Hi there,
Grab yourself a good ol’ hot chocolate or tea or coffee or the glass of tears that has been standing on your desk for the last ten years. Whatever it is ― DRINK IT NOW!!
In this issue I want to talk about dreams and projects that come from them and some thoughts on how to push through on them.
There is just one problem with dreams: life comes in the way. And life is not so easy to manage itself. If your working room is tidy right now I have deep respect for you (mine could do with some cleaning)
Although dreaming can seem unrealistic let’s give it a shot and see where we end up, all right? Let’s do it!
Dare to dream (and to fear)
When trying to dream it can be really helpful to do it with a pen. Grab one right now if you are in the mood. Now take yourself a little time alone and write down everything that comes to your mind where you have felt like you were in the ‘zone’. When you completelly forgot about time and space and enjoyed the moment. Also write about things that you would like to do in the future and the person you would like to be. Write down some things that you would like for yourself to happen. Dream big. (not what OTHER people think is good for you including this article) Dreams need to come from within.
Epic quote: He who has a why to live for can bear almost any how.” ― Friedrich Nietzsche.
Goals that really come from inside are a good driving force but fear is a good motivation, too.
What is your hell that you can create for yourself and what is the best way to suffer the most possible? Defining these anti-goals hopefully scare you enough to work in the right direction.
Here is a list of basic things most people need. You can go through them and see if you find goals and anti-goals connected them:
family, intimate relationship, friends, job, mental & physical health, carreer / job. Also consider the dangers of dugs & alcohol as part of your anti-goals.
Alright now, before reading any further make sure to take some time to write about the epic dreams and horrible hells for your life : D
Make a bad plan
What, a bad plan? You mean a perfect plan! Well, make it as good as you can and when trying to actually do it you will see how unrealistic the plan is and you’ll need to adjust it humbly admitting to yourself that you took on too much too fast. But a bad plan is better than no plan at all. So let’s just try to make a plan.
So just go ahead and write down some ideas for a plan that would potentially move you towards you dreams! Which goals are most important to you and how can you reach them? Which obstacles will be in your way? How can you act so they won’t stop you? After having spent some time on this step, you can read further if you want :)
Some thoughts I stole from big thinkers
To be accurate most of the ideas and thoughts in this text are NOT my own but they work for me so maybe they do for you,too!
One of MY biggest problems with cool dreams and plans is that I plan way too much at once and then I get frustrated that I cannot manage all the 500 projects I commited to. The advice for myself therefore is: do only very few things (the most important ones) at a time and SLOWLY step it up.
I use Google Calendar a lot for planning and it’s usually way too full. Every time, however, I only have a few tasks planned for one day, I end up having a good day because I can actually manage it.
Some notes on a calendar, especially if you don’t like them. Try to view them as a tool, not as a cage. Try to use it to get an overview of your time management. Also it’s important to be honest with yourself and to plan only as much as you are actually likely to do. You can also plan nice things / rewards at the end of each day.
Jumping back to problems ― there is a ‘hype phase’ in the beginning of each new commitment. And that hype can fade pretty quickly. It would be great if big changes just happened over night and then life would be awesome.
That’s where habits come in. I love habits. Habits make dreams concrete. They can form a path. The trick with habits, obviously, is to stick to them. There is a really good book called ‘Atomic Habits’ that you should read if you want to dig deeper. Essentially it’s about making good habits easy to do and bad habits hard to do.
Also, what’s essential to sticking to habits is a habit tracker. Basically it’s a sheet of paper where you cross off a section if you did the habit. You can basically track everything so make sure you only track as little as you really need so you can see your progress over time. Also crossing off a blank space is really rewarding and can help you stick to the habits you wanna do.
Here is an example of how to transform a dream into real life. A common goal is ‘I wanna get fit like a Turnschuh’ as we say in Germany.
I think a good way to tackle that goal would be first to find out what sport you actually like and then to slowly do it on a consistent basis. The problem is ― sometimes you just won’t feel like doing it. That’s why there needs to be a really small version of the habit that you WILL do. If the desired habit is to go for a run, make the goal not to run but to take on your running shoes. Getting a habit started is the hardest part usually.
What comes to my mind is people saying ‘uhh I get it, you need to find ways to trick yourself into doing hard things!’ No. That is not what I mean. I don’t believe that beating yourself up works. Because it’s an all or nothing way of thinking. If you miss once you say 'fuck it' and just stop doing it. That's not helpful.
What has helped me personally a lot is that I try to be honest with myself and ask how much ‘work’ I would be willing to do today. And then I try to aim at that. And not higher because I won’t do it anyway. You’re stuck with yourself so try to have a good relationship with yourself because you are your own boss and employee at the same time. Try to be a good boss and a good employee to yourself is what I want to say : D Otherwise, and this has happend to me many times, you will be stuck in a loop of overworking yourself followed by procrastination. Working consistently instead of in small bursts of ‘motivation’ is way more effective over time.
Wow, epic life hack incoming: Get an accountability partner! I am doing sport on a fairly regular basis remotely together with a friend. We are both in our room at home and watch exacly the same workout videos each week. Slowly both of us can lift on a little more weight over time. Epic. We have a set time during the day when we do the workout (sometimes we schedule it later the same day but even if both of us do not feel like doing that stupid workout, we still do it at about 90% I would say. Today was such a day but we just finished today’s workout, yay. Epic. NO EXCUSES. Ok)
Another epic life hack: Make a deal with a friend to pay him or her money if you do a specific bad habit.
I tend to be addicted to mobile games on a frequent basis. It’s quite pathetic and I lose a lot of time on it. That’s why I made a deal with a friend to pay him 250€ if I play a mobile game. So far the 250€ were not worth it yet.
Whoa, is it enough already? I have another epic life hack for you: If you want to do something hard it’s best to have as little friction to start it as possible. Often times when I finish one task, I try to prepare the next task as well as possible so that I can get started with almost no effort.
This article is getting long O.o Time to take a break.
Ok, I got some fresh air and I had this thought in my head that I think is probably the most important thing when it comes to working towards your dream.
Change is possible if we have the humility to admit to ourselves how little we are actually able to do at the moment. However, tiny steps every day are enough and will excelerate like mad. Try it out and see what happens.
After having read this SHIZZL NO.1, I encourage you to write down all things that sticked to your head and see if you can implement them into your own epic life plan.
This is Nunupukhu.
He has a message from Sam!
"Sam hopes that his writing actually helps one person at least a tiny bit.Sam also wishes you a great day! Nunupukhu over and out."
If you have any questions or feedback feel free to write a comment!