Stuck In Your Safety Net?

Hello everyone👋🏼,

I hope your week has started well. In this week’s edition, we will be discussing the topic of ‘Eliminating your Plan B’ and breaking it down into three elements:

• Risk Aversion

• Going All In

• Playing the Long Game

📖As you read about the past, present, and future of giving your projects 100%, think about how each scenario applies to you and how you can implement it.

Enjoy,
Umar ⚡️

Risk Aversion 😰

Having a back-up plan is human nature. Saving for a rainy day is a concept that almost everyone is taught. Animals eat in excess of their needs before hibernation so they survive the winter. Studies have shown that risk aversion is inherently coded into our DNA (twins have a 60% correlation in risk aversion). 👯‍♀️

Check out this 4 minute Ted-Ed talk on Risk Aversion to learn more: 📺https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V2EMuoM5IX4&ab_channel=TED-Ed

Key Takeaway → Risk and Loss Aversion often lead to irrational decisions

How can I overcome my natural instincts? 🪜

Get used to taking more risks, force yourself to do things you might not normally do. Often the world of imagination is worse than reality. It doesn’t need to be anything extreme, start small and work your way up. 🧱

An example? Starting this newsletter was a risk for me, and it still is. What if no one cares about what I have to say? Even if they didn’t, I’ve taught myself that there’s no cost to trying and going for it.

Stay Accountable : Set a goal which you think is risky and go for it. Tell someone about it and maybe exchange goals with each other. Even just telling someone about your idea or goal can be a risk - maybe you fear rejection.

Going All In 💯

This term gets thrown around a lot, but what does it actually entail? It doesn’t mean that you give up on everything else and focus solely on one thing - in fact that’s usually worse than not going all in.
For me it has meant mentally going all in. Having 100% belief that things will work out, and trying to give everyday my best.

However, it’s important to remember: On the days you only had 40%, and you gave 40% - you gave 100% 🤕

Don’t develop an unhealthy relationship with hard work, make sure to rest and check in on yourself. At the same time, don’t compromise on your goals unnecessarily. Your optimum performance level is usually just beyond the limits you’ve sent yourself mentally. Think progressive overload, or long-distance running. 🏃🏽‍♂️

Going All In also means removing things which don’t serve you, fun things don’t have to fall into that category - fun stops you from burning out. However, eating food that clouds your mind, binging Netflix shows, hours on TikTok, are all examples of things which do not serve you - and need to be removed to give yourself the best chance of realising your goals. 🏆

To help you prioritise and decide what stays and what goes, check out this free productivity tool, The Urgent Important Matrix: 🛠️

Key Takeaway → Tackling big tasks first makes the smaller ones easier

Stay Accountable by setting timer limits and tracking your screen time on your devices, and using apps like Flora or Forest to track your focus time. Having an accountability partner makes this even more useful. If you haven’t got one, I’m open to help!

Playing the Long Game ⚽️

Most people who try to go all in, and take the plunge, will not see results for a while. That’s why so many people give up early and never get to see their potential success. By being consistent, you’re already beating 90% of the competition. Look at your favourite YouTuber or TikToker, they’ve been doing it for a while. Here are Mr Beast’s subscribers every year: 📈

• 2012 - 30

• 2013 - 729

• 2014 - 1.77k

• 2015 - 16.5k

• 2016 - 568k

• 2017 - 2.08m

• 2018 - 13.7m

• 2019 - 28.8m

• 2020 - 50.2m

• 2021 - 88.4m

• 2022 - 121m

Looking at it now, 121 million after 10 years doesn’t too bad, but in the first four years he didn’t even reach 20k. How many of us would keep going after 4 years of seeing little results. It was at the point where he could have, and where most would have, given up - that he made the biggest progress (16.5 → 568k).

The moral of the story is to find something that you’re passion about, and stick to it. Trust the process. If you keep putting in hard work, and outputting value, eventually it will pay off. The determinant of your success is sticking it out where others would quit. 💪🏽

I believe in your journey, and you should too. 💫

Next time you’re commuting, or have some free time, give this a listen: 🎧

Key Takeaway → In a transformation, the JOURNEY is the most important part.

Stay Accountable by using a habit tracker like the app ‘done’, on Notion, or simply in your journal. If you do anything, let it be turning up every day. ✅

Thank you for reading this far. This was Edition Two. See you next week. ⚡️

If you have any comments, enquiries, or feedback, DM me on LinkedIn: 📬