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Hey friends,
I've done it again. Set up an sweet little perfectionism trap for me to fall right into.
You may recall my public committment to writing 2,000 words a day for the next few weeks? Well, I did do that for a few days, but then I failed for a day or two so I scrapped the whole thing.
This is classic perfectionist behaviour: 'I'm going to fail anyways, so why bother trying.'
A more insightful wasteman would've realised that something is always better than nothing. I could've told myself 'OK, 2,000 words is probably not going to happen today, but I can definitely manage 100.'
And that would've been at least something.
So, moving forward, I'm screwing the wordcount completely. Instead, I'm going to commit to writing 1 hour a day (or five minutes if things get really bad lol). To make myself even less likely to quit, I'm upping the accountability and commitment.
I'll be livestreaming the writing sessions on Zoom every weekday at 10am GMT for the next 4 weeks. If you think seeing my struggling writing face will get you in the zone to chip away at projects of your own, feel free to join the calls with this link.
In other exciting news - If you've ever thought of starting a YouTube channel, I have a free 7 day email YouTube Crash Course launching tomorrow. I'll take you through a lot of what you need to know to become a sucessful Part-Time YouTuber. Feel free to sign up for it here, and potentially be ready join the club in 2021.
Have a great week!
Ali
My Favourite things
1 - Flowers - To further my attempts to be a better friend (and have more people book zoom calls with me, see here for clarification), I've started sending out flowers to my friends. Either for achievements or just a little thanks for existing, people seem to love this for some reason so I'm happy to indulge.
2 - UltraSpeaking - Seeing as quite a bit of what I do involves speaking, I've taken the next step in getting serious about improving in it. I've joined a live cohort online course called Ultraspeaking which is starting next week. You can see what the exercises look like in my YouTube video here (where I was coached, live, by Tristan and Michael), and if you want to join me in the actual course you can sign up here (I'm in the 07:30 PT cohort, and this is an affiliate link).
3 - Podcast - It's been a while since I've listened to a podcast (I normally favour audiobooks). But my lovely assistant Elizabeth recommended Tim Ferriss' interview with Jim Loehr on Mental Toughness, Energy Management, the Power of Journaling, and Olympic Gold Medals. Very solid listen, with some golden points about being a better person.
4 - Audiobook - Since I enjoyed the Jim Loehr podcast, I immediately bought his latest book Leading with Character: 10 Minutes a Day to a Brilliant Legacy on Audible. I listened to it on my 22-minute run this afternoon. It's great food-for-thought.
Quote of the Week
"The only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle. As with all matters of the heart, you’ll know when you find it."
From “How Will You Measure Your Life?”, Clayton Christensen. Resurfaced using Readwise.
Tweet of the Week
"You can't compete against someone who's having fun" - @fortelabs
— Ali Abdaal (@AliAbdaal) January 13, 2021
