Hi guys!
What’s in this week’s newsletter?
I set out key actionable takeaways from the latest Jay Shetty podcast episode titled “9 Ways You’re Blocking Your Own Growth & How To Get Unstuck” that I found very helpful. I hope they will be for you!
But first, a quick message to ask if you enjoy reading this and want a bit of oomph for the start of the working week, every weekend I release this newsletter which essentially is a TLDR of best ideas, books, videos, etc. that I’ve looked at, along with a bit of what I’ve been up to on the daily.
If this is something that you’d like personally delivered straight to your email inbox, I’d be really grateful if you could consider subscribing! It takes a few seconds to enter your email address:
It would mean a lot to me!
What’s going to be in next week’s newsletter?
Several friends and colleagues have been asking about my work-from-home desk setup. So, I’m thinking about doing a deep dive into the what, the why and the how of my current WFH situation.
That said, if you have any ideas about what you would like me to write about, please drop a comment below!
Let’s GO!!!
Ok, enough of all of that! Let’s get into it!
Overcoming a lack of confidence, needing everything to be perfect and being overly self-aware before putting something out in the public is something that I have struggled with my entire life, and unfortunately still wrestle with.
Sometimes I look at others and wonder how on earth they make something complex or exhausting look so easy, and conclude that they must just be more naturally talented than me, or that the stuff in between their ears is just better programmed at doing things that I want to do.
Sure, natural talent/genetics is a factor. For example, I’ll never be as fast as Usain Bolt on the 100m or have that swoon-quality tenor in Michael Buble.
But this doesn’t mean I need to get in the way of myself to make things harder, as Jay points out. There’s absolutely no point or no reason to self-sabotage before I’ve even tried!
There are other titles in this podcast that captured my attention more at first, so I admittedly wasn’t the most excited by this. But once I listened to it, I could really “feel” the call-to-actions and examples that he used.
Here is the TLDR of the three most important ones for me:
YOUR FIRST IS GOING TO BE YOUR WORST, AND AT BEST IT’S A TEST
Doing doesn’t mean crushing it, doing doesn’t mean getting it right and doing doesn't mean winning.
Doing means learning, experimenting, performing, struggling and then thriving in that order.
The problem is that when we do something, we want to go from learn straight to thrive, without actually truly doing.
That is, when we do that first YouTube video, that first dance class, even getting into our first significant relationship, we expect to crush it.
Instead, if we recognise that we need to experiment, perform and struggle before we get to thrive, we get the opportunity to start, to do and to move.
If we don’t, we will always succumb to paralysis by analysis. Chances are, whatever we want to do will never happen. So we should just take the pressure off of what we something/someone is meant to be and just let it be what it is.
DO NOT WISH, WAIT AND WANT.
RATHER, DO, CREATE AND SERVE.
If you are expecting someone to discover you and grow you and build you, you are blocking your own growth and potential because you will be waiting…and waiting…and waiting…
If you are waiting for some manager at work, for some agent to discover you, someone to introduce you to new deals, someone to make cool stuff happen, you are going to be waiting forever.
Justin Bieber put himself out there before he was discovered, Ariana Grande did likewise.
They had both done their work by the time they were discovered, and both continue to do the work.
Instead of wishing, creating and wanting, do, create and serve.
Everyone has to discover themselves.
ASK: WHAT IS MY “ART”?
You block your own potential if you focus your time and money on something that you don’t really care about. Learn skills to focus on being better at what you care about (i.e. your specific knowledge, your own “art”), and not just because you think it’s going to be useful or interesting.
For example, I feel totally inadequate when it comes to crypto, NFTs, AR/VR etc. Instead of trying to become an expert at that (although with enough time, I could learn), I need to think about “what is my art” (which I haven’t really got a clear answer to right now) and how can the skills that I am learning now (e.g. social media, hobbies, etc.) help to further that.
At the end of the day, everyone has something that others do not. We will always feel inadequate in one way or another.
The trick to accepting this in the best way possible is to not get distracted by focusing on something that you don’t care about. Instead, know what your art is and draw power/confidence from that.
This week’s video
A few friends have asked me for some tips to get into golf so I made a short video about it.
If you’re interested about how I got started in the game of golf, please check out this week’s YouTube video:
Please like and share
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Until next weekend!
David