A series of kicks in the teeth I needed... and sought out.

That's the only way I can describe the last week - in which I set out to find clarity on my goals and who I am as a person. Let me take you along for the ride........

It was like everything I was doing was shallow, not causing deep improvement but only scratching the surface. I was being pulled in countless directions by new ideas, projects, and goals.

I knew I had to change, so I decided to pursue some reflection, not realising how intense it would be.

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Kick in the Teeth #1: I’m too scattered.

I can’t help but have divergent interests. I don’t think it’s a bad thing, I value the benefits of it – and I think successful polymaths have an ultimate edge.

But for too long I’ve been using it as an excuse. I try to do too many things at once. I pursue 25+ goals at a given time. I bounce from idea to idea. I shallowly skim topics rather than learning deeply.

I realised if I didn’t address this, my current momentum – like every time I built it before – would eventually be strangled and die out. I had to find a solution, and while listening to a Tim Ferriss podcast, I did.

The Lead Domino question can be used for tasks, goals, projects, anything. It’s a mental model to get things together:

Which goal, if completed or moved forward, would make the others easier or irrelevant?

You can swap out goal, but you get the idea. I identified my Lead Domino and that’s what I’ll be pursuing now, with as much of my time and resources I can muster. I need to earn the right (and skills) to pursue things as a polymath.

What about everything else?

I’m going to automate it. Build simple systems to make things easy to follow – so I won’t regress (much at least). Then, once my Lead Domino has been knocked out, I’ll be able to go after these from a much better position.

The Lead Domino – which I’ve nicknamed my North Star – is now going to be the basis for all my decisions.

Solution #1: Find your Lead Domino.

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Kick in the Teeth #2: My writing sucks.

Readjusting with my North Star in mind, I picked up the book Nobody wants to read your sh*t by Steven Pressfield. It made me realise – despite the great grades my essays earn– my writing is awful.

I consider writing to be where I’m most talented – and the skill I believe will be most valuable as the years go on – so now I need to work on becoming good at it.

Pressfield’s book is a start but to level up, I’m going to focus on two things: Copywriting (written persuasion) and Storytelling. Throughout the process, I’ll fix up things like flow, style, etc. but I think the most change will come through those two.

Hopefully, it’ll start to show in this newsletter and my other writing.

Solution #2: Copywriting and Storytelling.

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Kick in the Teeth #3: I’m loaded with faults.

Realising I was scattered and poor at writing gave me breakthroughs for moving forward – so I was hungry for more insights I could capitalise on. After some research, I came across the Self-Authoring program. I bought it and it’s awesome.

The first section was on identifying my own faults and weighing the costs of it – the sunk ones and the future ones. Let me just say, there was ton of faults, and a bunch of heavy and taxing costs.

 I was able to write out ways I could have acted differently, and then wrote on what I can do to limit these faults in the future.

There’s still a decent amount left in the program, but so far, it’s been one of my best self-investments. The key takeaway so far though, is to identify my faults and change them.

Solution #3: Use the Self-Authoring Program.

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It’s uncomfortable to seek out criticism. It’s uncomfortable to accept we’re far from who we want to be. It’s uncomfortable to know our actions are incongruent with our beliefs.

But short-term discomfort is far better than the toxic regret and pain that will come in the long-term, if we can’t look at ourselves with honesty.

Go seek out some kicks to the teeth.

Until next time,

Zachariah.