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Writing a blog is like lifting weights

Written on March 8th, 2018

8 minute read

Writing a blog is like lifting weights

 

If you’re reading this article, I need to thank you.

Thank you for becoming a fan, sharing with friends, and for all of the encouragement along the way.

Building a subscriber base is a lot like weight lifting.

Let me explain…

 

The first time you hit the gym, your muscles aren’t very strong. Something as light as 25 pounds, really feels like 100.

 

 

Well, that’s the same thing that happens when you start anything new. I’ll use this blog as an example, but odds are, you’re also working on something you’re excited about too. Take this framework and fit it into whatever constitutes as your blog.

 

If you plot difficulty over your most ambitious goals, they get more achievable over time. It takes a while to establish a base, but once you do, the next goalpost becomes easier. Much like when you hit the gym, the first set of weights feel way heavier, but if you stick with it, your muscles build and those once heavier weights become your warm-up exercise. 

 

 

It has this funny compounding effect; where your progress keeps doubling, yet, it continues to get easier. Your ability to impact keeps growing too. Suddenly lifting 100 pounds feels less than your original 50 pound rep on day one.

 

 

This blog is still in its earliest infancy. We’re deciding which exercises make sense and when to fit the gym into the busyness of life. We have to zoom in really close to see the location.

 

see: Starbucks Latte, Forward Goals, Being on Time

A new workout plan

 

Life is about the journey, not the destination.

 

This past month, you’ve seen me lace up my sneakers and hit the gym. After a month of checking out the equipment, I’ve decided to put a new workout plan in place. That’s right, channeling my inner Kanye =)

 

Monday Tidbits are staying, but I’m switching around the article content.

 

I want to go deeper on these topics and add more visuals (similar to this week). Who knows, maybe there will be video content too or a podcast for the train ride or drive. But basically, the articles won’t come every Thursday.

 

If you’ve enjoyed anything so far, or thought this week was cool, I think you’ll love what’s coming next.

 

The destination may change but who cares?

 

Changing the workout routine keeps life interesting.

 

It’s all about the journey,

Alex

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Forward vs. backward looking goals

 

Written on February 22nd, 2018

8 minute read

Forward vs. Backward Looking Goals

 

We tend to confuse the two and that’s a big mistake.

If you’re like myself, when you set your most ambitious personal goals, they tend to sound something like this:

  • Appear on the Forbes, ‘[insert age] Under [insert age] List’
  • Get promoted at work
  • Increase my net worth to $XX

What do they all have in common? These are all backward looking indicators. In other words, they are signals that you’re doing well, but in the past. While achieving these accolades does correlate with success, they aren’t predictive of future success. Rather, they are proof that success has already happened, in the past.

Your goals should really sound more like this:

  • Learn a new (seemingly unrelated) discipline
  • Embrace a new positive habit backed by science
  • Reach out to non-local friends more regularly

The difference? These are all forward looking indicators; they don’t show off as accomplishments in the typical way we view “success.” Yet, if you do any of these things, it’s easier to predict your performance in the future. Following through on these goals won’t get you a celebrated medal, but they are the positive tactics that actually get you there.

Learning from successful people 

 

What do Warren Buffett, Mark Cuban, and Bill Gates have in common? They are vivacious learners. They dedicate many hours each day to reading about new subjects, because it challenges their mindset and allows them to connect independent ideas. That’s a forward indicator – agile mental models produce novel ideas but will never receive an accolade for habit itself.

What do they also have in common? They are all Billionaires. Their net worth continues to climb and is a testament to their consistent ability to keep growing as individuals, entrepreneurs, and thought-leaders. That’s a backwards indicator – it reflects back on their total economic output to date, in the past.

That’s the formula.

The most powerful forward indicator is happiness

 

Compared to their neutral or stressed counterparts:

  • Doctors are 19% more accurate at diagnosing their patients
  • Sales people are 37% better at closing
  • Operationally, we can be up to 31% more productive

That’s just the beginning; there are studies that show we are more creative, better at problem solving, and more resilient and innovative when we are happy versus neutral or stressed. *

When we increase wellbeing in the present, all of our our future outputs rise. We are a product of our environments. So, elevating these inputs also helps those around you; your family, friends, and co-workers. Start with happiness and finish with more success.

We should be challenging our employees and organizations to set forward looking predictors

 

  • How are you going to push yourself to self-learn this year?
  • What’s the one positive habit you will commit to practicing this quarter?
  • When will you find time to connect with your network this week?

Ignore the accolades, because they come later.

Remember, when our team commits and crushes the small stuff, we need to celebrate too. Our brains are wired for short-term feedback loops, which makes forward predictors hard to set and follow through on. It’s easy to choose a well-known award to gauge success, but it’s the abstract and consistent daily habits that really produce it.

By adjusting our measuring stick of success, we can elevate everyone around us. Eventually producing more backward predictors that we know and love.

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Solving the impossible

The U.S. Government spent billions of dollars attempting to land on the moon. Many people complained that the money should have been spent on poverty.

Randy Pausch once responded,

“When you use money to fight poverty, it can be of great value, but too often, you’re working at the margins. When you’re putting people on the moon, you’re inspiring all of us to achieve the maximum of human potential, which is how our greatest problems will eventually be solved.”

Our greatest breakthroughs happen when we aren’t focusing on the issue at hand, but instead broadcasting our most ambitious goals.

By working on things that fascinate us, we create industries that don’t yet exist and solve problems we never imagined possible.