The Magic of HELL NO!!!
Goal: Discuss my struggles with making personal changes in order to execute more
Have you considered how many things you do during the day that are automatic? Deeds and thoughts.
It is estimated that 95% of our thoughts today will be the same as the ones we did yesterday. We have on the average 60000 thoughts per day. That is .95*60000= 57,000 of the same thoughts every day.
I would guess that probably safe to guess that 95% of our activities follow are the same pattern as our thoughts. That automatic coffee we don’t taste, brushing our teeth, the drive to the office that we don’t remember, etc.
Many years ago I heard Derek Silvers make a statement that for him it was a choice of either Hell YES!!! or HELL NO!! when deciding on whether to do something. This seemed pretty drastic but memorable. Steve Jobs told us that we must say NO to 1000 great things in order to say yes to a few great things.
Recently I have been spending a lot of time thinking about my future self. In order to become that future self, I have to get rid of some good things. I have to say HELL NO!!!! to some things in order to accomplish my future self.
What things?
Do I watch TV too much? Do I listen to news too much? Do I surf the net mindlessly? Do I read too much? Do I listen to too many podcasts? Do I chase too many rabbits?
Yup…
So I decided to get rid of all of the apps on my phone that make it easy for me to get to MSN, Yahoo, Google. I left LinkedIn and YouTube.
That change brought about an interesting result. I would go to the browser app and my quick links to those were gone. Once there I would get a feeling that I wanted to go to these sites to see what was happening. I would pause and say Hell NO!!! and leave.
Yes this was impowering but frustrating.
Giving up the news was easier BUT I still could not pull away from the debates. So a little cheating.
What I noticed then was that I had replaced my MSN/Yahoo crack with LinkedIn. I started spending too much time on LinkedIn. This seems productive since I am looking for a permanent role BUT I think that it is just a substitute that is not helping me towards my best future self.
How about activities that are good?
I stopped reading for a month. Man that is hard for me since I enjoy reading a chapter before going to bed at night. It relaxes me and gives my mind something to feed on during the night.
I did not change listening to podcasts. Most of the time I am either running or walking when listening to these shows. This seemed excessive for me to eliminate. One could argue that they are occupying my mind but to me that is being done during a physical activity and it does not count.
I am not going to lie. It has been a struggle to change my media consumption and ingrained habits. With these I am noticing small changes in my production level but not significant enough to definitely call it a win.
Maybe my HELL NO!! is a hell no!
Maybe I need to be more honest with what activities are taking time away from me? Maybe I need to improve my productivity level?
HELL YES!!!
I got to go…my future self alarm went off
Robert Trajkovski is professional with experience in leading people and projects in Steel/ Power, Refining, Chemicals, Industrial Gasses, Software, Consulting and Academia. He has worked for both owners and engineering companies. In addition, he has instructed 73+ courses at several institutions and often offers his courses for free on LinkedIn.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/roberttrajkovski/
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