“Too often, we convince ourselves that massive success requires massive action…if you can get 1% better each day for a year, you’ll end up thirty-seven times better by the time you’re done.”
James Clear, Atomic Habits
Song: Meet Me At Our Spot by THE ANXIETY, Willow and Tyler Cole
Article: The Lost Practice of Resting One Day Each Week by Joshua Becker
Thought: Happy New Year! And on cue the flood of New Year’s resolutions and goals are every where. This “holiday” was definitely invented, or at least taken advantage of, to just sell you shit.
For the last decade my sales goals (or other career metrics) go into effect on Jan 1. One of my best mentors, Dave Bergdolt, told me to never look at the number or worry about it. He said “the number is simply a measure of where your effort should be spent.” That’s some of the best advice I’ve received – my goals drive my effort and focus inputs (i.e., partnerships, mentorship, follow up, funnel building).
My friend, Andrea Hay texted me that we should do 1,000 hours outside in 2023. It’s about matching the typical yearly screen time with “green time.” The quantity is so obscene that you can’t just hope it happens so I have an app to track it. Winter is tough (cold and wet). Summer is tough (deadly hot). But every little bit adds up. Just like my time spent on LinkedIn, Instagram and TikTok.
Instead of obsession with goals become obsessed with effort. Obsess over a few small habits that create tremendous impact over time. Here’s just a few small ones that add up:
- Reading 15 minutes per day is over 90 hours in a year (the equivalent of two weeks of work).
- Reducing what you eat by 100 calories per day is over 35,000 calories in a year. That’s 10 lbs of fat. Most people have a hard time consistently cutting calories, a 20 minute walk equals about 100 calories too.
- Ordering groceries for pickup reduced my time at the store by more than 50 hours a year. It saved me countless dollars in impulse buys, which were typically high calorie sweets or alcohol. The app saves my frequent purchases and so it takes 5 minutes to load my cart and checkout. I pick up on my way back from a place I’m already going. Another service, Grove Collaborative, offers lots of household items that get delivered straight to me. Amazon’s Subscribe and Save works great too.
- Automate all my savings. If I hope to save, I won’t. I struggle with financial discipline especially around clothes and gadgets. To help myself I do a couple things: 1) I delete the clothing apps and unsubscribe to their email lists. 2) the day after getting paid money moves from my checking to all the savings places.
This work isn’t about finding time to do more. The reason I do these habits is to find time (most valuable resource) and money (second most valuable resource) to do the things I want to do like rest, exercise, be social and enjoy life. It’s not about more – it’s about what matters.
Focus on inputs/effort not on outcome in 2023.