How to do anything

Let me teach you a simple hack to do hard things!

It’s 10:30pm when I’m starting this issue. Last Sunday it was 11:00pm. Next Sunday will be the same as well. Life’s busy lately, but weekends… phew, don’t even ask!

It’s incredibly hard to keep up with these letters. Especially when there’s no extrinsic value to it. Especially when I can just skip a week and nobody would care. I don’t have many readers anyways. But here I am, showing up nevertheless and hitting the publish button.

Why? How? One simple psychological hack — Weekly Meditations is the most important thing in the world. That’s it, nothing matters more than writing this letter. I’ve tuned my mind into believing that. So it doesn’t matter how I feel, or where I am, or whether I’m out of ideas, or whether the world is burning down to ashes. I will write and publish an issue every Sunday :)

This has worked well so far. And I believe that this hack can be applied to anything you want to do. If something is important and meaningful enough, we find a way to do it. Circumstances don’t come in the way. Nothing really bothers us. How and why fade away in background. All we know is that this is what needs to be done, and we’re going to do it.

Though it isn’t as straightforward as it sounds. There are a couple of rules and caveats to this hack that you’d want to consider when tuning your brain.

First, you can do anything as long as it’s one thing. Afterall, the most important thing in the world can only be one thing. If it isn’t your top priority, or rather your only priority at the moment, you won’t do it.

Second, it’s already hard so try making it easier where possible. My rule for this newsletter is simply to write and publish every Sunday. I don’t care about the format, I haven’t set any standards for quality. If I hit publish, I win.

In your case, maybe you’re struggling to get in shape. So instead of setting a 2-hour workout goal, ask yourself to just show up at the gym everyday. That’s a lower bar, so much more feasible. And simply showing up at the gym every single day will automatically get you in shape over time.

If it is meaningful, and you can give it more weight than anything else in your life, it’s pretty much impossible that you don’t get it done. No matter how hard, you will do it.

💭 Aphorisms

How do you know if you’re on the right path? Try deflecting and see how it feels.

There are no bad students, just bad teachers.

If you don’t meet your potential regularly, it will elude you.

Be good. Be yourself. Be visible. In that order.

I’m very sleepy XD. I asked my mother if I could sleep and skip this week’s issue. Of course she said yes. But then she went like “I know you’re gonna write it anyways…”. She’s right 🤷🏻‍♂️

Good night!
Aachman

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