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Don't Forget Step Zero
Before Step One there is Step Zero
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Step Zero
Obvious but important
Skipping Step Zero
When you skip Step Zero, you end up on whatever default path is for people in your situation. You become a doctor because that’s what people in your family, ethnicity, or in-group do. You go to grad school because that’s what people with your academic background do.
You are a follower, not having any space to decide what you really want to do.
The comfort zone of Default Options
- The default option isn’t always the wrong one, but it’s always riskier than it looks.
- The comfort zone of the default option is a dangerous situation and mindset to be in.
Successful people remember Step Zero
Successful people are unusually good at Step Zero, even though not many of them start out that way.
We usually understand that we’re supposed to work hard to be successful. That makes sense: successful people work hard. But how did those successful people decide what they should be working on? That is never shown, and that is the Step Zero.
Before Step One there is Step Zero
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The ABCDE prioritization approach
- A items : Things you must do, which will have a serious positive or negative consequence.
- B items : Things you should do, that have minor consequences.
- C items : Things that are nice to do but don’t have any real consequences when they’re done.
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Procrastination is an emotion management problem
The #1 skill to overcome procrastination
Facing a task, experiencing the uncomfortable emotions associated with it and doing the task despite those emotions.
Our mind is a reason-giving machine
It rationalizes the shit out of anything that’s just a little bit uncomfortable and create excuses as to why we shouldn’t do something now. Those excuses are irrational, but sound superficially reasonable.
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