This Method Is Your Secret Weapon to Succeed at Anything
Five years ago, I read a book called The 4-Hour Workweek and made a life-changing decision: to become an entrepreneur. It was scary and exciting, and I had visions of becoming the next Mark Zuckerberg or Elon Musk. But first, I had to start somewhere. I decided to start my journey by building a successful blog about optimal living. It felt like a good “stepping stone” — it would move me in the right direction without overwhelming me. But immediately, I was faced with three challenges: I had never built a blog. I didn’t know how to it. I didn’t know anyone who knew how to do it. Before long, self-doubt started spreading through my consciousness like wildfire. Part of me wanted to freak out, go have a beer (or five) and try to forget about this crazy idea… But luckily, I had a secret weapon: a rare psychological principle I call The All-In Method (AIM). In this article, I’m going to teach you how to use this mental model to generate extraordinary courage and unshakable tenacity so you can radically increase your odds of success in any project. This Method Is Your Secret Weapon to Succeed at Anything Inaction breeds doubt and fear. Action breeds confidence and courage. If you want to conquer fear, do not sit home and think about it. Go out and get busy. - Dale Carnegie We live in a society with the shortest attention span in human history, and most people have forgotten the power of radical focus. In other words, most of us tend to commit to something… until it gets too hard or something more exciting comes along. They say they want a particular result, but they’re all talk. Within a few weeks, they get distracted or discouraged, and they have nothing to show for it. Fuck. That. The All-In Method is the opposite. It states that: If you really want something, you must go all in. You must push all your chips in the middle. Have the balls to go for it, and the character to follow through. If you don’t, you’ll keep being wishy-washy, falling off track in times of difficulty, and being dissatisfied by your life. But when you do go all in, something magical happens. Forces dormant within you will awaken. You’ll come alive in a whole new way. And the Universe will bend. Hack your doubts This sounds great in theory, but how do we do that in practice? Here’s the trick: you have to go all in… strategically. Because, let’s be honest, it’s hard to fully commit to a project when: You’re not sure it’s going to work. You’re not sure you’re going to be good at it. You don’t know if it’s actually your path. But the only way to find out is to try it. So what do we do? Let’s go back to my original story for a minute… Since I’d never built a successful blog before, I didn’t know if I would enjoy it or be any good at it. And while I was excited about it, I had no way of knowing if this was actually the right path for me. So committing to it felt terrifying. But in order to have a chance at success, I HAD to commit. (Can you see the paradox here?). So here’s what I did: I “strategically committed.” I decided to go all in for a 6-month period, at which point I would evaluate how this experiment was going. Take your dreams out for a test drive In practical terms, I committed to going all in from June 1st to December 1st, 2011 (the same date I’d graduate from my MBA and leave Australia to return to Canada). This gave me a 6-month window to play full out, test things out, and see if I had what it took to pull it off. GAME-TIME BABY! For that amount of time, I would give it my absolute best and bulletproof my mind against insecurities, doubts and weak thinking. Over the next six months, I honored my commitment by working on the blog every night after my MBA classes for 3-4 hours and staying in on Friday nights while everyone was out partying. Because I was so focused, I felt on fire and it wasn’t long before the results started coming. Two days before the end of the six months, I had an article go viral for the first time and things started blowing up. Evaluate On my plane ride back to Canada, it was time to evaluate the experiment by asking myself three questions: Is this project working? Am I enjoying it? Is it leading me in the right direction? Since the answer to all three was a resounding “YES!”, I decided to recommit for a full year and see where it would take me. Soon after, the blog became a profitable business, I got to speak at Stanford and UCLA, and I started living the life I had envisioned while reading The 4-Hour Workweek. And you want to know the truth? None of this would have happened if I hadn’t started with the 6-month, rock-solid “strategic commitment.” It's your turn to go all in So now, let’s turn it over to you: What’s a project you’ve been thinking about or working on… but that you haven’t fully committed to yet? Is it a business project? A relationship with a certain someone? Is it a body transformation? Or a spiritual journey? Whatever it is, if you don’t commit, you’ll keep coming up short and disappointing yourself. So here’s my invitation to you: Commit to going strategically all in by answering these four questions: How long are you willing to commit for? What work do you need to put in? What support do you need? What bad habits do you need to cut out? Make a choice. Commit to it. And then go for it. You’ll be astounded by how much fun life can be when you really get after it, and how rapidly success can come your way. As T Herv Ecker said, “If you’re only willing to do what’s easy, life will be hard. But if you’re willing to do what’s hard, life will be easy.” Here’s to doing what’s hard -- and reaping the benefits for a lifetime.
10 Things I Learned from 1,000 Hours of Meditation
When I first heard about meditation in 2011, I wasn’t sure it was for me. I was an MBA student and entrepreneur after all, not a Buddhist monk! That all changed when I watched this video of Jon Kabat-Zinn talking at Google. I figured if meditation was good enough for Google employees, it was worth a shot.I committed to a 30-Day Challenge: five minutes a day of meditation for the next 30 days.Little did I know the epic journey I was embarking on…Since then, I’ve fallen deeply in love with this practice and have been averaging 30 minutes a day for more than six years (for a total of ~1,150 hours).Today, I want to share with you what I’ve learned along the way, hoping it will inspire you to start your meditation journey or to deepen your existing practice.Here Are 10 Things I Learned from 1000 Hours of MeditationAll of man's difficulties are caused by his inability to sit, quietly, in a room by himself.- Blaise Pascal1. You can never stop thinking completelyLet’s get this one out of the way first: no matter how hard you try, you can never stop thinking completely. Even for experienced meditators, thoughts still arise. That’s okay!Meditation isn’t about not thinking, it’s about learning to observe your thoughts without being victim to them. 2. Don’t believe your own thoughtsByron Katie famously said, “Don’t believe your own thoughts.” What she meant is that not all thoughts are true. For example, if you’re feeling discouraged and think “This is too hard, it will never work,” you have the choice NOT to believe that thought.3. You don’t have to be stressedMost won’t admit it but many overachievers experience intense stress regularly. The insatiable drive to succeed comes at a cost: it makes us feel like there’s never enough time, and that we need to always be at our best (or else terrible things will happen).Once you can discern your own thoughts (and calm yourself), stress becomes a non-factor and loses its ability to freak you out. This allows you to stay sharp, happy and focused even when things get intense. Talk about a superpower!4. Insomnia can be curedImagine wasting one hour trying to fall asleep every night (when you already feel pressed for time every day). This happened to me for years and drove me crazy. I kept thinking, “If only there were an off-switch to my mind…”Luckily that switch exists -- it’s called meditation. Once you learn to observe your thoughts without latching onto them, you can intentionally slow down your mind, and fall asleep very rapidly (it now takes me less than five minutes on average -- hallelujah!).5. World-class productivity is trainableOur society has the shortest attention span in history. Why? Because most people train themselves to be distracted and unfocused (think Facebook Newsfeed…).If you want to achieve deep focus on command, you need to train! Spend a few minutes every morning building unwavering attention through meditation, and suddenly you’ll be able to 'switch on' whenever you want, remove all distractions, and get your work done MUCH faster.6. There’s enough time for everythingWith a strong meditation practice, you’ll see things more clearly: what really matters, what doesn’t, and what needs to be done. There’s enough time to achieve superb results in your career, be in great shape, spend quality time with your partner, AND go on epic adventures. You just need to slow down, see things clearly, and act accordingly.7. Meaningful relationships are your birthrightOnce we slow down and stop rushing through life, we can connect with others effortlessly. It’s what we’re designed to do. We judge less, appreciate more, and our relationships naturally improve.Calm down your mind, and reconnect with your heart. Productivity isn’t the holy grail of life. Love is.8. Meditation doesn’t have to be boringFor many, meditating for 30 minutes sounds excruciating. My solution: break it up into 'exercises.' When you go to the gym, do you do the same exercise for an hour? I hope not! You probably do a mix of squats, bench press, pull-ups, cardio, etc.I invite you to do the same in your meditation: mix in some mindfulness meditation, gratitude, self-compassion, breathing exercises, visualization and intention-setting.You’ll train more parts of your brain (thus increasing the benefits) and you’ll never be bored meditating again.9. Genuine self-love is possibleSelf-love gets talked about a lot in spiritual circles… but how does it actually work? For example, it’s very easy to catch our mistakes and notice our own shortcomings, but how do we move past the critical voice in our head?First, we need to understand that mistakes and shortcomings are normal! Everyone is a work in progress, and that’s part of what makes life fascinating. Meanwhile, there are so many things about you that are brilliant, beautiful, and magical.Pay attention and you’ll see so many reasons to love yourself.10. Meditation is (almost) like a magic pillIf there were a pill that made us sleep better, be less stressed, have more friends, perform better at work, and love ourselves more, EVERYBODY would want it.Well, that pill doesn’t exist -- but as we just explored, that’s exactly what meditation does. Plus it’s free and doesn’t require any equipment.Doesn’t get much better than this!ConclusionNow let’s turn it back to you: what’s your main takeaway from all this? And more importantly, what do you want to do moving forward?Here’s my invitation to you: If you haven’t fully committed to your meditation practice, download my “Ultimate Beginner’s Guide to Meditation” and get started ASAP. It will change your life.If you’re already a regular meditator, how can you take your practice to the next level?Whatever you’re ready to commit to, let me know in the comments below.