Today, I got over the pain of a project I had been procrastinating on.
I started a timer and got to work on it. Within just a few seconds, the pain was gone.
I had built the project up in my mind as something worse than it was. I kept bumping it forward on my to-do list, as though my future self would be pleased to see it there tomorrow.
Read MoreOur friend Tyler sets sail today on a round-the-world trip.
Having acquired a vessel suitable for the journey, gathered all of the gear, and plotted his course, he’s ready to go.
Many people have a dream of circumnavigating the globe. Tyler is actually going to do it. He has the skill and resources to make it happen. Just as important, he has the mindset.
Read MoreIt is embarrassing to go back and listen to recordings of mastermind sessions I’ve been part of.
In a mastermind, a group of entrepreneurs takes turns being coached by each other. When it’s my turn to be coached, my current self cringes as I hear my past self blather on about my business and deflect useful ideas and feedback. It is so hard to believe that I couldn’t see in the moment that I was doing this.
Read MoreI try to build my plan for each day based on a realistic expectation for what I’m going to accomplish.
Despite my good intentions, though, there are a lot of days when I have to, as David Allen calls it, “renegotiate my commitment” to myself. I have to accept that there are a bunch of tasks I’m not going to get done and shunt them all over to the next day or the next week.
Read MoreI’ve played so much guitar in the last 24 hours that I have blisters on the fingertips of my left hand.
Playing feels totally different than it used to, and not just because I’ve lost all my calluses. What’s changed is that I no longer have the weight of my ego to contend with.
Back when I was trying to make a career out of music, it was important to me to be good. What’s more, I needed to have a distinct identity as a performing musician—a brand. I got so distracted by trying to figure out who I wanted to be as a musician that I stopped playing for the joy of it.
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