#253 Outsourcing happiness

656 days ago, I started writing 3 pages of stream-of-consciousness journaling a day.

That’s an inner dialogue of 1968 pages poured into piles of journals now safely stuffed away.

30 days ago, some of those thoughts started making their way to my blog.

I promised myself that if I made it to 30 daily posts in a row, I would start sharing them.

Today is the day, so here goes.

I’m sharing daily observations about language, language learning, memory, creativity, habits, discipline, the art of learning, tools for thought.

Lessons I’ve learned.
Insights I’ve earned.

Words I’ve heard.
Memories spurred.

Books I’ve read.
Poems flowing out of my heart and head.

No rules, no fixed topic, no niche, no marketing strategy.
Nothing but whatever’s on my mind.

I’ve learned a lot so far, but the most important insight: there’s power in publishing imperfect work.

Because if I allow myself to create something imperfect every day, I’m certain that someday the sum of all these imperfect creations will be something I’m proud of.

It’s liberating.

Maybe there’s liberating power in reading someone else’s imperfect work too.

I can’t wait to find out together with you.

If you like what you see, sign up for the newsletter 🙂

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.

There is no way to predict the future.

But thinking about where you would like to be in the future can help you make better decisions today.

Want to be a writer in the future? Better write today.

Want to run a marathon? Better run today (or eat better, or rest, or stretch…)

Remind yourself of the future, not for the sake of precise predictions, but for the sake of the present.