Hello everyone,

This week I want to share 3 strategies that can genuinely change your life: invisible mentors, metrics, persistence & discipline.

They're dead simple - but don't underestimate them.

Your Cabinet of Invisible Mentors.

Imaginary Council Meetings.

Napoleon Hill pitched a very interesting idea in Think and Grow Rich about holding an "imaginary council meeting" with a group of "Invisible Counsellors". Hill's method involved learning as much as he could about a person, then he would imagine the advice and insights they would give him in a council meeting.

Hill - by his own admission - went quite deep with this. He imagined everything from habits, arrival times, and arguments between his counsellors (who included Darwin, Edison, Ford, Carnegie, Lincoln, and Napoleon among others.)

You don't have to do it to the extent that Hill did - but you can learn a lot from this process.

The "Derek Sivers" Email Method.

Derek Sivers - founder of CD baby - has a simple method for getting the most out of the people he admires.

1. Write an email to one of your role models asking for advice.
2. Simplify it as much as possible to prevent wasting their time.
3. Address their anticipated responses to prevent unnecessary back and forth.
4. Realise there's no need to bother them with the email at all.

This method works particularly well when tied in with the next section - What would X do?

What would X do?

I want you to think of two things. First, a problem that you're facing. Second, the person you most admire.

Now, let's put them together: What would the person you most admire do to solve the problem?

It's a radically simple method but one that you can use to see things from a new perspective and gain insights.

A Quick Note on Specialists.

Some people may be experts in one area - but you may have no interest in modelling them in all areas. For example, Joe Sugarman is a top-tier copywriter, but I don't know anything about his thoughts on dieting, relationships.

You can use Specialists (experts in one area) in your cabinet of advisors as well. They can be crucial when working on projects or goals.

How to Create your Own Cabinet.

Pick your mentors: For me, I'm building mine out of three different types of people. First, content creators that I can learn directly from - such as Ryan Holiday or Jocko Willink. Second, people I can learn from them through their example. Such as, family members and great people through biographies (Aurelius, Hamilton, etc.) Third, the Specialists discussed above.

Use one of the above methods: Imagine that you're holding a council meeting, go through the email process, or just ask what would x do?

Profit: This is a ridiculously easy thing to incorporate with a ton of dividends. Just try it.

Business Metrics for Life.

Codie Sanches, who runs Contrarian Thinking, had some advice for business owners and Entrepreneurs: If you could only look at 3-5 numbers on each business, which ones would tell you the complete story?

This is a great method for businesses to focus on their key metrics - but it's extremely adaptable to our personal lives.

For me, I know that hours of sleep, time spent in Stillness (reading, journalling, soccer, etc.), hours of productive work, and time spent with people I care about, are the largest predictors of my positive mood and mental state.

Along the same lines, time spent procrastinating, having dead time, or doing things I don't want to do is strongly correlated to a negative mental space.

It's an interesting idea to decide on your own and track them. You'll be able to notice links and trends - and have an easy way to alter your progress or boost your mental state by making changes.

There's plenty of different metrics you can use:

• Words written.
• Days exercised per week.
• Increase in Net Worth.
• Books read.
• Time spent per day on learning a skill.
• Hours studied.

The list goes on. Notice that they don't have to be time based, instead, the key is to identify the metrics that are most important to you.

Persistence and Discipline leads to more Persistence and Discipline.

I am far from perfect - but over the last few months I have been slowly getting better. I have tried to adopt the Kaizen mindset - 1% better everyday, compounds to 37x better in a year.

It's become extremely evident to me that two of the strongest contributors to success are Persistence and Discipline. They're in every story of achievement - real or fictional.

A realisation that has come along with this is that every time I am persistent or disciplined, it makes it easier for me to be more persistent and disciplined next time.

For example, I've had some bad days over the last few months (and even as I write this, I'm sick) but I haven't missed any habits that I've started. I hit them day after day. It's built a strong sense of confidence in my own abilities.

Exercising Persistence and Discipline has strengthen those virtues in me - and I'm planning on pushing myself even more over the next months, to allow it to compound and grow.

There's not much out of reach if you combine a True Decision (more on these next week) with Persistence and Discipline.

Think of how you can work some more persistence and discipline into your life, even in a small way, and reap the rewards.

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I really hope that you enjoyed this week's newsletter.

My request - my call to action - for you, is to choose one of these strategies and use it daily for the next week: you'll start seeing results.

Thanks for reading,

Zachariah.