brain pickings are are short and actionable advice on marketing, productivity and humaning. I write them daily'ish, sometimes insightful, sometimes personal, always humurous. happy scrolling!
you know that pause in between asking someone a thoughtful question, and them processing it?
that moment when they’re deeply lost in thought, browsing their options, and you’re sat there eager to hear their answer?
there’s no pause here.
the hardest thing I’ve ever done, and carry on doing, is running.
coincidently, this is typically my only answer to any such questions.
“best thing I’ve ever done?”
running.
“most dangerous thing I’ve ever done?”
running.
“easiest way to make friends and influence people?”
running.
there are a couple reasons to do it,
and a million not to.
I run far past any reasonable utility.
directly, the only way running is ever going to help me in life, is if at some point, someone tries to rob me by chasing me for 10 kilometers at a moderate pace.
indirectly, it’s done more for me than any books, courses and jobs ever did.
the joy of cramps, blisters and sweat.
the pain of finishing.
but such things have little to do with words,
maybe that’s why I’m so drawn to it.
running for me is nostalgia,
nostalgia for a time in which “hard work” was rewarded and taking shortcuts was not an option.
influencers can’t fake it, the rich can’t buy it and haters can’t diminish it.
you either spend the time and work to get good at it, or you don’t.
just like writing,
maybe that’s why I’m so drawn to it.
I love running.
I hate running.
I love running.
I’ll see you tomorrow.
today is day 249 of the year, there are 116 days remaining of 2022.
right now, are you wearing the cheapest possible t-shirt you could buy?
what about the device you’re reading this on, is it the cheapest?
that time you had to get a minor procedure done, did you look for the cheapest doctor?
why not?
as much as people love to complain about the cost of products, they rarely buy on price alone.
people want to feel like they got a good deal, that’s it.
if I sell you a brand new iPhone for $100, your first reaction is to think there’s something wrong with it,
if I sell it to you for $3000 you’ll want to know what’s so special about it.
intrinsically we know we get what we pay for.
next time you want to lower your prices ask yourself “am I giving them a deal or am I making them question the quality of the product”
a very good book on pricing is “How to Sell at Margins Higher than Your Competitors“
I’ll see you tomorrow.
today is day 248 of the year, there are 117 days remaining of 2022.
if you were to gain 1kg just by eating fast food once,
would you still eat it?
what if you were to lose 1kg every time you went to the gym,
how often would you go?
I wrote about small choices, instant gratification and consistency before
if you bring these ingredients together and add the super secret sauce I’m about to share with you,
you’re looking at the perfect recipe to achieving anything.
full disclosure, I stole borrowed this recipe from Darren Hardy (he probably has it from his grandma) and it goes like this…
small smart choices + consistency + time = radical difference
sounds delicious, doesn’t it?
the super secret sauce, as you can probably tell, is thyme time,
I know it’s an acquired taste and not a lot of us know how to work with it,
but once you do – game changer.
I’m being facetious in my wording, clearly, for good reason,
us humans are horrible at putting time in perspective.
“nobody intends to become obese, go for bankruptcy or get a divorce but often, if not always, those consequences are the result of a series of small poor choices”
while great displays of Herculean effort make for a good story,
you’re better off reading a different cookbook.
I’ll see you tomorrow.
today is day 245 of the year, there are 120 days remaining of 2022.
so you’re watching a wellness documentary on Netflix, when this high profile coach comes on and starts talking about the many wonders of doing push-ups, “if you can only do one exercise a day, and one thing only” they say with great importance “do push-ups.”
“done!” you think, “from now on I’m doing 10 push-ups a day!”
“…starting tomorrow”
perfect, the ego gremlin has been fed,
aren’t you such a decisive, health conscious person?
if only more people did push-ups.
the next day comes around and you do your 10 push-ups,
the second day comes around and you do another 10 push-ups,
by the fourth day you tell yourself that you probably should take a break.
and by the tenth day you vaguely remember having started this push-up challenge in the first place.
sounds familiar?
if you’re the kind of person that excels at quitting habits, stick around, I’m going to teach you how you can achieve anything.
my credentials are that I run on mountains, for “fun.”
in order to achieve anything, you only have to do one thing:
understand the relationship between discipline and motivation, and use it to your advantage.
say you wanted to pick up running…
I could tell you all about social apps dedicated to running, I could tell you about downloadable immersive stories that keep you engaged, I could even tell you about supplements.
they’re all great, but they only address half the problem.
I would not have been running for as long as I have, relying on my motivation alone.
it’s like waiting on planets to be in the right conjunction, highly unreliable.
motivation can not convince me to get laced up when it’s pouring rain outside and I would much rather stay inside.
and it will most definitely not convince me to come home at a reasonable hour because I have to run early next day.
discipline will.
over time, maintaining your discipline will become a new source of motivation, you will be motivated to stay disciplined.
discipline => motivation => discipline
you can, and should, white knuckle your way with motivation when it comes to goals that have a relatively short feedback loop: run a 5k, a 10k, a half, a marathon, different trails, beat your PR, do it blindfolded…
you need short, focused goals for motivation, and the discipline to stay on track and actually achieve them.
discipline without motivation would in time, become a burden that would eventually wear you down.
you need these quick rewards to keep it fun and enjoyable.
in layman’s terms:
motivation without discipline is unreliable.
discipline without motivation is boring.
if you have absolutely no interest in picking up running (can’t really say I blame you,) here’s a real and actionable way for you to use this new found knowledge.
losing weight, a pain point that’s made a lot of businesses a LOT of money.
most people already know you need better habits in order to lose weight,
eat less, exercise more, it truly is not rocket science.
so why do we fail to lose weight?
it’s actually very simple,
we’ve built these images in our head of what we want to look like, lean muscles, glowing skin, 9 abs,
but there’s too much time and mental distance involved to use as motivation.
in order to succeed you have to:
A. create smaller, more attainable goals for motivation.
B. discipline.
what’s easy to do is also easy not to do.
I’ll see you tomorrow.
today is day 243 of the year, there are 122 days remaining of 2022.
I like cooking but I hate to cook,
if that makes sense?
I like to chop, stir and taste, especially to taste.
I like the smell,
and the theatricality of throwing a kitchen rag over your shoulder to check on the oven.
I like playing that game at the table, where you’re forcing the other person to guess the ingredients?
“nope, it’s not thyme, try again babe, you made that joke last time”
but I hate to cook.
I particularly hate waiting.
what do I do with all of that passive time between the chopping and the checking and the tasing? (especially the tasting)
wait for another line to appear around my eyes?
why spend 2 hours cooking something that’s going to take you 2 minutes to chew? it’s highly impractical.
so anyway.
yesterday I spent 2 hours writing 520 words,
they were good words, great words even.
I wrote and re-wrote, wrote and re-wrote, wrote and re-wrote…
for the person that never asked, that’s 15 seconds per word, highly impractical.
I spent 2 hours writing a 2 minute read.
I might as well have spent my time saving fish from drowning.
It takes courage not to be discouraged.
I’ll see you tomorrow.
today is day 242 of the year, there are 123 days remaining of 2022
even if the only traveling you do is between your house door and your office door,
no two days are the same.
there is a cyclical nature to life that both man and nature abide by:
astronomical cycles,
climate and agricultural cycles,
economic, spiritual and hormonal cycles.
animals migrate, children don’t grow up in one day and winters don’t turn into summers overnight (well…)
these cycles were written on the Earth in her career as a man-bearing planet,
and she’s a great storyteller.
biologist and geologist Louis Agassiz has a beautiful quote on this: “The crust of our earth is a great cemetery where the rocks are the tombstones on which the buried dead have written their own epitaphs.”
it’s the natural law and order of the universe,
it has no beginning and end, just cycles.
ironically, when looking back, we tend to see history – ours and that of the world’s – through a very straight line,
ancient age, medieval age, modern age, and you.
why are we shook when our internal or external order is disrupted? why do we fail to accept it?
so much friction and mental drag,
so much energy is wasted in trying to fight a turning.
why you?
why not you?
why not now?
this isn’t an argument in favor of laying limp in life’s way as it goes through its flows, much to the contrary.
it’s an invitation to work with it, and make an effort to understand your own unique cycle.
go with the flow, as the instagram quote says.
animals understand this well,
from the bear that hibernates in winter,
and the young squirrel that’s never met the cold season but instinctively knows to store away food,
we too have our cycles.
and as hard as we try to hack our way through biology and supplement our way through achievements,
the mind cannot always win over matter, sometimes the mind is asked to do too much, and it quickly shows itself to be matter as well.
regardless of your current position in your circle of life, whether you’re winning or losing, shrinking or growing, moving or resting,
know that everything is transitory and not a statement about your worth as a human being.
every day is a new beginning for all,
who knows, this could be a turn in your cycle of opportunity,
but only if you let it.
don’t let yesterday be a repetition of today.
side note: here’s an in-house example on how I’ve come to approach cycles.
I used to run, and then I didn’t, and now I run again. I fell into running as naturally as I fell into not running.
maybe I needed a change, maybe my toes needed a rest, maybe it’s maybelline.
side note 2: these thoughts were not a result of my own synapses firing, I am not that smart. I was inspired by this essay The Doctrine of Cycles by Lydia Ross, immensely fascinating, heavily recommend.
if you’re hungry for more, here’s a handy list of cycles
I’ll see you tomorrow.
today is day 241 of the year, there are 124 days remaining of 2022.