing the task away and saves my will power for more important things. In addition, it statistically gives me a higher percentage of completing the task itself. Although this gives me a higher probability of completing the task, it also gives me the opportunity to judge myself if things do not turn out exactly as I planned. We all have this need for control, but I learned something from Tony Robbins to help combat this.
The initialism for the strategy is CVFA. In this strategy you stay Committed to your Vision, but areFlexible with the Approach. In the past two weeks I have been able to connect with Zephan Moses Blaxberg, who has written a book on how to rescript your life, and he has agreed to start providing coaching sessions in the coming months. In order to prepare for the first session, I needed to work through seven sets of life redesigning questions for the future. This coupled with the fact that I had been sick since Wednesday, the date at which I scheduled the task, brought up a mini problem for the week. Do I complete the original task or do I shift gears and complete the questions in order to prepare for the first coaching session? I thought about this for a second, and realized that preparing for the first coaching session is a part of the Vision of what I want to complete this year, so I was Flexible with the Approach and bypassed my original plan and answered his questions. There will be times when this will happen to you, but don't beat yourself up, as if the task still helps you be Committed to your Vision, then be Flexible with the Approach.
2. Agreements: I was able to learn about this powerful strategy from Jack Canfield called agreements. In this strategy you keep and fulfill all of your agreements. By doing this, you boost self confidence and you slowly prove to yourself that you are a person that is able to complete whatever you agree to. This in turn, allows you to take on more challenging tasks, as you have trained the subconscious mind that you are able capable of such endeavors. My suggestion is to first start small, prove to yourself by consistently completing easy actions that you have agreed to. Second, only commit to things that you know that you will be able to complete. After you have proven to yourself that you can keep your agreements and your confidence grows, take the opportunity to agree to more challenging tasks on the process of discovering, pursuing, and achieving your dreams.
3. The Enkrateia strategy: Enkrateia is the antonym of Akrasia and means "in control of oneself" and I learned this from James Clear. This involves three strategies in one to combat Akrasia, or simply put procrastination. First, create a Commitment Device, which increases the consequences of a bad behavior and decreases the effort to carry out a good one. For example, to eat less sugar, you can clear out all candies in your house, which reduces the effort to not eat sugar at home. Second, incorporate the 2-minute rule to initiate tasks, as the hardest part of following through is getting started. Third, utilize implementation intentions, or identify a [date] at certain [time] at a specific [place] to complete a task. By incorporating this you will be 2X to 3X more likely to follow through on what you planned.
4. Early Scheduling = Implementation Intentions: T
5. Seinfeld strategy: I learned the Seinfeld strategy from James Clear. It is called this because a young comedian once asked Jerry Seinfeld how to become a "better comedian." Jerry said take a huge calendar and place a big X for everyday that you write jokes, and if you can place an X for every day of the year, then you will become a better comedian. This strategy makes your progress visible and provides additional motivation to continue the streak of completing weekly tasks that move you towards your goals for the year.
6. 3-Bucket System: I learned the 3-Bucket system from Jeff Goins who breaks up the process of writing into three easy steps. First, create a place (physical or digital) where you can collect ideas. Second, schedule a time to draft the first version without the pressure of making edits. Third, edit your draft after you have taken time away from it. This process makes writing much easier and I find myself producing better writing in a shorter amount of time.
7. Got 2-minutes: I learned the 2-minute rule from James Clear and it helps you initiate a task, as usually this is the most difficult step. This strategy helps you focus on what you would do in the first 2 minutes of starting a task and then complete those actions. I often times do this and then look up at the clock and see that I have been working for well over 2 minutes. I have now merged this with the "Got a Minute" strategy, which is used to turn any amount of free time into productive time. It comes from Vierordt's Law, which states that when estimating a previous task, people overestimate short durations and underestimate long ones. Simply, we regularly overestimate how long it will take to accomplish meaningful tasks. task. Often times they can be accomplished in a short amount of time. So don't judge if you will start something by how time you think you have, just star!
REFLECTIONS (learnings and actions): Well it has been 26 weeks, six months, and exactly1/2 way through my process of discovering, pursuing, and achieving my dream, or DPA in shorthand. I am in awe as I sit here reflecting about what I have learned and gained in the first half of the process. Did I think I would be here, knowing all that I know, or accomplished all that I have, absolutely not? The truth is I felt overwhelmed and did not know where to start, but I just did. Week after week I completed my PIR week and slowly gained the knowledge and confidence to take more action. Skills that I thought were difficult to learn or thought I would never be able to posses came easier to me and doors that never existed before, suddenly appeared. What I am trying to say is that you truly never know until you start, so in the words of Nike, "Just do it!"
I have listed below my most memorable accomplishments and learnings from my first half of DPA process.
Accomplishments:
1. Identified a purpose, which is to inspire, connect, and help others discover, pursue, and achieve their dreams (DPA).
2. Written 26 consecutive blog posts.
3. Recorded 26 consecutive video reflections and documented them on my Instagram profile.
4. Completed five outlines, before getting to number six, which I will use for the book.
5. Woken up almost everyday at 4:30 am since September to personally develop myself.
6. Started meditating sessions and complete over 79 sessions totaling 16 hours.
7. Lost 12 pounds or 5.4 kilos and achieved the best physical shape of my life in the past decade.
8. Read over seven books ranging from creating quality habits, creativity, personal finace, and success.
9. Written over 10% of the content for the book.
10. Overcame extremely bad habit of overconsumption.
11. Mentored 2 people through the first 6 week of their DPA process.
12. Connected with and found a coach who can help guide me in finishing/marketing/launching my book.
13. Watched over 20 hours of videos on how to write and market my book.
14. Implemented over 15 new strategies to combat procrastination, fear, and lack of time.
Learnings
1. Write a book from scratch.
2. Market a book from scratch.
3. You never know until you start, so start!
4. Become an efficient writer by using 3-bucket system.
5. Following your dreams and passion gives you PURPOSE.
6. Focus on initiating the task, as that is the most difficult part of the process.
7. Become a pro, by finding someone who has done what you want to do, and follow their model.
8. Appreciate more and expect less.
9. Aggregation of marginal gains, or the power of consistently making 1% improvements to create meaningful results.
10. The power of keeping agreements and how it trains your subconscious mind that you can achieve anything that you choose,
11. Type-1 and Type-2 fun, and how meaningful tasks are more Type-2.
12. The power of synchronocity, or the belief that if you produce meaningful content and put yourself out there, then it will come back 10 fold.
13. PURPOSE gives focus to action, which in turn accelerates progress towards your goals.
14. Knowledge is the first step, but EXECUTION must follow.
15. Trust that you will figure it out, there will always be a level of uncertainty in pursuing anything meaningful.
Wow! Amazing what can be accomplished and learned by showing every week. I can't say enough for my wonderful wife for encouraging me to start the process, but also to finish it. It has been a great ride thus far and I still have 26 more weeks to learn and implement many more strategies to help me achieve my goal of writing this book. The end goal is to share how to DPA your dreams and accomplish and improve many more things in your lives.
Thanks for tuning and see you in week 27.
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