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Tag: Tips and Tricks

You’ve Been Hacked

Published on December 4, 2021

My friend’s Instagram got hacked.

She had 27k followers.

Then, get this, the hackers messaged her on WhatsApp asking for a ransom.

There are people out there who actually do this.

This is simply to say:

  • Protect your accounts
  • Never give out passwords
  • Choose extra security options

Pretend like all of your accounts just got hacked and you lost everything you’ve built.

You lost all of your connections and you had no way of communicating with anyone on social media.

If you really want to feel that reality, delete all social media apps on your phone for the next week.

See how it feels.

Then, imagine you finally got them back after a ton of back-and-forth and pain-in-the-butt customer service interactions.

What steps would you take to prevent that from ever happening again?

Do that now.

My 2-Step Formula For Getting Deep Work Done

Published on November 28, 2021

Step 1) Force the first 10-20 minutes—because starting almost never comes easily. This entails: silencing my phone, wearing noise-cancelling headphones, and resolving to sit and stare until I get bored (and frustrated) enough to start. No phone-checking, tab-opening, house wandering, etc. Just me, my thoughts, and the medium through which I need to do my work. It’s uncomfortable, my mind begs for distractions, and it’s definitely forced.

Step 2) Flow for the next 1-2 hours—because once I surrender to the work, the momentum tends to take care of itself. This happens for me when I read, write, teach, train, and even talk with people. Once I enter this state, time tends to fade away. It’s completely absorbed, unconscious, deliberate and pointed—work. And it’s where most good, deep work gets done. But, until you force that first 10-20 minutes, this flow state will essentially be unaccessible.

Reverse Gratitude

Published on November 25, 2021

Gratitude is usually about appreciating all that we have.

What if, to take gratitude further, we appreciated all that we didn’t have, too?

Things like:

  • Sicknesses/diseases/disorders
  • Greed/envy/wrath
  • War/crime/hate

This exercise will at least 100x your gratitude list.

Not that it needed any extending in the first place.

You Aren’t Doing Negative Self-Talk Right.

Published on November 22, 2021

Game changer: add “up until now…” to any and all negative self-talk.

  • [Up until now] I’m lazy and gross.
  • [Up until now] My self-control sucks.
  • [Up until now] I have no idea what I’m doing with my life.

Because now, that version of you is in the past.

Negative self-talk might come from a seemingly inevitable negative reality, but the only thing inevitable is your continued negative reality if you don’t change how you talk to yourself.

You will never outperform your self-image.

Now is as good of a time as any to change it.

Movement ≠ Work

Published on November 12, 2021

The more we associate movement to work the less likely we are to do it.

When you look at kids, movement is natural.

They run, skip, and jump without any mental resistance or worries at all—all while being told that they need to calm down and “stop,” by adults.

How ironic, that when we get old, we are told we aren’t moving enough and that we need to start running, skipping, and jumping more.

…And then end up paying huge sums of money for boot camp trainers, fitness guides, and programs that’ll hopefully, somehow, maybe retrain our brains to overcome the mental resistance and worries that were once non-existent.

Maybe, we could learn a thing or two from kids.

Maybe, if we stopped looking at exercise as an obligation and looked at it as an expression of bodily freedom, we’d more joyfully move our way to health without so many daily, mental battles and wars.

Quality Sleep > Early Rising

Published on November 11, 2021

Rather than trying desperately to wake up earlier, focus on going to bed earlier.

There’s so much advice focused around “30 minutes earlier,” “5am club,” “rising before the sun,” and while I’m not arguing that it isn’t great if you can do that—what’s not great is subtracting sleep time from already sleep-deprived souls.

Prioritize getting a full night of sleep before you try prioritizing early rising.

Nothing Should Come Before This

Published on November 8, 2021

Your first priority each day should be doing that which improves your state.

Because the byproduct of an improved state is more of the same. It overflows from your being. It starts a positive upward spiraling loop. Your happiness increases their happiness, which increases yours even further, which increases theirs further and so on.

Influencing others becomes a joy, they find joy in influencing you, and it’s hardly a task.

If you start from a place of lack, discontent, and busyness—then, that too, will attract more of the same. It overflows from your being. It starts a negative downward spiraling loop. Your discontent increases their discontent, which increases yours further, which increases theirs further and so on.

Influencing others positively will become a chore because it will be in direct contradiction to your own state—and it’ll hardly be a joy for anyone involved.

Start each day with a conscious series of efforts designed to improve your state. Whether that’s exercise, meditation, reading, writing, walking—it doesn’t matter. What matters is that you identify what works for you and you prioritize it each morning in a non-negotiable way.