Tony Robbins talks about the 2-millimetre rule. Which is incidentally too small to make a dick joke about, but hey, itās got some value to it.
Itās the tiny habits that keep pushing you along 2 millimetres at a time. So when it feels like youāre not making progress, you actually are - itās just slow and incremental.
Where this doesnāt help is when weāre browsing through Netflix, or have offered ourselves to the YouTube algorithm gods, all while pressing the big red Instant Gratification button.
So how the hell do you start?
š„ 3 Things To Help You Start
If it hasnāt worked for me, itās not on this list. Thatās the guarantee I can give you good sir or madam.
If somethingās too complicated or complex Iāll procrastinate on it - but if I map it out step by step, and break it down into smaller tasks on paper, it forces me to:
a) Make a start and get some momentum.
b) Get clarity on paper rather than these ill-formed floating thoughts in my head.If itās a big life-changing thing, Iāll write down what it looks like in two weeks, six weeks, six months, and two years. - oh yes, thereās going to be a lot of writing going on.
Fear is a massive barrier-to-entry, so the best thing you can do is called Fear Setting - it was instrumental for me to take the solo travel plunge for a year.
If you actually try these exercises, the worst thing that can happen is they donāt work for you. The best thing that could happen is that they give you massive clarity on how to start your thing - thatās some pretty fantastic risk to reward ratios, my dude or dudette.
š Link Dump
Here are some spicy gems and some articles Iāve written recently š¶ļø
š„ Hot off the press:Ā Thereās too much advice out there, hereās how to sift through it. And the only lesson that stuck with me after graduating.
šø Found a fresh thread on how Unsplash grew at a crazy rate - this oneās for you, founders.
ā If you use Grammarly for content creation, this is how you can stop it from ruining your articleās creativity.
š£ Found a cool chrome extension that gets rid of twitter likes, comments, and retweet numbers - it helps with objectivity and accepting ideas on their merit instead of being influenced by the group.
šŖ Hereās some early week motivation that climbed up the Reddit ladder feat. Bojak - the most valuable quote Iāve gotten from a horse, thatās for sure.
š° My News Detox
I used to think of people who actively avoid the news as willfully ignorant people. āYou need to stay informed, guy.ā - that was my default thought.
In the past month, I realised how detrimental the impact of news has been on my mental state. Bad news after bad news, fear-mongering, and arguments - and this was happening from the moment I woke up to when I fell asleep.
Thatās like feeding your brain Cheetos 24/7; addicting, and probably going to defy biology and give your brain a heart-attack.
So I decided to stop the intake, or rather control it. Hereās how Iām doing it if youāre feeling the same way lately.
I stay informed with a few curators, and Morning Brew is my favourite - this solves the frequency problem i.e. Iām not clicking on anything else.
Iām only consuming media for learning and entertainment - social and political commentary channels, publications, and profiles are out.
Iām not consuming news before 11 am or after 5 pm.
When people send me articles, my default reply is āsorry, Iām on a news detox.ā
And that, ladies and gentleman, is how Iām going about my detox - and itās early, but hey, itās working well so far. Give it a try and let me know if it works for you :)
Hope you enjoyed this early-week sprinkle of thoughts and feels. Iāll try to be more consistent with this, but Iām conscious of fluff pieces, you know? I have to make sure thereās some value hitting your inbox. š
Thereās a cool article Iāve written thatās in the middle of being edited - the writers, marketers, and storytellers might be interested.
Iāll share it later this week, but until then, have a fantastic day, you beautiful human you.
Sah