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Do THE verb, don't be the noun — Inputs Only.

3 min read

The Single Trait That Made Me Successful

Control your time, don't let it control you.

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Other than death, life has no absolutes.

What now serves as my greatest strength once crippled me.

Five years ago I was drunk, down and didn’t have a desire deeper than pleasure.

 

Now, I’m months away from crossing the 7-figure mark in consulting revenue… a business I didn’t start until 2021.

 

Two different lives, yet the same being underneath it all.

I'm fascinated by entrepreneurial traits, and wrote about business psychology in greater depth here.

 

Let’s take a look at reinventing oneself…

… and how you can use this same trait to design your dream life.

 

 

</THE PSYCHOLOGY>

I change my mind often.

 

I allow myself to do what I'm called to with zero consideration for what came before.

Never a worry that past actions were a waste of time because they got me to that moment.

 

I’ve done it since birth, and when I get bored or I meet my desires… I’m out.

In some ways, it’s been a blessing.

 

It’s why I have lived 'many lives,' and have such vast experience.

In others, it’s been a curse... or so I believed.

 

At points its prevented me from experiencing total mastery in any one arena.

 

My belief is that it’s my spirit keeping me in alignment with what’s meant for me… 

… and that what I’m choosing to leave behind is creating space for what’s to come.

 

“Life is about the pursuit of the ideal version of yourself.” - Rob Dyrdek

 

Pivots are great, but it’s what comes after that determines your outcomes.

 

I allow my curiosity to run rampant... and that's exactly what I attribute my incredible life to.

*Key Point - The Psychology of Money played the biggest role in my development.

 

We’ve all read a book, watched a movie, or listened to a podcast that had something significant stand out to us. Something that resonated on a level deeper than we can articulate.

 

Our ability to remain aware of, find inspiration in, and act on these highlights determines the length to which we can remain in alignment.

 

It’s these goosebump inducing moments of inspiration that fuel our curiosity.

 


</THE SYSTEM>

The probability of you getting what you want without knowing where you want to go is 0.

 

To contradict that statement… I don’t set goals, only targets.

Reason being, if I accomplish all my ‘goals,’ I’ll have failed my imagination.

 

Goals, for me, are ever-evolving visions of the future…

Targets are specific (achievable) reference points in time.

 

This started for me a few years ago after listening to Jim Collins (Author of Good to Great) on The Tim Ferriss Show.

 

In it he discusses his approach to an inputs only lifestyle. He breaks down how he tracks his creativity-driven business on a quantitative -2 to +2 scale… which I adopted.

 

Truth is, there are very few things we actually control… our inputs being one of them.

 

My process has evolved over the last 4 years, but the core has stayed the same.

I now have over 1,000 days of data on myself.

Everything from...

  • What lights me up

  • What tears me down

  • When I felt most fulfilled

  • When I felt most depleted

  • … and everything between.

 

I can sort it based on activity, rating, sleep or strain score, creative hours... anything.

 

Best part is it takes me less than *5 minutes per day to input.

*I use Alfred App and have the Google Sheet template mapped to the HotKey (⌘ + Shift + P).

 

Pro Tip - If you ever have consecutive -2 days… cancel everything scheduled and do something new.

 

Do this… and I promise you’ll never have a bad week again, only bad moments.

 

 

</THE TECHNOLOGY>

Simplicity scales, complexity fails.

 

If how I have it set up doesn’t work for you, nix it…  

… if it does, the template is all yours.

 

I track the following:

 

Description: A bulleted list of everything I did that day.

*I BOLD what lit me up and add a (-1) to what didn’t… everything else is neutral.

 

Creative Hours: Subjective… this is anything that involves creation. 

*Increments of .25 for the tracker to add it all up.

 

Sleep & Strain Score: Pulled from my Whoop. 

*My sleep score has the closest correlation to 3 day trailing day scores.

 

Day Score: Subjective… -2 is horrendous, +2 is outstanding 

*This compounded with all the quantitative data and descriptions give me an incredible overview of where I was at mentally, physically and spiritually during that point in time.

 

The rest of the tracker tally’s my daily/weekly habits.

 

Customize these or track the same…

 … either way, let me know what it’s helped you accomplish on Twitter.

 

[Inline] -Personal Productivity Tracker (DS)

 

In summary, it’s rather simple.

 

- Be curiously aware

- Research what stands out

- Act on your inspiration immediately

- Review & revise what you’ve created

x Repeat x

 

If you don’t know where to begin, track where your time goes the next 2 weeks…

… once you review and reflect, you’ll may be disappointed.

 

Except now you have a transformational template to take action!

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