January 29, 2025

Give It A Minute

Fellow list member Nick Tucker wrote in to say that yesterday’s message gave him a lightbulb moment of his own (shared with permission):

Thanks for sharing - lightbulb here too!! 💡

Though it took a couple of reads of the last part and quieting the mind’s initial objections to see it. Aligning the incentives to desired outcomes feels like the crux of it, even if we get it ’wrong’ initially and try to do too much, the system has the capacity to self correct.

And it avoids the situation - which I’m currently in - of carrying over hours when a week doesn’t go as planned (which is nearly every week when it’s stuffed full of hour-work-blocks) which makes the next week even worse, and the important stuff (eg working on the business) gets further and further down the list.

I’m pretty much over the “so I’ll do extra hours to catch up” having gone round that hamster wheel too many times before and burn-out is still a strong memory. But the angst and poor productivity that ensue in the lead-up to having to press the reset button and start counting hours again is hideous.

That and the ongoing guilt that accompanies that action of writing off client hours.

The reality is that I’m over serving on all fronts anyway, and no-one is going to complain if I do less. And it’s only me (my patterns from my upbringing) that create those expectations and that pressure.

It’s a journey, and I appreciate what you’ve brought to it over the years. Feels like I’m starting to get somewhere in that shift in orientation, at last...😃

Cheers,

Nick.

Messages like this make my day, so big thanks to Nick for sharing it!

One thing I’d like to call extra attention to:

I love Nick’s comment that “it took a couple of reads of the last part and quieting the mind’s initial objections to see it.”

Amen!

When you have a strong, negative, knee-jerk reaction to a new idea, it might be a sign that you are on the verge of a breakthrough.

Sometimes, all you have to do is give it a minute.

Yours,

—J