WEEK 100: APPRECIATE MORE, EXPECT LESS

Entrepreneurial life is the solving of the never ending steam of problems.    Dan Kennedy

REFLECTIONS (learnings and actions): I write this message to you after one week in China. This one week has been filled with issues, challenges, or problems.

This last part of problems is what I want to dive into deeper this week.

I have mentioned before the path to achieving massive success and your dreams will be filled wit uncertainty..it is par the course. 

You are placed in new situations where you will have to thin on you feet and problem solve. 

Unfortunately, most of tend to focus on the uncomfortable feelings, such as doubt, anxiety, and produced from these opportunities (more about this later).

I have learned the closer you get to achieving a milestone, goal, or massive success...the more problems you will have to solve.

This is similar to an DIRECT relationship in mathematics. Now don't run away because of your ill feelings towards math as it is a simple concept.

Simply, a direct relationship means when one value goes up, the other does as well.

Now, unfortunately we all have an illusion once we achieve a goal or reach a higher level of success, things will get easier and there will be less problems to solve. 

What I have found is the OPPOSITE.

The closer you get to achieving massive success, the closer you get to taking steps closer to achieving your dreams, the MORE problems you will have to solve. 

This is why I love the quote today.  

If you want to achieve massive success and finally start take steps to achieve your dreams, then know you will face the uncertainty where you will have to problem solve "the endless stream of problems."

Know the more problems you face, the closer you are getting to the achieving a breakthrough and taking one step closer to achieving your dreams. 

Below are the steps I have found which works when you need to problem solve continuously:

1. Embrace problem solving.

Problem solving requires you to cultivate your Soft Zone. This means to sit with, observe, and use uncomfortable feelings to your advantage. Or, this means to view uncomfortable feelings as triggers to one, know your body is ready fro action, two, your brain is getting more oxygen, and three, you need to make room by not comparing your results to others. Lastly, analyze your inputs, or daily decisions and actions. 

2. Apply First Principles.

I learned this from Elon Musk, but this is where you break down your problem to their most fundamental truths and then ask "what do we know is true?" I have found, the problem gets a little easier once you do this.

3. Identify steps to move forward.

This step is crucial as it propels you to identify and take steps to get you moving and taking action!

4. Discipline over easy.

At one point or another, you will have to endure the pain of being disciplined over the ease of distraction. Once you identify what steps to take, then be disciplined to carry them out, rather than choosing the ease of not following through.

5. Iterate and focus on INPUTS to make progress.

Setting goals are great for giving you a target to aim for, but what will help you make progress is the laser focus on your daily decisions and actions you take. Simply these are your INPUTS. Thus if you desire a different OUTPUT, then you must track and analyze your INPUTS to see what can be modified to get the OUTPUT you desire. 

This has to be done not ONCE, or TWICE, but over and over again. Each time, you keep learning and taking the necessary steps so you get closer and closer to achieving the success to help you achieve you dreams.

It is similar to how an airplane autocorrects itself in air to get to its finaly destination. It is done continuosuly, not just one time.

6. Measure, report, and use Pareto principle to accelerate towards your ultimate outcome. 

Performance is improved once measured, but learning accelerates once you measure and report it. It is simple, what you do not track, you can not change. 

Thus, if you want to make changes, then you must first track it, but second you must analyze it to see how you can make adjustments to move you forward. 

This is where the Pareto principle comes into play. 

This is where you list out all of your INPUTS and then identify which 20% are creating 80% of your results. Be vigilant here and cut out the 80% of noise. Although some of them help you take incremental steps forward, focus on the 20% which help you make the biggest strides. 

That was a doozy of a post, but if you have made it this far then you have a blue print to problem solve with the best of them!

What Went Well?

Moved to China, in new apartment, acclimating to new job, learning a new language...yet Weekly Task completed.

What is something we can improve? What actions can we take next week?

Appreciate more, expect less. There are so many things to be appreciative of, but that can be overshadowed by all the expectations we have. 

To see the roses, live by the motto "appreciate more and expect less."

What is something to avoid next week?

Getting frustrated at certain results, as they are "means to an end, not an end themselves."

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PLANNING (Implementation Intention):  You will follow through 2X to 3X more likely to complete your weekly task than you normally would just by filling in the following statement.

I plan to complete the weekly task [day] at [time] in [location]. 

A reminder you might have to use multiple Implementation Intentions in order to follow through.

EXECUTION (strategies used):  From week to week, I use a combination of many strategies. There are always some which are used more than others depending on what comes up, but I wanted to offer a link to all them at once. 

My advice is to identify the I CAN'T statement you tell yourself during the most. Then find a strategy below the statement which resonates with you, and then start using it. 

Enjoy!

STRATEGY LIST