Category: Willpower

How To Compete With People Cover

How To Compete With People Who Are Better Than You

Nik

If we get on the treadmill together, there are two options: You’re getting off first, or I’m going to die.

— Will Smith

But who are you running against? For most of your life, the person on the other treadmill is yourself.

Right now, the field might be crowded. Many people are ahead of you, and you can’t see who leads the pack. But once you start running faster than everyone else, you’ll soon be the only one left in the race.

  • You’ll be the only one left in the study room at school at 7 AM.
  • You’ll be the only one left who sends emails at 10 PM.
  • You’ll be the only one left working, while your friends are out partying.

Very few people have an outstanding work ethic. That’s what makes them outstanding. But it also means it’ll get lonely.

You don’t want what your friends want. You want what you want. So you shouldn’t care about winning against them.

Your true competitor is also your greatest fan.

(Barack Obama on 20th of January, 2009, about to take the oath of office)

Look at Will Smith again. He could’ve long stopped running. There’s no one for him to beat any more. As of 2016, his movies have grossed $7.5 billion at the global box office.

Why does a guy like that turn around and go straight to making more films?

When people like Will Smith glance at the other treadmill, they see a different version of themselves. One that’s not as good, as generous, as humble, as disciplined, as honest or as dedicated as they are.

That’s who they’re running against. Running from. Before long, you’ll be running against yourself too. You’ll have to, in order to keep going.

When you get there, I hope you’ll do what Will Smith does: keep running anyway.

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How To Start A Passion Project One Day At A Time

Nik

When people sign up for my newsletter, they instantly receive an automated email that asks them: “What’s one thing you struggle with?” Some consider this a marketing trick, but for me, it’s a once in a lifetime chance to talk to readers, say hi and try to help them however I can.

Nevertheless, it does have a research benefit to it: I see which problems keep coming up and what bothers my audience the most. I’ve written so much by now, that most of the time, I can recommend a particular resource for any given issue.

No time to read? Take my free course. Issues with productivity? Gotcha. Can’t google stuff? Wrote a book for you.

Recently, one question kept coming up, which I found myself unable to send people a resource for. It’s a question about projects. A question about starting. Here are three reader responses, all from this week, aimed at it:

“I want to start a business, but hardly have the money or the idea for it!” –Vishal

“I started learning magic tricks long ago, but I never take the time to share my tricks online. There are a few on youtube and I really wanted to share more.” –Flavien

“Being disorganized and lacking focus. I’m a certified NLP trainer and looking to start my own business as a Learning Coach for children. Yet I spend my days on chores, cooking and computer based admin stuff.” –Megan

Can you spot the question? Here’s the one I see: “How do I start a passion project?“

Today, I’ll do my best to answer it. But first…why is it that question?

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Liquid Sleep: How To Get More Out Of Life By Staying Up Longer

Nik

Last June I bought a Garmin Vivosmart HR activity tracker, primarily for two reasons:

  1. My daily step count is visually present to me at all times, which makes me more likely to get those 10,000 steps.
  2. If I sit for longer than an hour, it vibrates and nags me to get up and move. Since sitting is the new smoking, I think moving regularly might be more important than moving a lot.

While I happily would’ve shelled out 125 € for just those two features alone, there are a few other perks to wearing one of these around the clock. One of them is sleep tracking.

What I’m about to say as a result of it is not going to be popular and it’s definitely not politically correct. At the very least though, it’s food for thought.

For the past five months, I’ve been sleeping less and I think it’s the right choice. Let’s put that into context.

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The GaryVee Matrix: Your One True Way To Win

Nik

On 29th of September 2016, I moved to Munich. Two days later, my mattress still lying on the floor in the middle of my room, I went to one of the many college libraries at 11 AM and opened my laptop. I worked on Four Minute Books all day until 6 PM, before going home and assembling my bed.

GaryVee Matrix Bed

(yup, left it like this)

Moving to one of, if not the most expensive city in Germany was an all-in move for me. No more half-assing. No more part-time freelance, part-time writing. It’s all-in or nothing on two fronts:

  1. Getting a (free) graduate degree from one of the country’s best schools in my favorite city while saving money on tax and health insurance is my practical all-in.
  2. Paying my own way through it, without taking on debt, while going for a full-time writing career is my impractical all-in.

What’s surprised me is the ease with which I’ve catapulted my work ethic into high gear. Today, I’d like to give credit to the man, who’s largely responsible for it: Gary Vaynerchuk. Welcome to the GaryVee Matrix.

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The Bottom Locker – Why You Should Always Do It The Hard Way

Nik

3104.

That’s the number on my locker. Wanna see it? Sure, here it is:

do it the hard way locker

6 out of 7 days of the week I go to the library. None of the lockers belong to anyone by the way.

Anyone can choose whichever locker they want on any given day of the week. You come, you pick one, you go, you leave it open.

Then how come on all 6 days I get to use that same locker, again and again and again?

Why can I walk around and tell everyone with 100% confidence that that’s my locker, number 3104, Nik’s locker?

Here’s why (and why you should care): because it’s on the bottom.

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Why Trampelpfad Is the One German Word You Should Remember (For Boosting Your Willpower) Cover

Why Trampelpfad Is the One German Word You Should Remember (For Boosting Your Willpower)

Nik

Trampelpfad.

Want me to say it again?

Tram-pel-pfad.

Want me to actually say it?

The first half of the word “Trampel” comes from the verb “trampeln” which means to stomp.

As in “When we told the kids they weren’t allowed to watch TV, they ended up stomping up the stairs in frustration.”

The second half of the word “pfad” simply means path.

Therefore, a Trampelpfad is a path, which has been created by people stomping along the same trail.

You can most often find a Trampelpfad in the woods, and it looks like this:

Image via Unsplash by Jens Lelie

Why am I telling you this?

One, because Trampelpfad is an awesome word and there’s no proper English word for it and two, because it will help you remember what I’m about to say next.

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