#109 Now is the time to put my heart on the line

With how (online) education and teaching are done nowadays, most people give up long before they get real results. Let’s fix that with this counterintuitive 3-step approach to skill-building: 👇

1️⃣ Step 1: Intent Builder.

Before you start, you must light a fire under yourself.

Why is this important to you?

What do you stand to gain?

Also (especially), what do you stand to lose?

(❗️I guarantee that at some point, you’ll forget what you’re doing it all for. So make your Intent strong and remind yourself every day; otherwise, you’ll always let life get in the way.)

2️⃣ Step 2: Trust Builder.

In the first 14-21 days, there’s only one thing that matters:

Can you prove to yourself that your Intent is strong enough to show up and take action daily?

Or are you derailed by the slightest setback or the lack of quick results?

Most people don’t have that trust in themselves yet. So you must build it up by taking small, daily actions completely decoupled from “quick wins” (I call them Tiny Trust Builders).

This is counterintuitive because people crave instant results, which means most course creators try to build them in their programs.

But the harsh truth is, only when you can show up without getting instant results are you ready to get real results.

3️⃣ Step 3: Skill Builder.

Once you’ve built the trust that you’ll show up, you can focus on skills, progress, and results. Here are two valuable mechanisms that take you from Trust-Building to Skill-Building:

👉 Make things a little harder every day or week
👉 Implement feedback loops: ask for coach feedback, talk about what you’re doing, show your work,…

Bottom line:

Learning something new is easier if you’re already in the habit of showing up every day.

It’s also easier to get through a bad day if you’re already in the habit of showing up every day – after all, you know that tomorrow, you’ll be there to take action again.

You only need to stick to one new habit to prove to yourself that you can change.

One habit. One small activity. One Teeny Tiny Trust Builder where you don’t give up, but stay on track.

Why would you make this hard on yourself?

Write one sentence a day.

Learn one word a day.

Meditate for 1 minute.

Make it ridiculously small if you want.

But stick with it.

Stick with it on day one. And the next day. And the next. And also on the day when the universe seems to conspire against you.

Stick with it, because that one silly little activity can be the start of a changed life.

To know what you’re going to write, you have to begin writing.

Similarly, to know why you’re writing, you have to begin writing.

The lure towards writing is what sets you in motion.

And so it goes for drawing. Singing. Building. Entrepreneurship. Creating. Meeting friends. Lovers. Life partners.

The act itself is what reveals both the purpose and the shape.

A new phone out of necessity – because the old one broke.
A new phone out of longing for the rush of something new.

A new business idea because changing circumstances have rendered the old business model unviable.
A new business idea because the previous one is progressing slower than I expected, and I’m getting bored.

There are many reasons to embrace novelty. And there are just as many reasons to fight it.