Drop willpower, build systems

Let’s say you trained for a marathon.

But every morning was a complete battle.

You had to argue with yourself in the mirror, always felt terrible in the first miles because you never dialed breakfast, and your 3-yr-old shoes gave you blisters every run.

Even if you crossed the finishing line, slim chance you’d ever run a marathon again.

Now suppose you honed the regimen.

Instead of a daily battle, you honed your breakfast to feel good in the gut. You invested in some good shoe tech that made your feet feel like clouds. You finished each run with your favorite meal of the day: a delicious pb/banana protein shake.

You’d likely have a better race day and fall in love with running itself. You’d sign up for another marathon.

James Clear, author of Atomic Habits:

In our little world of ecom, there are a million ways to win.

But let’s be honest: the finish line is likely an exit or a cash cow business.

Let’s say your way of training is getting better at storytelling through short-form video.

Every day you can wake up and dread setting up the phone + tripod + background + lighting + discover a new topic to talk about, etc..

Or you can create a system for each of those things:

A permanent setup that makes plugging in your phone and hitting record 2 steps instead of 20.

You could spend 3 full days topic-gathering so all your potential content is waiting for you for the next month (or a content calendar, though I hate those).

You could have a mini setup in your car for impromptu filming.

Set up the systems around you - cater your environment to the habit you want to create - and you’ll actually do it.

Begin shaping your environment to make the habits you want to form (daily writing, filming, calling, messaging, working in general) easy to do.

Put the broccoli at eye level and the chocolate under the frozen blueberries, and you’ll find you’re progressing much more smoothly.

Mike

Today’s inspiration: James Clear on Diary of a CEO