The clock was ticking and I was in agony…
I had just begun a new “time-restricted eating” habit where I could only eat between the hours of 10 AM and 6 PM.
I change up my diet plan about once per quarter so I'm continuously learning and experimenting to see what works best for me.
This time-restricted eating was the hardest yet.
“You don't get rich writing science fiction. If you want to get rich, you start a religion.” – L Ron Hubbard.
In 1953, science-fiction writer L Ron Hubbard set out on a mission – create a new religion based on his book Dianetics.
Hubbard truly believed in the psychological benefits of the practices suggested in the book. So he released it to the psychological community – expecting to be hailed as a genius for discovering these new ways of understanding and improving the human mind.
If there is one thing I’m sure of, it’s that right now you have a problem on your mind. You’re not alone. We all have problems.
And like most people, I often think I'm alone in dealing with them.
Imagine that you and I went back 100 years to a time when cars were first made available to the average person.
It's an exciting time.
This disruptive change in technology has given us the freedom to reach destinations beyond what we dreamed possible.
**But there's a catch.**
You're probably familiar with the saying,
"Hit two birds with one stone."
But imagine for a second that this saying was your reality.
Imagine you were trying to hit two birds with one stone because you relied on those two birds for dinner.
On November 4th, four days prior to Election Day, President Obama sat down with Bill Maher to discuss some pressing issues the country faced.
*Note: I'm just using this as an example, this isn't about either man's politics.
To my great delight, one of the first discussion points was of great importance to me:
At 24 years of age, Mark Cuban was far from what many would call a success.
“I was living in a 3-bedroom apartment in Dallas. I didn’t have my own bedroom. I slept on the couch or floor depending on what time I got home. I had no closet. Instead, I had a pile that everyone knew was mine. My car had the usual hole in the floorboard, a ’77 FIAT X19 that burned a quart of oil that I couldn’t afford every week.”
Over the last 6 years, I have deliberately put myself in "no retreat" situations.
I have moved to a new city, I have set a hard deadline, or signed up to do something out of my comfort zone. Whenever I'm becoming a big fish in a small pond with my personal development, I jump into a bigger pond – even if I'm not ready.
I've done this so often, in fact, that I developed a process that helps me achieve the "unrealistic" goals necessary to make it in the "bigger pond."
Right now, I have yet another unrealistic goal. So here is how I planned to achieve it:
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· How to answer the question you ALWAYS get, "What do you do for a living?"
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· The #1 way to be ENGAGING & INTERESTING in ANY conversation
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The notecards in my hands were soaked and shaking...
I was about to do my first pitch to a room of investors in my entrepreneurial career. As the clock ticked down to my turn to speak, I no longer feared being on stage…**I feared having a panic attack before I got there.**
Last week, I sat down with Ben Austin, the founder of Stop Start Do and the host of the Unleash Your Inner Genius Podcast!
We talk about the keys to mastering willpower, the best habits, and more!
Every once in a while you get that sweet, “AHA” moment. You have found the solution to your problem, and suddenly it seems like a New World of possibilities is now open.
It feels great.
But the underrated cousin of the “AHA” moment is the “DUH” moment. When a solution has been there all along…but for some reason you ignored it.
I don’t know about you, but I have many more “DUH” moments then “AHA” moments–and this one was a doozy.
In 1846, the head doctor of Vienna General Hospital had a crisis on his hands—1 in 6 women were dying of childbed fever. [1]
The risk of death was so bad, in fact, that women were choosing to take the risk of giving birth at home rather than going to his hospital. Not since the middle-ages had women willfully chosen to give birth at home–especially in a large city like Vienna.
As I read the words, I felt sick to my stomach…
“20 years of research on willpower may have just been debunked.”
They were referring to the concept of “ego-depletion” which I often refer to as your “willpower fuel.”
Frightened for her life, Alison Cebulla jumped out of the way of the car rolling toward her. Then she looked up…
“The car was actually just parked there,” she told me. “It wasn’t moving at all. I was so sleep deprived, I was hallucinating all the time. So I looked like a crazy person.”
This was Alison’s lowest point in her addiction to methamphetamine.
How did we get to this?
I thought as violence erupted in my home town of Chicago.
Donald Trump was hosting a rally on the campus of the University of Illinois at Chicago and protestors were willing to do whatever they could to shut it down.
The test was simple.
The participants, all non-exercisers with the goal of adding workouts to their weekly routine, were asked to write down how many hours they planned to spend in the gym over the next 2 weeks.
So each participant entered in the amount of time they planned to spend in the gym, then they would record how much time they actually spent in the gym. After careful calculation, the participants planned to spend about twenty hours working out over the next two weeks.
Since the day he entered this world, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was surrounded by music.
His father, Leopold Mozart, was a musical instructor and filled the Mozart home with new students. This included Wolfgang’s older sister, Maria Anna, who practiced the piano day and night.
“This is it!”
Thought a young Warren Buffet as he picked up a book that would change his life forever.
Until that point, Warren Buffet was far from what many would consider a future success.
He was a rebellious kid who hated what he considered pointless schoolwork and the fact that he had to move from Omaha to Washington DC when his father was elected to Congress.
In April 1994, Bill Gates completely cut himself off from his work, his friends, and even his family for an entire week.
This was part of an annual ritual that he called his “Think Week” where he takes the time to step back from everything and look at it from a high-level. He found that this separation gave him clarity and the ability to think outside the box.
This particular Think Week ensured Microsoft’s dominance for the next decade. [1]
He was struggling with the question of whether the Internet was a fad or here to stay. Until that point, Microsoft was completely focused on the personal computer and ignored many other opportunities like personal digital assistants.
This focus was part of what made them great.
“All men have the will to win. But it’s the man who has the will to prepare who’s going to win.” – Bob Knight
In 1975, the legendary college basketball coach, Bob Knight, led his Indiana Hoosiers to an undefeated season and a national championship victory – something that hasn’t been done again in over 40 years now.
Upon his retirement from the game, he wrote a book where he told the world his approach to psychology in the game of basketball – The Power of Negative Thinking.
Let me introduce to you William.
William is a smart, quiet, introvert with a dry sense of humor and a generous spirit. He’s 20 years old, a college student and has never been very good at talking to women.
One day, a girl that he has liked for months sits next to him in his chemistry class. He is nervous, but knows that he needs to summon the courage to talk to girls he likes one of these days.
Then, by a stroke of luck, the professor assigns the two of them to work on a project together. He starts building a friendship with her. He is awkward at times, but they generally get along well.
Solve this puzzle as quickly as you can:
A man purchases a baseball bat and a ball for $1.10. The bat cost $1.00 more than the ball.
How much does the ball cost?
She may be the most popular pop star on the planet.
Over the last several years Katy Perry’s music has filled concert venues, MP3 players and radio stations across the world. It seems like just as she releases one hit, another one is just around the corner.
However, this success comes with a price.
In a previous post I wrote about the real reason that positive thinking and self-belief works. Belief goes beyond consciously thinking that you will be able to do something. True belief taps into the subconscious mind and reworks the emotional sense of doubt and anxiety that come along with us achieving our goals.
“Know Thyself.” - Scribes of Delphi
Imagine you have just been hired as CEO of a Fortune 500 company. You’re excited about all of the changes and improvements you can make for the company, and you’re eager to get started. But, there’s a catch - you have no information.
Accounting, finance, sales, marketing, you have absolutely no numbers on any of them from the time before you took over, or during your tenure as CEO. So how would you make the best decisions for the company? If you have no quantifiable data, how can you see if any of your new ideas are working?
All of your goals would simply be measured by whether you “felt” like you were making progress with the company. This is obviously a horrible way to run an organization, so why do we apply that to our lives?
“Mind over matter”
I don’t believe in quick fixes. I believe in small, almost un-noticeable, wins compounded on a daily basis that eventually lead to spectacular results. However, when I began my journey into the world of Willpower Science, I came across one age-old concept that promised to enhance my willpower and discipline overnight – meditation.
It’s Tuesday at 7am. Susan, an account manager for a brokerage firm, takes a look at her calendar for the day. She sees that huge presentation for one of her firm’s top clients at 10. She’s been dreading this presentation for some time, as the client is becoming impatient with a lack of results, and there’s rumors that they’re exploring other firms to invest with. This presentation is crucial, and could be the difference between her getting a promotion, or getting a box to pack her things.
It was February 2013. The Baltimore Ravens and San Francisco 49ers were about to take the field of the Super Dome to play for the greatest prize in the game of football –The Lombardi Trophy. They weren’t the only ones taking in the experience, though. Down in the tunnel, on the field, and in the stands, Russell Wilson – quarterback of the playoff-eliminated Seattle Seahawks – was also taking it all in.
I arrived in New York City like I’m sure many have before me.
A little optimistic, a little scared, and a lot overwhelmed.
But, although this was my biggest rodeo, it was not my first. This was the fourth new city that I have moved to in the last 15 years.
Despite being an introvert, I have become used to meeting new people, making new friends, and building a support network.
But this was New York City. Perhaps it would be harder to do so here?