by Darpan Sachdeva
The moment that you feel that, just possibly, you’re walking down the street naked, exposing too much of your heart and your mind and what exist on the inside ,showing too much of yourself. Thats the moment you may be starting to get it right.”
–Neil Gaiman,University of the Arts commencement speech
We all like to be super heroes and appear “successful” (a nebulous term at best) and the media all the time like to portray them as standouts and true ideals to follow.
Some times ,these dramatic stories of overcoming the odds are inspiring .More often they lead to an unhealthy knee-jerk conclusions like:
“Well….maybe they (entrepreneur/artist/creator painted as super hero) can do it,but i am just a normal girl/guy…..”
The point here i would want to share is Most “superheroes” are nothing of the sort.As would say my one of the favourite people on the planet Tim Ferriss ,they are weird ,neurotic creatures who do big things DESPITE lots of self defeating habits and self talk.
Tim approves the down below 8 step process for maximizing efficacy (doing the right things):
1.Wake up at 1 hour before you have to at the computer screen.Email is the mind killer.
2.Make a cup of tea (as per your choice of taste) and sit down with a pen/pencil and paper.
3.Write down the 3 to 5 things- and no more -that are making you the most anxious and uncomfortable.They’re often things that have been punted from one day’s to do list to the next,to the next,to the next ,and so on.Most important usually equals most uncomfortable ,with some chance of rejection or conflict.
4.Foreach item,ask your self :”If this were the only thing i accomplished today,would i be satisfied with my day?”Will moving this forward make all the other to-dos unimportant or easier to knock off later?”
5.Look only at the items you”ve answered “yes” to for atleast oneof these questions.
6.Block out at 2 to3 hours to focus on ONE of them for today.Let the rest if the urjent but less important stuff slide .It will still be there tomorrow.
7.TO BE CLEAR:Block out at 2 to 3 HOURS to focus on ONE of them for today. This is ONE BLOCK OF TIME. No phone calls or social media allowed.
8.If you get distracted or start procastinating ,don”t freak out and downward-spiral;just gently come back to your ONE to do.
Congratulations ! That’s it.
This is the only way as tim says you can create big outcomes despite the never -ending impulse to procastinate,nap and otherwise fritter away days with bull-shit.
If you have 10 important things to do in a day ,its 100% certain nothing important will get done that day.On the other hand ,you can usually handle one must to do item and block out lesser behaviors for 2 to 3 hours a day.
The point home here is:It does’nt take much to seem super human and appear “successful”to nearly every one around you.In fact you need just one rule :What you do is more important than how you do everything else,and doing some thing well does not make it important.
This said done,if you consistently feel the counterproductive need for volumes and doing lots of stuff. Always remember:
Being busy is form of laziness-Lazy thinking and indiscriminate action.
Being busy is most often used as a guise for avoiding the few critcally important but uncomfortable actions.
Last but not the least,when despite your best efforts -you feel like you are loosing at the game of life .Remember:Even the best of the best some times feel this way.
When in despair,recall what iconic writer Kurt Vonneuget said about his process:
“When I write .I feel like an armless,leggless man with crayon in his mouth”
Do not overestimate the world and enderestimate your self .You are better than you think.
And you are not alone……
Darpan Sachdeva is the CEO and Founder of Nobel thoughts.com. With a long time passion for Entrepreneurship, Self development & Success, Darpan started his website with the intention of educating and inspiring like-minded people all over the world to always strive for success no matter what their circumstances.To keep going and never get disheartened and learn from every adversity.
