Sunday Six: Fasting, Focus & Finishing
Hello Friend 👋
Happy Sunday! This week was monumental. I finished the rough draft to my book 🙌 35,678 words written. It’s been quite the journey. I spent this past Friday morning knocking out the last few chapters at a local coffee shop — Tchin Tchin.
Note to self: I work best in a dedicated quiet space.
I love coffee shops, just not for writing 😅
I’ve had to stay on my absolute A-Game to be able to:
- Write with excellence
- Be 100% present with my family
- Execute with high energy in my career
A few things I’ve been doing to stay healthy and sharp:
- 🚶♂️ Prioritizing steps over runs. If I can’t get a run in, still get 10,000 steps in walks with my family.
- 💦 Chugging water. 32oz Yeti Water Bottle is always with me. Filled 4 times a day. No questions asked.
- 😴 Sleeping in until 6AM. I’ve woken up at 5AM regularly for years now. This past 3 months or so, I’ve added an extra hour of sleep (10PM to 6AM). It’s less time but my energy is noticeably higher.
- 🍉 Eating inordinate amounts of watermelon. I’m serious haha. Watermelon is incredibly low calorie, super hydrating, very delicious and curbs sugar cravings. It’s a huge life hack.
Let’s dive in!
Sunday Six ☀️
💬 Quote — “You don’t need more time, you need more focus”
I’ve had endless amounts of coaching conversations, including coaching myself through hectic seasons where I find myself “wishing I had more time.”
Here’s the reality: you get 24 hours a day. Just like everybody else. The difference? Focus.
🚀 Obsession over Passion with Todd Henry — A snippet from a Podcast with Todd Henry & Naveen Jain:
Making money is simply a by-product of doing things that improve other people's lives. And it's that simple, right? There's really not a lot of things to say about "how do I become successful?' Do something that improves people's lives, that will create a long-term, sustainable business.
Naveen argued that you need to forget about "following your passion" and instead pursue on obsession that's focused on making the lives of others better.
→ Question: What obsession are you pursuing in your life or through your work?
Link to podcast: https://podcasts.captivate.fm/media/04c7e322-d764-4a31-9abb-b8b9fd4f0ab6/AC071723.mp3
✍️ 10 Life Lessons From Writing A Book with Ali Abdaal — Ali Abdaal is the most followed productivity expert on the internet and just released his book, Feel Good Productivity. He has spend the last three years working on it. Wow!
Here are his ten lessons he shared from his book writing experience:
- Big projects take way longer than you think they’re going to take. That’s okay.
- Having said that, each component of a Big Project can be done way quicker than you think - provided you lower your standards.
- Lowering your standards is a great way of getting out a rough first draft for anything you’re working on.
- Getting started is often the hardest part. Just get started - the momentum will often keep you going with a lot less effort.
- Every so often, ask yourself what your priorities are. Then look at your calendar to determine whether you’re acting in accordance with those priorities. Adjust accordingly.
- Before 11am, and after 11pm, is the best for creativity. But you feel way better when you wake up early, get some sunlight, and get to work, than when you work into the night and have a lie-in.
- Coffee shops are great places to work. By going to different coffee shops, libraries and/or co-working spaces each day, you add a sense of adventure to your work by default.
- Editors are amazing, and can take your work from a pile of slop into something that looks and sounds pretty good. Find an editor for your work - even if your work isn’t writing.
- Working with friends around you feels way more enjoyable and energizing than working on your own. Don’t be afraid to organize co-working retreats - your work, your friends, and your soul, will thank you for it.
- Focus on enjoying the process. At the end of it, you’re going to realize that the destination is meaningless if you didn’t enjoy the journey.
🛑 Stop Doing over Start Doing — "Avoiding mistakes is an underrated way to improve. It's easier to fend off a bad day than achieve a perfect day. Rather than do your best, avoid your worst.” —James Clear
My good friend and mentor, Robert Mallon, often coaches his iconic STOP DOING list. As much as you want to build new habits, you probably need to clear out a few bad ones first.
Things like:
- Multitasking
- Eating late at night
- 3 hours of daily screen time
- Saying “yes” to every project
What would make your week better if you stopped doing it?
🥑 Intermittent Fasting — I’ve been experimenting with sustainable habits to help me cut and lose weight. But here’s a key lesson I figured out:
The method you use to lose weight isn’t as important as the consistency of that method.
Over the last 6 to 12 months, I’ve experimented with:
- Keto
- Plant-Based
- Counting Calories
- Intermittent Fasting
They all worked great for losing weight, getting tone and achieving results. But some we’re harder to stay consistent on. So I’m diving into the thing I can stay the most consistent on: intermittent fasting.
I’ve been fasting again for the last two weeks. I’m also seeing the results I want, not just in weight but in tone. It’s the easiest by a mile to stay consistent with — for me.
Basically… skip breakfast and stop don’t eat past 8PM. 12PM to 8PM is when you can eat. That’s it. Not hard. I also highly recommend the Zero app to track your fasting.
Link to app: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/zero-fasting-health-tracker/id1168348542
📚 Everybody Writes by Ann Handley — Who is this book for? Writers, Marketers, Content Creators. If you think about it, everybody writes… a lot. Everyday.
- Slack
- Text
- Social Media
- Video Scripts
- Captions
- Essays
- Blogs
- Newsletters
- Website Copy
- Documents
- Letters
- Memos
The better you write, the better you communication across all of those areas. Most books on writing that I’ve found are for writers. But even I don’t necessarily consider myself a writer — I just choose writing as my primary method of communication. The one I am strongest in. Therefore, I write.
This book is the tool for the everyday person who wants to be an incredible creator and communicator.
I highly recommend.
Link to Book: https://amzn.to/3pU4CxR
Thanks for tuning into this week's Sunday Six!
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