The secret to self-control.
🍿Plus: Outlasting failure, being a copycat, and habits that work anywhere.
Hola!! Welcome to the 157th consecutive week publishing this newsletter.
I’m a little under the weather today so I am re-sharing a few ideas from an early newsletter.
Enjoy and have a great week.
1/ The Goldilocks Principle.
The secret to success is to avoid extremes on either end. We don’t want to do so much we burn ourselves out. We also don’t want to do so little that there is no return on our investment. The secret is to find the middle ground that is just right so you can endure, not just for days, weeks and months, but for years and decades.
2/ Succeed by outlasting failure.
I came across an interesting stat this past week. The book, “Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance” has sold over 5 million copies. But it was rejected 121 times before finally being published. The key to success was the author’s ability to endure repeated failures long enough for success to find him.
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🔥The takeaway → Success is not a sprint, it’s an endurance activity. Those who can outlast failure the longest, create the best odds to succeed.
3/ Copy then customize.
The quickest path to success is to find someone who has achieved the results you seek and then copy their success strategy. Over time, customize the solution so it fits your DNA, lifestyle and philosophy. I have done this with my diet. I have stolen ideas from the Paleo, Keto, raw food, Mediterranean, and vegetarian diet to create something that is perfectly designed for me. I call this “A Diet for one.” It works because it is designed for my DNA, lifestyle, and philosophy.
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🧠 Mindset worth stealing → Copy then customize
4/ Create flexible habits.
Invest in habits that can be reshaped to fit any situation you are in. For example, an important component of my “Diet for One” protocol is my eating template. Every meal I have has a structure. This allows me the flexibility to eat successfully anywhere, whether I am at an airport, a resort or a friend’s for dinner.
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🔥The takeaway → Invest in habits that fit anywhere your feet are.
5/ Decide in advance.
One of the simple secrets to incredible self-control is deciding how you will respond to something long before it happens. By imagining possible outcomes and then deciding how you will respond if/when they do happen, you dramatically skew the odds of success in your favour. The picture below is my meal planning for my cottage trip. Rather than show up and then figure out how I was going to eat, I decided how I was going to eat a few days in advance, and then spent about 90 minutes gathering all the foods I would need to eat successfully.
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Go deeper → Listen to this 12-minute podcast episode.
That’s it for today. 🙏 Thanks for reading.
Hit reply to let me know what resonated.
See you again next week my friend.
PS. If you are over 40, have control over when and where you work, but have struggled to develop your version of a highly successful body, then I can help.
I have a coaching program that’s created some amazing results by focusing on a small number of essential habits that work within the context of the life you live.
To learn more check out these stories and if you like what you read, book a free call to chat with me.