Hello everyone,

I hope you enjoy this week's email. I want to take the chance to thank all the people who reached out after last week's email. It's always appreciated.

Knocked down or Knocked out?

For those who know a bit of boxing history, Jack Dempsey's name stands out. He was the epitome of what comes to mind when you think of a heavyweight boxer. He finished his career with 68 wins (58 knockouts) and only 6 losses.

One of the most impressive moments of Dempsey's career came in his final successful title defence. Dempsey was facing Luis Ángel Firpo - "the Wild Bull of the Pampas" - an Argentinian with an impressive record.

At the end of the first round, Firpo put Dempsey against the ropes. He hammered him with a vicious combination that Dempsey struggled to defend against. Firpo landed a strike that sent Dempsey out of the ring. He crashed into the type-writer of a ring-side reporter, opening a huge gash on the back of his head. The reporter's shoved Dempsey back into the ring - barely beating the count.

Dempsey managed to get back to his feet and endure - by the skin of his teeth - another barrage from Firpo. The bell rang just in time to save Dempsey from certain defeat.

Dempsey went to his corner to recover what was the most intense and dramatic knockdown of his career. Firpo was confident of victory.

The crowd cheered for Dempsey - a rarity for the notoriously unpopular champion - for the resolve and grit he showed. Invigorated by the crowd and furious with himself, Dempsey surged out of his corner. Firpo's confidence wavered and Dempsey knocked him out with a savage hit to the jaw.

Dempsey reminded the sport of boxing - and the world at whole: There's a big difference between being knocked down and being knocked out.

This is something that we would do well to remember in our own lives.

At times, it can seem like we have suffered a crushing defeat - when in reality we're facing a minor setback.

We can feel like we've put an end to our procrastination - when all we've done is had one productive day.

Ask yourself: Is this a knockdown or a knockout?

Fling yourself back into action when you're knocked down. Stalk down your problem and put it out when you've only knocked it down.

Lead with Your Head - the 80/20 Mental Model.

There's a huge benefit to attacking a problem and not letting yourself get pinned down by analysis paralysis.

This doesn't mean you have to be reckless though. There's no virtue in sprinting at a brick wall again and again - only stupidity.

So, take advantage of mental models. One of the easiest you can use is the 80/20 principle.

What 20% of activities give you 80% of your happiness and desired results? What 20% of activities give you 80% of your negative emotions and wasted energy?

Figure that out - then do more of the first 20% and less of the second 20%.

You can apply this to anything. What 20% of things cause 80% of your progress in an area? If you double that, you'll have 160% of the results.

Apply it to spending, relationships, learning, time management, and every other key area of your life. Do your best to be effective and profit from the results.

Things I'm Learning and Loving.

• This post from the Art of Manliness was interesting and provides some excellent advice. It's focused around the idea of manhood in the 21st century and what most people get wrong.

• I haven't been on social media for more than a few minutes a week for the past three weeks. Instant boost in productivity and reduction in screen time.

• Living the 80/20 Way by Richard Koch is an incredible book - and expands the above mental model with brilliance.

• Rate each invitation or opportunity you get from a scale of 1 to 10 (you can't use 7!). If it's a 6 or below, try to decline. 8 or higher? You should do your best to accept.

Zachariah 2.0 - Update.

For those curious, I'm now one week into the plan and I'm loving it.

I published three blog posts about it. You can read about the Objectives, the Objections, and the Strategies on my blog.

Anyone interested in designing their own plan can use it as a guide - and I'm happy to help in the design process for anyone.

--

That's it for this week.

I hope that you were able to take away something useful and apply it to your own life.

All the best,

Zachariah.