Hiut User Manual For Creativity

A user manual for creativity
the
3 pillars
This is the question we are here to answer.
How do you do the best work you’ve ever done?
Master you To master ourselves there are three strengths that we need to gain. They are the
pillars for self-mastery. Unless we master them, we will not do our best work.
For a change Imagine a stool that has three legs. Each leg needs to be of equal length and strength
to happen, for it to be able to support someone. This is a metaphor for our lives. For us to sit
we need to down to do our best work, these three pillars need to be there to support us. So, we
change first can think about the problem that we are trying to solve in front of us. And not the
problem beneath us.
1 Emotional fitness.
2 Physical fitness.
of
3 Financial fitness.”
strength
This is a result of reading too many books. I didn’t come up with any of the remarkable
thinking. So all credit goes to those who wrote the books, who did the research, who
came up with the theories. From Tony Robbins to Dave Evans and Bill Burnett to
BJ Fogg to Ryan Holiday and so many more. All I did was to try to curate that thinking
into one place. I hope it is of some help. David Hieatt, April 2018.
1
Emotional This journey is all about mastering you. And to do that you will
have to begin to understand the human mind: yours.
fitness
You will need to understand why you get fearful or angry.
To know why you defer, why you hold back, why you tell
yourself you can’t, why you think about money like you do.
And what makes you stop thinking that way.

Lots of people go to a gym to make their body stronger.
But, our bodies don’t make decisions.
This fitness requires the mastery of our emotions. A daily practice.
We are not balanced when all is calm, we are balanced when the
storm is raging and it doesn’t throw us.
When we are in control of our emotions, no harsh words can

draw anger. No disagreeable actions can cause upset. The outside
world doesn’t dictate how we feel, we do.
He who angers us, conquers us. We have to conquer the

emotion that wants to go from calm to angry. Many live in the
past, many live in the future. But, those places distract us from
right now.
Say thank you for everything. And everybody. Thank your family
and your friends. And even your enemies. They have taught you
important lessons. Thank them for reminding you how important
your values are. Be grateful. Be thankful.
And learn techniques to control your emotions. The mind can

be hacked. Anger can be diverted like a road. Learn the tricks.
Exhale and smile.
He who controls others You wouldn’t watch a Netflix series again and again if
may be powerful, it wasn’t good. But, we are very good at dwelling on a harsh
but he who has mastered word, or an event that happened. And play it over in our minds
himself is mightier still. hundreds of times. No wisdom gained each time. Just more pain.
Lao Tzu
So, don’t pour salt on the wound. Write a new film. A better film.
And watch that. To do the best work we have ever done, we will
have to master our emotions.
What makes you tick?
To understand why we are all so complex,

you need to understand your basic human needs.
Six 1 Certainty
human 2 Uncertainty
you
needs 3 Significance
4 Love and Connection
5 Growth
6 Contribution
All of us have two needs that dominate above others. It’s hard to do the bravest work
you have ever done, if part of you dies when that work is criticised by the outer world.
The true creative builds an unshakeable belief in their ideas and doesn’t seek
validation from others. That’s easier said than done. But, not caring about what
are not
others think will lead to doing your best work.
We all have the same needs. But we don’t value them equally.
Tony Robbins.
80% of every decision is psychology. It is confidence, mindset, optimism

and not knowledge. And 20% is mechanics. Knowing how to do something.
stuck

Tell Our subconscious mind merely follows instruction that our conscious mind tells it.
yourself a Think of it as soil. We can choose to plant good seeds or bad seeds. Whatever we sow,
better we will reap. If we keep telling ourselves that we are not good enough, not connected
story enough, not lucky enough, so it will be. If we tell ourselves that I have the ability to
solve difficult problems, that I can put connections together that no one else can, that
people want to help me, they want me to win, then so it will be too.
As a man thinketh, so he does.

Ask. And you Have you ever driven somewhere and then wondered how on earth you got there?
will receive That is the power of the subconscious mind. It was driving while you were busy
thinking about something else.
when you
The subconscious is a powerful tool. It can solve our hardest problems. If we just ask
it. Remember, it works for you. So just ask away. And know when to ask. Just before
you go to sleep is a powerful time to ask. The last thought you put into your head
stop caring
before you go to sleep is what it can work on, while you get some shut eye. But ask so
that your subconscious mind is aware that this is important. Like anything, how you
ask it matters. It needs to feel that is both important and urgent.
Basketball Australian psychologist Alan Richardson made a little experiment. He took a
about what
experiment group of basketball players, divided them in three groups and tested each player’s
ability to make free throws.
other people
• The first group would practise 20 minutes every day.
• The second would only visualise themselves making free throws,
but no real practise was allowed.
• The third one would not practise or visualise.
The results were astounding.
think, you are

The group that practised saw a marked improvement. But there was significant
improvement on the group that only visualised; they were almost as good as the
guys who actually practiced. The third group, as expected, regressed.

then free to do the

So, you know how to win. Do the 20 minute practice and the visualisation too.
best work
Convince Here’s the thing. People can smell belief a mile off. They can smell the opposite
yourself a mile off too. When people listen to a talk, they don’t listen to what is said. But
first actually, they listen to how it is said. Non-verbal cues, huh. In fact, there is research
that says up to 93% of what you are saying has to do with what you are not saying.
you’ve ever done

The chains of habit are too light to be felt until they are too heavy to be broken.
Warren Buffett
First, we
qqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqq To change We are the sum total of our habits. So how do we take control of what we repeatedly
qqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqq our life, we do? Because what we repeatedly do shapes our days, our bodies and our minds. But
qqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqq must first breaking a habit is harder than just carrying on with it. Habits are created over time,
qqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqq change our and we don’t even know they are habits until we try and opt out of them. Opting out
qqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqq habits is hard. Why does it take on average 66 days to break a habit? Some take shorter.
qqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqq Some take longer. But a deep understanding is needed to break a habit. Willpower
make our
qqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqq won’t do it.
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qqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqq We make our To tackle an engrained habit, we try to change our behaviour mostly using
qqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqq habits. Then willpower and motivation. The mistake most people make is to try to change a
qqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqq our habits behaviour, and not the person you need to become to make the new habit stick.
make us Imagination is the super power to changing new habits. Why? Because 95% of
habits.
qqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqq habits are sub-consciously driven (right brain). Basically, we don’t even think about
qqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqq them. We just auto-pilot them. And to change them, we try and use the left brain,
qqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqq which is 5% of our brain. The odds are not stacked in its favour. We need to imagine
qqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqq the person we need to be before we can make the change happen.

Then our
habits
make us
Jerry Seinfeld came up with a technique
to form a habit of writing one joke per day
XXXXXXXX What makes

you cross?
Very simply, you get a big wall calendar and put it where everyone can see it.
Then each day, when you achieve your goal, you put a great big X with a
big red marker.
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Over a relatively short time you get on a roll, and that series of Xs becomes
a powerful thing. You don’t want to break the chain. But why?

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Firstly, we get dopamine for completing the daily task. A nice little reward. Secondly,
because it’s visible, it makes it much harder to say “I won’t meditate tonight, just this
once.” Just this once never stays at just this once. Just this once ruins the streak.
And it is going to be very visible. Streaks are very powerful. Ask Snapchat.
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Thirdly, is a thing called ’loss aversion’. Research has shown losing £50 is a more
powerful motivator than gaining £50. For me, the thought of losing a 39-day
no-drinking streak is more powerful a thought than having a glass of wine.
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In other words, I haven’t come this far to only come this far.

The interesting thing here is this. I am not relying on willpower to break habits.
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And there is good reason for that. Come the first week of February, around 80% of
New Year’s resolutions will have been broken. The gyms will become empty again.
Chocolate makers will sell their fine wares again. And wine sellers will hear corks
pop again.
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The intention with these New Year’s resolutions was good. But the strategy was not.
Mostly, they will have used sheer willpower to change a habit. Willpower for some
works. But clearly for 80% it doesn’t. There are many reasons for this.
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The main one is most of our habits are just automatic. Some psychologists
estimate that 95% of our behaviours are done without conscious thought.
We are on auto-pilot. It explains why we can drive somewhere, and then wonder
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how the hell we got there. And if then 95% of habits are subconsciously controlled,
which is right brain. And we are using willpower which is left brain to change them.

It is no wonder we fail as the odds are against us. In gambling, the house wins
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because the odds are loaded in its favour. In changing habits, the subconscious
wins for the same reason.

So, if you want to break a habit, don’t rely on willpower. You have to hack your
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brain. You have to understand what makes you tick as a human. And, what makes
you cross, too.

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Tiny habits will change your life.
A Stanford professor called BJ Fogg is leading the way in behaviour change.

He believes the way to make a lasting change is to baby step your way to it.
we are
He believes three elements must converge at the same time for a behaviour to
occur: motivation, ability and trigger. His students include one of the founders
of Instagram.

The trick to the trigger is to attach it to something you already do. For example,
every time I have a shower, I now always do 100 Pilates sit-ups. In short, tiny habits
works by designing out the need for motivational levels, which can come and go with
what we
the wind. A celebratory pat on the back is important. Because you are rewriting your
identity as someone who succeeds.
The power of Tiny habits are a super power. Sometimes when we pick a huge goal the sheer
the streak mammoth size of the goal or the task can defeat us. Our brain can’t imagine it. So,
we are destined to fail. But with a tiny habit repeated daily, then we think this isn’t
so hard, and we just get on and do it. And the trick is not to set the bar too high. And
repeatedly
hold yourself to account for doing it each day. The super power of a streak is after a
while, you just don’t want to break the streak, because you have invested so much in
it already. The fear of the loss is greater than the pain of quitting. And so, it continues.
Attach a Each day you have your routine. Why not use it to make a change? Use the
new habit to things you do every day to piggyback a new habit that helps you either get fitter,
something emotionally stronger, financially stronger. For example, when I do my pilates sit-ups
do
you do in the shower, not only am I getting clean, but I am also having a mini workout. And
every day I don’t even think about it. Of course if I am in hotel, the showers are so small, well,
this is impossible. But other than that. It works.
Attach more pain to the old way of doing things than the new way.
Pleasure/pain principle.
The purpose As humans, we seek to avoid pain and gravitate towards pleasure. That’s
of pain is understandable. If we decide to run a marathon, we know in order to have the
The secret
pleasure pleasure of crossing the finish line, we will have to endure the pain of training.
So, when the alarm goes off on a rainy winter’s morning at 6am, there is a battle
to success
between pain and pleasure.

The purpose Do you lie in? Or do you train? Do you have short-term pleasure? Or do you get up
of pleasure and go through short-term pain. Indeed, giving into the short-term pleasure of lie ins
is pain may mean the long-term pleasure of your goal is never achieved. This is the battle
we fight daily, not just creative projects but in every aspect of life. To succeed you
is learning how
will have to find ways to motivate yourself. Indeed, you will have to win the daily
battle between pain and pleasure. In the example of running a marathon, you have to
attach more pleasure to crossing that finish line, than the pain of getting out of bed to
go training.
to use pain

Willpower is The American Psychological Association calls willpower “the ability to resist
sugar? short-term temptations in order to meet long-term goals.” Using willpower
sometimes means not doing something, like skipping that second slice of cake you
really want. Willpower provides a happier more successful life. But each day, we use
&pleasure,
it up. Willpower uses energy to create resistance, and when our energy wanes, so
does the resistance. It gives you a short burst of determination but then it runs out of
steam. Habits are hard to break because they have become a part of daily lives over a
long period of time. Habits need a better technique than willpower alone can provide.

The most well-known experiment, the marshmallow experiment, began in
the 1960s by psychologist Walter Mischel. He offered four-year-olds the choice
instead of
of one marshmallow now, or two if they could wait 15 minutes. He and other
researchers then tracked the performance of these children as they became adults.
They found that children who resisted temptation (high delayers) achieved greater
academic success, better health, and lower rates of marital separation and divorce.
having pain &

It was concluded by Mischel that the ability to delay gratification constituted “a
protective buffer against the development of all kinds of vulnerabilities later in life.”
pleasure you
use
Anthony Robbins
Ask better questions.
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? You don’t have to have the answer to ask a great question. A great question
reframes something in a way to think differently about the problem. And because you
have approached the task with a different question, you will end up with a different
answer. Lots of people go in search of answers. But if we want to be more creative,
we need to ask better questions. The most creative people that you and I know, their
secret is: ask better questions.
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These questions have the power to give you an entirely new perspective not just
on your day, not just on the piece of work you are trying to solve, but on your life.
The Let me kick this one off with an example. Our competition is huge. So, if you accept
magic of that interpretation of the world, Hiut Denim Co can never win. But if you look at it
reframing another way: Big means slow. And this world is getting faster each day. Being slow in
this world is a huge disadvantage. They are an ocean liner. And we are a speed boat.
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This technique is called reframing, and it’s a super power to improve your psychology.
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Reframing is not about saying that something did not happen, or that person did say
that thing, but it is about looking at a different interpretation of it. This happened, so
it must mean…Or, it could mean something else completely. We get to decide.

The quality of your life is the quality of your communication, with yourself as well
as with others. Anthony Robbins
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The five The five whys is an iterative technique used to solve problems. By repeatedly asking
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whys the question why you can peel away the layers of symptoms which can lead to the root
cause of a problem.
?
You will find The brain is hard wired to find problems. Since the cave it has been programmed to
what you save your butt. Fight or flight is there to protect us from saber-tooth tigers. If you
look for decide that someone doesn’t like you, your brain will help you build the case that this
is, of course, actually the case. If you say to yourself this is going to be one of those
days, the brain will build that case for you. If we tell ourselves it is going to be tough,
the brain will go and find the evidence that this is the case. Maybe, it’s time to reframe
how you look at things.
How to We have six human needs. One of them is certainty. And for many it is the most im-
embrace portant. With a salary we know we will get paid at the end of each month.
uncertainty We will eat each day. We can go to bed at night and sleep well knowing that we have a
roof over our head and knowing all is good in the world.

One of the other human needs is uncertainty. It’s why, apart from bills, we like
surprises. And why, even though a salary feels so damn certain, if the price for that
salary is us doing something we have no love for, there will be a time when we
decide to bury the dream, or chase it. That is the fork in the road.

This is the crossroads called should and must.
Ego
EGO
Purpose Most teams have their egos. The general rule is the bigger the talent, the bigger
builds the ego.
teams
Conversely the best and the hardest team to form is one when there is no ego. Where
the pursuit of the team goals is the only thing that matters. A selfless team is the
hardest to form because putting the ego to one side is a difficult thing.

The mission is to the fore. The ego left at the door.

To reach this stage the team is the most important thing. The team looks after the
team. Teams win because everyone in the team puts the team first.

Once this state is reached it is by far the most potent. It has reached its optimum.
This is the selfless team. The rarest team. The most potent team.

Not just in what it can achieve, but the feeling you get from being part of it. This team,
even with less talented individuals, can beat a team with superstars that is not a team.
Disagree, but we don’t need to be disagreeable. John Wooden

Even if you are a writer tucked away in your little shed, you still need a team. You will
need an editor. Probably an agent. A book publisher. Then you need a good friend to
tell you when something sucks, when no one else will.
In order to do your best work, you will have to build a team around you. Where ego is
not allowed to get in the way of you doing your best work.

The team works for the pursuit of doing the best work. And that alone.
And To finish, I want to tell you one last story. I heard it on the radio. It was from a World
teams Cup winning rugby team member. He was asked if his biggest achievement
win was winning a World Cup medal. And he said no. His biggest achievement was in the
tunnel before the game. And everyone looked at each other. They knew how hard
each other had worked to get there, how much they had grown as people together,
and had all put the team before themselves. They said a thank you to each other just
with eye contact and a nod of the head. They were, in that moment, a team. That was
his finest moment.

Your potential, the absolute best you’re capable of: that’s the metric to measure
yourself against. Winning is not enough. People can get lucky and win. People can
be assholes and win. Anyone can win. But not everyone is the best possible version
of themselves. Ryan Holiday
Peak state This is how to prime yourself each day
To do your best work, we need to be in a peak state. The more we are in peak state, A morning ritual is just priming you ready to do your best work.
the more prepared we are to deliver our best work. So, we need to ask the question, This is a study that was conducted by Yale to show the power of priming.
when do I do my best work? Where? But, most importantly, emotionally, what is
my best state to do my best work? Priming In the elevator on their way to the lab, a member of the study team (who knew what
experiment they needed to do, but not why) would casually ask the participant to hold their
The good thing is you can design this so it happens more regularly. For example, coffee. The team member would then write down some information about the
if you know you do your best work after an hour’s run, you know what to do. If it is participant, then get their coffee back. They’d all hold it somewhere between 10
listening to your favourite music on repeat, then do that. If it’s early evening, after and 25 seconds. For half the participants the coffee was hot, for the other half the
a cold beer, then do that. But you can develop a practice to get you to that state each coffee was cold. That’s the only difference.
day. The best time to shape your day is the morning.
Here’s where it gets interesting. In the lab, all the participants read the same
Develop a morning ritual. Take 20 minutes to prepare yourself for the day ahead. brief description of a person. They then rated this person’s personality traits using
a questionnaire. The people who’d held hot coffee for those few seconds in the
1 What am I grateful for? elevator rated the person as more generous, happier, better natured and more social
2 What am I thankful for? than those who’d held cold coffee. People who’d held the cold cup were more likely
3 I then imagine how I feel if I achieve my goal. I write the acceptance speech for to say the person was unhappy, irritable and selfish. Remember, there’s absolutely
a piece of work I am putting my effort into. The imagination is a powerful tool. no difference in what they read, but how they reacted to it was significantly different.
If you can convince yourself you are about to do your best work, your mind The strangest part? They had no idea they’d been primed.
will be prepared for it.
4 Then I do three sprints just to get the old ticker going. Conquer the morning and you will conquer the day.
5 Then I have some bullet coffee, and then I fly to work.
Emotional The imagination is a super power to changing you. Most people try to change a
intensity behaviour, but they haven’t changed. And so most fail. What they really need to make
change happen is to imagine the person they need to become to do what they want to
do. If you want to get fit, you have to imagine yourself as a runner. A runner wouldn’t
have a lie in. A runner would get up and go running. Even if it’s raining. Even if you’re
tired. It may sound barmy, but you have to change your identity to change your habit.
But there is a trick to this. And it may also sound barmy. But you have to make an
impression on the subconscious mind, and to make an impression you have to paint
powerful pictures. Use powerful words. Emotion is like a laser on the mind. It makes
an impression. And that matters.
Good habits, bad habits Hack sleep
Habits to To do your best work, you will have to take account of your habits. Look at your A good sleep is a multiplier of energy. It will determine how much you get done
kick day, look at your work routines, and ask yourself this: how can I raise my standard? tomorrow, how you interact with other humans, your happiness. Frankly, sleep is
Do I write a list the night before on what is most important to achieve tomorrow? magic. But, like all magic it doesn’t take much for it to vanish. You know how you
Do I allow my inbox to become my to-do list? Do I get distracted by the wonders of work best, but you have already worked out you can’t do it without sleep.
the worldwide web? Do I procrastinate too much? Do I say I won’t drink in the
week and end up doing the opposite? Do I set myself a target and then never reach These things work:
it? If you make a contract with yourself, you respect yourself when you start keeping 1 Honey
your word. 2 Inulin
3 Phone off two hours before bed
4 Consistent timing
Habits to To do your best work, you will have to adopt a set of habits that allow you to do just 5 Consistent ritual
nurture that. Start by looking at how much time you spend focused on the areas of your 6 Write down anything that is on your mind
day that will give you the biggest impact. Learn to say “no” to things that are not 7 No coffee after 2pm
essential. If you find your phone is a distraction, then quite simply leave it in 8 Passion fruit
another room while you are working. The best way to not get tempted by it, is for 9 Avoid exercise two hours before sleep
it to be in another room. Set yourself three things that you want to achieve each day. 10 Eat early
Most to-do lists are way too long: three is a good number.
Eight hours to work. Eight hours to sleep. Eight hours of recreation. Eight hours
Energy 1 Worry of quality sleep increases your ability to gain new insight into complex problems
thieves 2 Lack of sleep by 50%.
3 Trying to do everything
4 Not exercising
5 Drinking too much

Time 1 Distractions
thieves 2 No priorities
3 Easy deadlines
4 Multitasking
5 Using email as your to-do list.

The beauty of dayshots
I think people don’t achieve their moonshots because they don’t pay enough
attention to the small dayshots. They just want to hit the ball out of the park.
Take the big swings.
They don’t come in each day and ask this simple question: How can I get better today
than I was yesterday? What little thing can I do today to make something better?
The compounding effect of trying to get better by 1% a day is huge. Compounded it
is 3,800% per year. That’s 40 times better than where you started in just one year.
Thanks to James Altucher for that piece of gold.
Oh wait. Do you mean there is no escalator up to the top of the mountain?
Raise your No shortcut? No magic bullet? No overnight success? Who knew? If you want a
standard better result, you will need to change how you do things. You will have to practise
more. Read new books. Experiment more. Try new ways. Fail more.
Raising your standards is hard. Talking about raising your standards is easy.
Everybody says they want to make a change, but only very few are prepared to
do what is required to make the change happen. So, what is it to be?
Are you Here’s the deal. Words are easy. Damn. Saying them takes little effort. Making
willing to your words happen is another thing altogether. Are you willing to do what it takes
pay the to make something happen? Are you willing to make the sacrifice? Ultimately, are
price? you willing to do the work? If something fails, are you resilient enough to find another
way? Will you go the extra mile? The lonely mile. Will you back your words up with
endeavour? There is no doubt that there is a price attached to doing this. That price can
moon
be time. That price can be sweat and tears. The price is too high for most. They just like
saying the words.
need shots
dayshots
Make time to do your best work
Saying no Right now, you may be feeling a little stressed. That stress is mostly coming from Deep work We live in a world with more distractions than ever in the history of the planet.
is rare trying to do too many things, and not getting satisfaction from doing them as well as is rare
you can. I don’t know if this fact can actually be verified but the moral it is trying to put
across resonates:
Your ability to say no to things will ensure that you have more time to do things well.
You can’t do everything to the best of your talent. But you can do less things. A goldfish’s attention span is nine seconds. And as from 2015, a human’s is
eight seconds.
To do your best work, you have to choose what you are going to be bad at. For me, I
chose email. I tell everyone how bad I am at email. I spend very little time replying The smart phone is the ultimate attention seeker. We check our smart phone 221
to emails. Instead, I spend a great deal of time on things that will push my businesses times a day.
forward.
To do your best work, you have to commit all your attention to it. And to do so, for
The return on my time invested is greater there. Yes, I will miss some important long periods of uninterrupted time. So, to do your best work, you will have to become
emails, and therefore opportunities. But that is the cost of doing your best work. ruthless at blocking out distractions.

The busy fool doesn’t lack effort. But focus. Cal Newport has written a great book called Deep Work and in essence, you need to
find two to three hours each day without Wi-Fi, without your phone, and make that
Also, make a pact with yourself to accept that multitasking is a lie. Multitasking a habit of how you go about your work as part of your daily routine.
relies on you giving partial attention to many things. That is not a formula for
doing great work. That two to three hours will be worth more than other people’s eight hours. They
may be working longer but they will be doing shallow work. They will be distracted
Multitasking is the perfect delivery method for average work. To do your best work, by gossip in the open plan office, by an email that has just arrived, by a great photo
you have to give it all your attention. on Instagram.

When you are doing shallow work, you can’t solve difficult problems. Your best work
will require you to overcome difficulty. Your best work will stretch you, push you, find
your very limits. This work cannot be done while thinking about something else.

For every distraction we get caught up in, it takes us another 22 minutes to get back
into the flow of where we left. Distractions take more time than the distraction alone.
Because they leave a residue, and that takes time to regain our focus.

To do your best work, you will have to replace distractions with focus.
Patience We want it tomorrow. Amazon Prime has taught us impatience. Order before 9pm
is rare and it’s there in the morning. Drone delivery will one day deliver within the hour.

To build your reputation will take time. To grow your business will take time.
To hone your skills that will one day deliver your best work will take time too. There
are no short cuts. But there is a way to make learning inefficient, and that is learning
while distracted. You will take longer to learn the skills, and will never learn them as
patience
well as if you were doing nothing else.

“You can’t Most people don’t ever do their best work because they give up before they have
get to learnt all the skills required to do it.
wonderful
without We need to understand doing our best work is a journey. We don’t start off being
passing brilliant. We start off at mediocre. Then we go to not too bad. Then we go to OK.
through Then we go to good. Then eventually we arrive at really good. And, occasionally we
is
alright.” will go to great.
Bill Withers
Everyone can learn the talent to do their best work. But not everyone has the
patience to practise until they are good enough to do that work.
Love is rare Most people don’t love what they do. Most people have a deferred life plan that will
allow them to one day do the thing that matters most to them. Most people don’t look
rare
forward to Monday morning. But if you are lucky enough to find something you love
doing, you will find that you have a life-long edge over others. Learning your craft will
be easier. Practice will not be a chore. The hunger to improve will never leave you.
And most importantly, it will be fun.
10,000 hours For you, work will never feel like work, no matter how hard you work at it. Even if you
learning start at the bottom, it will be the bottom of the thing you want to do most. Err, and
to be a even that is good fun.
grandmaster
can be a very To do your best work, you will have to be in love with what you do. It might be a while
short time before it loves you back. But that is just called practice. And practice, when love
when you comes along to every session, is never miserable. Just hard work.
love it, or an
eternity when The object of life’s journey is not to arrive at the grave safely, in a well preserved body,
you don’t. but rather to skid in sideways, totally worn out shouting holy shit, what a ride.

Some people live for the weekend. But that is only two days of the week. And there
are five work days. It is much better, even for mathematical reasons, to do something
that you love as you will spend more time on it than anything else. Plus, it will make
you happier. And you still get to have as much fun as you want on the weekends.

Working hard for something we don’t care about is called stress. Working hard for
something we love is called passion.
Purpose is rare
O
nce upon a time, there was an old man who used to go to the ocean
to do his writing. He had a habit of walking on the beach every
morning before he began his work. Early one morning, he was
walking along the shore after a big storm had passed and found
Most people don’t know why they are doing the job they are doing. Most
companies don’t know why they are in business. Most people float through life.
But if you understand why you want to make this thing happen, what you want to
change, why this work matters to you, then that is called purpose. A strong purpose
is a multiplier of your effort. You understand the reason why the work you are
the vast beach littered with starfish as far as the eye could see, doing matters.
stretching in both directions.
Purpose supplies your inner drive. It fuels innovation. It finds you your best people.
It keeps them with you when other companies come poaching. (They will.) It keeps
Off in the distance, the old man noticed a small boy approaching. you staying true, when it would be easy to compromise. It stops you from quitting,
when times get tough. (And, they will.)
As the boy walked, he paused every so often and as he grew closer,
the man could see that he was occasionally bending down to pick Purpose gives you a reason to fight like you have never fought before. And to keep on
fighting. With everything you have. Nothing spared.
up an object and throw it into the sea. The boy came closer still

and the man called out, “Good morning! May I ask what it is that The kid in the school yard that you shouldn’t fight is the one whose mother you’ve
you are doing?” insulted. He knows why he is going to kick your ass. And if you beat him this time, he
will just keep coming back. He is fighting for something much bigger than himself.
Truly.
The young boy paused, looked up, and replied “Throwing
To do your best work, you will have to understand why it matters to you. Define your
starfish into the ocean. The tide has washed them up onto the purpose. It will help you do your best work.
beach and they can’t return to the sea by themselves. When the sun
Big wins Most people want rapid progress. Most people look for huge wins. Most people want
gets high, they will die, unless I throw them back into the water.” are rare. to hit the ball out of the park. This is a common trap that people fall into.
Yet these big wins happen rarely.
The old man replied, “But there must be tens of thousands of Most people don’t want to work on the small things.

starfish on this beach. I’m afraid you won’t really be able to make “If you If today we got 1% better at what we do, and continued that improvement each day, it
much of a difference.” are not wouldn’t take long before we have hugely improved our skill levels.
embarrassed
by the first In business, in sport, most progress comes from small incremental gains over a
The boy bent down, picked up yet another starfish and threw it version period of time. These small improvements may not add up to much by themselves.
of your But once put together with all the other improvements, they begin to make a difference.
as far as he could into the ocean. Then he turned, smiled and said, product,
“It made a difference to that one!” you’ve Micro gains from micro daily habits almost always deliver some improvement.
launched
too late.” To do your best work, find small ways to improve.
Adapted from The Star Thrower, Reid Hoffman. And do the same tomorrow.
by Loren Eiseley (1907–1977)
Stones, pebbles and sand
One day, an old professor of the School of Public Management in France, was At this point, the managers began to understand his intentions. One replied,
invited to lecture on the topic of “Efficient Time Management” in front of a group “apparently not!”
of 15 executive managers representing the largest, most successful companies in
America. The lecture was one in a series of five lectures conducted in one day, and “Correct”, replied the old professor, now pulling out a bag of sand from under
the old professor was given an hour to lecture. the table. Cautiously, the professor poured the sand into the jar. The sand filled
up the spaces between the stones and the pebbles.
Standing in front of this group of elite managers, who were willing to write down
every word that would come out of the famous professor’s mouth, the professor Yet again, the professor asked, “Is the jar full?”
slowly met eyes with each manager, one by one, and finally said, “we are going to Without hesitation, the entire group of students replied in unison, “NO!”
conduct an experiment.”
“Correct”, replied the professor. And as was expected by the students, the professor
The Jar From under the table that stood between the professor and the listeners, the reached for the pitcher of water that was on the table, and poured water in the jar
of Life professor pulled out a big glass jar and gently placed it in front of him. Next, he pulled until it was absolutely full. The professor now lifted his gaze once again and asked,
out from under the table a bag of stones, each the size of a tennis ball, and placed the “What great truth can we surmise from this experiment?”
stones one by one in the jar. He did so until there was no room to add another stone With his thoughts on the lecture topic, one manager quickly replied, “We learn that
in the jar. Lifting his gaze to the managers, the professor asked, “Is the jar full?” The as full as our schedules may appear, if we only increase our effort, it is always possible
managers replied, “Yes.” The professor paused for a moment, and replied, “Really?” to add more meetings and tasks.”
Once again, he reached under the table and pulled out a bag full of pebbles. Carefully,
the professor poured the pebbles in and slightly rattled the jar, allowing the pebbles “No”, replied the professor. “The great truth that we can conclude from this
to slip through the larger stones, until they settled at the bottom. Again, the professor experiment is: If we don’t put all the larger stones in the jar first, we will never be
lifted his gaze to his audience and asked, “Is the jar full?” able to fit all of them later.”

The auditorium fell silent, as every manager processed the significance of the
professor’s words in their entirety. The old professor continued, “What are the
large stones in your life? Health? Family? Friends? Your goals? Doing what you
love? Fighting for a Cause? Taking time for yourself?”
What we must remember is that it is most important to include the larger stones in
our lives, because if we don’t do so, we are likely to miss out on life altogether. If we
give priority to the smaller things in life (pebbles & sand), our lives will be filled up
with less important things, leaving little or no time for the things in our lives that
are most important to us. Because of this, never forget to ask yourself,
What are the large stones in your life? And once you identify them, be sure to
put them first in your “Jar of Life.”
With a warm wave of his hand, the professor bid farewell to the managers, and
slowly walked out of the room.

The book of life
Codex Vitae Keeping a journal is a good discipline. It helps declutter your mind. And, so is good Progress Having more money won’t make us happy. If we are an arsehole, we will just be a
for your wellbeing and mental health. A Codex Vitae is the book of life. Your life. It’s = rich arsehole. If we are generous and kind person, we will be able to be a bit more
where you write down your beliefs, strategies and life hacks. Plus, bits of wisdom. Happiness generous and just as kind.
This is your user manual, written by you, for you. You share with yourself, all the
knowledge learned, how you are evolving as a human being. This is a book that you But true happiness will come from living the life we truly want, and it will give us
will sit and review weekly, monthly, even daily. Do a yearly review in January of the joy as we work towards that, and designing the path towards becoming that person.
entire document. Expect values, beliefs and hacks to change — don’t hold on to them From our health, our happiness, our work, our family life, our relationships.
too rigidly. Develop a habit of using the Codex as a repository for beliefs that you The whole caboodle.
develop throughout the year.
Money doesn’t change people, says Tony Robbins.
Are you Are you going to reach your potential? Are you going to come good? It just magnifies who they already are: if you have a lot of money and you’re mean,
going to Are you going to go the next level? then you have more to be mean with; if you have a lot of money and you’re generous,
sort your you’ll naturally give more.
sh*t out? Let me tell you a story, when I decided to get my sh*t together. I had already left
school without doing my A-levels to start a sports brand and failed. And had to go One year When we go to a train station, we know where we want to go. How about we treat our
back and do my A-levels. Then I went to college. Had a lot of fun. And then found out from now life with the same focus as we give to a train journey. Now, where do we want to end
I had been kicked out after the first year. I had to call my mum from a telephone box up this time in 365 days from now. The imagination is a very powerful tool to help
in Bristol, they were red things with phones in them, groovy huh, and tell her that I dreams happen, but it does need to have a destination in mind. So as difficult as it
was coming home. It was a short phone call. But in that moment, I decided I had to is may sound, find a piece of paper and write this shit down. Then put that piece of
get my act together. paper in a place where you can view it each day.

SOSO The technical term for this moment is this: Sort Our Sh*t Out.
One month Think of a year as 12 building blocks. Like stops on a train journey. If you can break
We are more likely to want to change if we really have to, if we have no choice. from now the year down into bite sized chunks, then the big goal of the year is suddenly much
If the pain of staying as you are is greater than making a change happen. more do-able. So write another piece of paper and say where you are going to be by
each month. And as each month passes, you can see where you are. And see if you are
A turning point in our lives is helpful because it forces us to make that change. on track, or if indeed you are ahead of schedule. Or if you need to up the pace a bit.
Humans don’t like change. Nor do businesses. They will do anything to avoid it. Small actions when repeated can deliver you to where you want to get to.
Having these moments in our lives is important, even if at the time they felt the
worst of times. It turns out the worst of times help us find the best of times. Don’t be Life can be measured in many ways. Yes, there are traditional ways by adding up
lukewarm all your money. But there are other ways. How much fun have you had? That is a great
measure of a great life. If you do things that excite you, you will put a huge effort into
them. And the likelihood is you will do something that you are proud of, and that will
get you noticed. Then you will be asked to do more of that kind of work, which will
excite you. So, you will put a lot into it, then that will get you noticed. Then you will
be asked to do more of this kind of work. And because it excites you, you keep putting
a lot of effort into it. Passion shows up in your work, when you show up with passion.
Customers can feel it when you feel it first.
It’s not how good you are, it is how good you want to be. Paul Arden
Five logical Environment You are Where our thoughts go to, our energy flows to. If we think of our thoughts as a
levels Behaviour where your spotlight, then they shine a light on what we focus on. And we get back more of what
Capability attention is we pay attention on. If you focus on not having money, that will get your energy.
Beliefs and Values Focus can be a negative thing or a positive thing. It is really up to us. We direct the
Identity spotlight. The spotlight is our thoughts. If we want to improve an area of our life, we
can either focus on how bad we currently are, or, with practise, how good we can be.
Originally developed by Robert Dilts and Todd Epstein and is widely known by the
names neuro–logical levels or logical levels. It is a model to understand how we tick. Change the The meaning we give to something is either helpful or not. We decide what meaning
It is useful to know what is the most effective way to make change happen. Most meaning to attach to any event, to any action, to something someone said. “It means they don’t
people when they want to alter something in their life, they try to change their we give to love us.” “It means they care deeply.” It is us who decides the meaning. And the mean-
behaviour. They concentrate on doing, not on who they need to be. But the most something ing we decide upon will decide the emotion we give to it. And the emotion we carry
powerful tool for change is identity. through life will decide our life. To change our days, we have to change the meaning
we attach to the things that are not helpful. This is called reframing.
People focus We are very good at going after what we want, but give no thought of who we need to
on what be to achieve it. If we decide we want to be the CEO of the company, we will have to The meaning you attach to something produces the emotion of your life and your
they want, think differently than if we are just an employee. In order to achieve the goal, we will emotion is your life.Tony Robbins
not on the have to assume the mindset of a CEO long before we are actually become one. We
person they have to exercise like one, eat like one, sleep like one, make decisions like one. Indeed, The The most important contract you will ever make is the one you make yourself. Your
need to be we have to adopt the mannerisms and the behaviours of one. commitment word is good. Your word stands for something. When you say something and follow
to get it Be. Do. Have. Jim Fortin effect through, you build respect for your word. This gives you strength that when you
commit, you make things happen. It teaches you respect for your word, it teaches
See things Here’s the thing. Right now, there may be little evidence to suggest that you are that you can’t say things without follow through. The power of your word gives you
as you want going to be the next Steve Jobs or Elon Musk. But the job of the imagination is not an incredible strength. Not just with yourself. But with others. You have respect for
them to be, to see today as we stand, but to look forward in time, and to see a world of what is yourself. And that commitment effect makes you feel good about yourself.
not as truly possible. To hear it, to smell it, to see what it looks like, to imagine the office, to
they are imagine the awards, to imagine the team you have built. Like a magnet that can pull The four 1 Be impeccable with your word.
you forward. There is no imagination required to understand where you are today. agreements 2 Don’t take anything personally.
Imagination doesn’t have to read today’s papers, it has to read the papers that are not Miguel Ruiz 3 Don’t make assumptions.
written yet. 4 Always do your best.
What level If you could score your level of optimism, what would it be? If it’s on the low side,
of optimism the good thing is optimism can be learnt. The brain is very pliable in that regard.
are you? Optimism is good for you. It is good for those who spend time with you. It is good for
your business. For your creative ideas. For your health. There are some simple tips.
Like get enough rest. Just that one simple thing changes your outlook on the day.
To do your best work, you will need optimism to be your ally. Because, you can be
sure self-doubt will come along on every journey you will make.
A page of lists
The multiplier manifesto The daily battle
1 Accept time cannot be expanded. How you use it can be. Each day you will have to slay your demons. Take your pick.
2 Accept you can’t shine everywhere.
You need to focus where you can shine the brightest. And put your effort there. 1 Inadequacy
3 Working longer to achieve a better result is not a multiplier. 2 Guilt
It is just working longer. 3 Fear
4 The point of the multiplier is to leverage your effort. A wheel barrow can carry more 4 Discomfort
than you can. Find your wheel barrow. 5 Anger
5 If you can link something ’hard to do’ with ’why’ you want to make it happen, the task 6 Disappointment
becomes easier. ’Why’ is a multiplier. 7 Overwhelmed
6 Teams can achieve more than individuals. Teams are a multiplier. 8 Loneliness
7 If you can ’vision it’, your chances of achieving it are increased. 9 Frustration
Mental models are a multiplier. 10 Self-doubt
8 The busy fool doesn’t lack effort, but focus. Control what you give your attention to.
9 Ideas separate you. See what others don’t. And get there first.
10 Compound of interest builds up money. Consistency of values builds up reputation.
Trust is a multiplier. Enemies of creativity
11 We may not like deadlines. But we work faster, harder and smarter with one.
12 Sleep is a multiplier of energy. Know the enemy. You will have to do battle with it every day.
And will determine what you can achieve tomorrow.
1 Fear
2 Long deadlines
Inform your optimism 3 Trying to be popular
4 Not willing to look a fool
1 Do your homework. 5 Trying to please everyone
2 Do your research. 6 Committees
3 Do the numbers. 7 Ego
4 Do a plan for failure. 8 Ridiculing failure
5 Do a plan for success. 9 Asking the same question
6 Listen to the cynics and the naysayers. 10 Following your formula
7 Listen to your loved one, your mum and your kids. 11 Follow someone else’s
8 Listen to yourself. 12 Caring what other people think
9 Listen to everything your career has ever taught you.
10 Optimism isn’t merely a hunch. A whim. A feeling.
It’s a calculation that you have come to based on all of the above.
Optimism doesn’t fly solo.
The best fighter is never angry. Lao Tzu
Self–care Sometimes, what you need is a break. To put some distance between the day-to-day, Make your As creative people, we have huge strengths. Our ideas, our vision of the future, our
and just get away from everything and everybody. Your best ideas don’t come from weaknesses stubbornness etc. Correspondingly, we have huge areas of weaknesses. Naturally,
sitting infront of a computer. When you are caught up in the daily, you can only think a strength we spend a lot of time making our strengths even stronger. And pay no attention
of what is directly infront of you. But, it’s your job to understand where things are to our weaknesses.
going. What will the future be? You need to know that before it arrives. Leave town.
Working in your business is different to working on your business. For creative people that tends to lie in our organisational side of things. Or it could be
on the money side. And low and behold, if things tend to go wrong for us, it is because
Self–love Celebrate small victories. We feel guilty when we take time off. Don’t. Seldom do of our weaknesses, not our strengths. As creative people, we need to get better at
we have our best ideas at our desk. Go run. Instead of comparing yourself to others, money. We need to protect our ideas. We need to get good at time management. We
compare yourself to a tree. An ocean. That should make you feel even smaller. If need to be stronger in the areas where we are weak. Because, our ideas are the gold.
that’s the aim. Your best friend should be you. Stop finding fault with everything
you do. How about some kind words, how about a pat on the back for yourself. Getting good at our weaknesses protects the gold.
Exhale. We don’t need to be balanced when things are all going our way. We are already Be loose The hardest thing is to relax when we care the most. We have all seen it when
And smile balanced. We need to use tools to keep us balanced when things come at us to throw someone with lots of talent can’t relax enough to show everyone that they can sing,
us off-kilter. One of the easiest is to exhale and smile. Sounds far too easy. Except it is they can’t perform when it matters. Or the talented footballer who misses the
hard to be angry and smile at the same time. In fact, the body can’t do it. And the vital penalty in a vital game. And then the player with less talent, just kicks the ball in
mistake we make when things get stressed is to concentrate on breathing in. But if the back of the net. So how do you become loose? Well, firstly make a contract with
we exhale, that is a far bigger way to stop us getting so stressed. failure and say you accept the worse that can happen. Learn to breathe. Learn how to
breath though even when you get tense. And lastly, practise like crazy. So it becomes
Molehills not One of the biggest skills you will have to learn to do the best work you have ever done, second nature to you. So you can do it without thinking. Your muscles remember
mountains is to provide context to a problem. It is easy to add petrol to a fire, the most powerful what to do, even if you forget.
tools to do this are anger and heightened emotions. But what the fire needs from you
is to take away the oxygen to it. Starve it of what fuels it. Context does this. Reframe Input Ideas need odd and unlikely inputs. To think differently, we need to do differently.
it as a molehill and not a mountain. See it for what it is, but not worse than it is. The differently. Ideas come from putting random things together. If your reference points are
skill is to provide context, not exaggeration. Output different to others, then guess what, your ideas are going to be different. To think
differently differently, do differently, read differently, travel differently, eat differently etc.
We stay interesting by stepping outside of our daily thing. We keep pushing; we
leave what we know behind for a bit.

Hold Don’t be the journeyman. Don’t be the jack of all trades. Commit. Don’t half be in
nothing love. Fully commit. Don’t spare yourself. Don’t half-ass it. Commit. Failure to commit
back is worse than not starting at all. You know what I am saying. Don’t hedge. Believe.
Obsess. Be 100% in. Or be 100% out. Let people laugh at you because they don’t get
you. Or what you are doing. Honestly, give up caring what others think. But it does
matter what you think. Honour your word to yourself. Commit.

2
Financial As creative people, we tend to have a weird relationship with
money. It is the thing we worry about most, but talk about the least.
fitness
We often undervalue ourselves.

We have issues when we negotiate, so we employ people to do that
on our behalf.

We have many insecurities about money often learned from our
parents.

We think we need to work incredibly hard to make money, but a
life-changing idea can happen in a single second.

But one thing is for sure, to do the best work we have ever done,
we need to devote all our thinking towards that. And not worry
about how we pay the gas bill.

So, getting financially fit is just like getting physically fit, it
requires a daily regime that you do in good times and bad times.

Where are Part of the stress of money is not actually facing up to where you
you now? are now. Damn. Ain’t that the truth. Not opening bills. Putting off
the truth. Not knowing all your outgoings versus your incomings.
Working out all your assets, and your debts. With a car you can look
at the dashboard, and with a small number of instruments, you
know exactly where you are quickly. This is what you need to know
in financial terms.

The 1 Income
dashboard 2 Outgoings
3 Assets
4 Debts
5 Savings

Only through clarity can we change
Mindset- Our relationship with money isn’t always healthy. If we are paid a lot, we tend If you’re living without a safety net, you’re living on the “financial” edge—hoping to
reset to spend to that new level. We often think, we need to work crazy hard to make get by without running into a crisis. Being prepared with an emergency fund gives
money, and yet if we look at when we made the most money, it was a small you confidence that you can tackle any of life’s unexpected events without adding
moment of inspiration. money worries to your list.

If we are going to argue with our loved ones, there is more chance it will be 56% of Americans don’t have a 3-6 month pot of money put aside. So you can bet that
about money than any other single thing. Money is the biggest cause of stress figure will be the same for the UK. Of course, if life goes to plan, they won’t need it.
for people than any other thing. But as we know, life rarely goes to plan.

And yet, we continue in these beliefs. To become rich, we need to earn a high Understand Get a calculator. Then do this little exercise. You are going to pay yourself a penny
income. But the truth is this: high incomes also come with high expenditure. the power of the first day. Then double it the next day. And double it the next day. And do this for
Isn’t that a truth? compound a month. The interesting thing is the numbers remain quite small for quite a while.
interest. Day 10 you’re at £5.12. Day 20 you’re at £5,242. Then in the last week the values begin
Selling time can and does indeed help you earn a high income. But you are selling to get big. And the end-point is Day 31 where you reach £10,737,418.24. The magic of
time. Your most limited resource. And time doesn’t scale. Is that a truth? compound interest is how a small thing becomes such a big thing. Our problem is we
don’t think a small thing could ever amount to anything, so we don’t start. Our
We often bring a scarcity mindset to a situation when a mindset of abundance is problem is we want to go get the big payday, hit the ball out of the park. But that little
needed. We tell ourselves that money is too tight to mention, and money doesn’t sum each day is a more reliable way getting to a huge number. Who knew?
grow on trees, and low and behold those words become our beliefs.
Compound interest is such a powerful tool that Albert Einstein once called it the
So we have to start telling ourselves a different story. And overtime, you will most important invention in all of human history.
notice things get better for you.

The six Do you have six months’ of money to hand?
month rule Does it matter?
Knowing you have six months’ money to hand changes your mindset.
It creates emotional strength. If people smell fear, they also get a whiff when you are
strong. Being around a table when you simply have to do a deal, makes you weak. But
if you around the same table and you are strong, it makes you strong. People want to
deal with confidence and not desperation.
The six months’money could be in a saving account, it could be in shares that you can
sell at a drop of a hat, it could be under your bed. But the idea is an emergency fund
is there in an emergency. But it needs to be away from your day to day money, so you
don’t get tempted to dip in. This money is to provide you with strength. It must not
be used for anything other than what is designed for.
What this fund represents more than just the money, is the psychological difference
it makes to you. You need to be brave in starting up your own business, but you can’t
make brave decisions if you are to the wire financially. So being to the wire causes
stress, and that mindset is not the best one for making smart choices.
Become an Hands up, who has an Apple iPhone? Quite a lot I would imagine. Hands up, who
investor, not owns shares in Apple? Not so many I would imagine. And those two questions and
a consumer those two answers, tell us something. Many of us are customers, but only a few are
investors. And that’s the problem. It’s not like we don’t know what is going to take off.
By definition, the creative community are early adopters. So, we see things early.
And seeing things early means you can make some smart investments. As a general
rule, invest in products and services you swear by, rather than swear at.

Create Selling time doesn’t scale. As much as we try to prove that inconvenient truth wrong,
assets. it is a truth for a reason. Each day comes with 24 hours. And a good chunk of that
Don’t sell requires you to be asleep. So rather than trying to be everywhere, create something
time that can be everywhere without you having to be there with it. If your business
always requires you to be there, you have not created a business. You have created a
bottleneck. You will always feel stressed. You will always be busy. But you will always
be limited by how much time in the day you have. Which, is the same as everyone else.

Spend less This is a simple piece of advice that most people ignore: spend less than you earn.
than you And make a decision to save a set percentage of your income each month. Put it aside.
earn? Direct Debit it. Then it becomes a habit. And not just a wish. And let’s be honest, as
smart as we all are, no one has worked out how to cancel a direct debit quite yet.

Give this fund a cool name, like Escape Fund. That is already a more powerful
picture than a pension or savings account ever paints. And go and get some great
advice on how to best invest that fund from a professional. For you to master money,
you want money to work hard, so you spend more time on doing your best work.

It’s too So, yes to have begun saving 30 years ago would have been the smartest thing, but not
late and starting at all is the dumbest of things, so start today. It will allow you to have choices
other lies of doing what you want, not what you have to. And if you start today, you will feel like
you are at least doing something. You are at least paddling, even if you are still
heading toward the falls.
Take a percentage of what you earn, no matter how little you earn or how much you
earn. A percentage of that needs to be set aside that you’re going to keep for you and
your family. You’re not going to spend it on this and that. You’re not going to give it to
anybody else. The best way to save is never to see that money at all. And, set up that
direct debit and say goodbye to it. Even before you said hello to it.
The question isn’t at what age I want to retire, it’s at what income. Build a safety net.
George Foreman
Tough What percentage of your income are you going to save? 10%, 20%, 30%? Do you have six months’ of money to hand? Let me explain why it matters. Knowing
question alert Clue. The older you are, the higher it needs to be. you have six months’ money to hand changes your mindset. It creates emotional
strength. If people smell fear, they also get a whiff when you’re strong. Being around
What do you You do need to work it out. What do you really need to live the life you want? Let’s a table when you simply have to do a deal, makes you weak. But if you’re around the
need to earn work it out. It may be less than you think. How much do you need to be financially same table and you are strong, it makes you strong. People want to deal with confidence
to have the independent? Do your wealth calculator. People ask themselves what age they want and not desperation. The six months’ money could be in a savings account, it could be
life you want? to retire. But really the question is, at what income? in shares that you can sell at a drop of a hat, it could be under your bed. But the idea is
that an emergency fund is there in an emergency. But it needs to be away from your
Most people have a pension. But when you look at that pension, you will see that day-to-day money so you don’t get tempted to dip in. This money is to provide you with
you are paying huge fees, and pension investing has changed. And there are huge strength. It must not be used for anything other than what it is designed for.
disrupters in this market, and that is good news. Because they are here to give you a
better deal. Investment strategies are best left to smarter people than us. But, let’s What this fund represents is more than just the money, is the psychological
see what the smartest people have to say: difference it makes to you. You need to be brave in starting up your own business,
but you can’t make the brave decisions if you are to the wire financially. So being to
Ray Dalio, a super successful fund manager, says you are smart if you think about the wire causes stress, and that mindset is not the best one for making smart
investing like seasons. There will be Winter, but it will be followed by Spring. And decisions. If you’re living without a safety net, you’re living on the “financial” edge—
what you must do is to spread the risk so you don’t lose when everyone else does. hoping to get by without running into a crisis. A crisis always tends to happen when
In essence, don’t have all your eggs in one basket. Diversify. you can least afford it. The problem with plans is life doesn’t always follow them.
A butcher. There is a white board animation by High Tower that uses the analogy of butchers How to get 1 Fear regret more than change.
Or a dietician who sell meat to dieticians who give advice on what foods to eat. In financial the strength 2 Embrace uncertainty.
services, brokers are like butchers that sell financial products, and fiduciaries are to leave a 3 Become your own role model.
like dieticians giving advice in your best interests. So, the question to ask is this. Is salary 4 Learn to spend less than you earn.
my financial advisor a butcher or a dietician? Is the person selling me what they 5 Save enough to give you six months of safety.
have in the shop, or are they giving me advice on what is the best financial advice 6 Remember this, being scared equals being alive.
for me? In the case of the butcher who only sells beef, we have no expectation they 7 Vulnerability is a strength.
would recommend fish, even if we have high blood pressure and fish is healthier for 8 There is never a right time. Damn.
the heart. However, when consulting a dietician, we expect healthy advice based on 9 Timing is 20%. The rest is psychology.
our own interests and needs. It’s good to know this. 10 You know enough. Put what you know into practice.
11 Strategy is direction. Hustle is speed. Don’t confuse the two.
Hack your As of July 2015, the average home was £257,000. Even at 6% interest and 20% down, 12 Tell yourself you can’t. Or tell yourself you can. You know which one ends better.
mortgage your overall interest payments will end up costing you over £238,000 – doubling 13 The clock is ticking. Can you hear it?
the cost of the home over the life of the loan. This means that a £285,000 home ac- 14 Fear failure to start more than failure to succeed.
tually costs you a whopping £570,000. 15 Before you can convince others, convince yourself.
16 You will have to raise your standards. Then maintain them.
We think of interest as a small percentage, but we don’t see the compound impact of 17 Comfort zones kill.
interest. How would you like to put £285,000 – or a million pounds – aside for your 18 Exercise gets you ready for each day.
retirement without making any other investments? 19 Emotionally fit. Physically fit. Financially fit. These three determine your success.
20 Find your love. Then get good at it.
It’s easy; make small principal–only payments each month in addition to your usual 21 The quality of your questions will change your life.
mortgage payment and watch your mortgage get cut in half. For example, if your 22 Master worry. To do your best work, you will have to care the most and at the
average home monthly payment is £1,233, then you’d write an additional cheque of same time, care the least.
£123 to go toward the principal amount. That means you never pay interest on that 23 Master time. It’s time to focus. Switch the Wi-Fi off for three hours a day.
principal, which will save you hundreds of thousands over the (now much shorter) 24 Master you. If you can do that, nothing can stop you.
life of your loan. 25 Life is short. Regrets are long.

Be so smart to admit that you are not that smart
Fees matter The stock market is a smart way to invest your money. But, picking winners is tricky.
For example, 96% of actively managed mutual funds fail to beat the market. To be
clear, when we say beat the market, we mean a stock index. Be it S&P 500 Index in
USA or Top 100 Index in UK.
But if you invested in a low-cost index fund, then the odds are more in your favour.
Even Warren Buffett, a star picker of undervalued stocks, said when he passes away,
the money in trust for his wife should be invested only in indexes so that it minimises
her costs and maximises her upside.
Brokers take fees. Mutual funds take fees. Fees matter. Be smart, and spread the risk David invested £100,000 Jane invested £100,000 Joe invested £100,000
with a low-cost index linked fund.

What the majority of people don’t realise is that an increase in 1% in fees will cost you
10 years in retirement income! (see diagram opposite).
with 3% fees = with 2% fees = with 1% fees =
So, find a low fee disruptor. One example I have come across to is Vanguard UK.
There are plenty of them. Go find the best one for you. You need to get an
independent financial advisor who doesn’t make money from selling you products
but by giving you advice.
£574,349 £761,225

Three workmates at age 35 all At age 65, this is where they Same investment, same returns,
have £100,000 to invest. Each land. And suddenly, those small and Joe has nearly twice as much
selects a different mutual fund, differences in their respective money as his friend David!
and all three are lucky enough to fees suddenly add up.
have equal performance in the
market of 8% annually.
8 hours
Create After I had sold the old company, I had one year before I could start again. So, for a
assets year, I tried to figure out what I was going to do. I put one single post-it note on the
door, so when I closed the door when I was working inside, I would look at it and it
would remind me of my focus. It said Create Assets.
to sleep.

And here’s the thing to remember. Selling time is not going to make you rich.
But may well make you tired. Each day comes with 86,400 seconds. Half of that time
you are sleeping. Two days a week you have off. And, that is why you don’t sell time
8 hours
for a living. Because it doesn’t scale. It means you are doing more, but there is only
one of you.

So, let’s start again. What can you do that scales?

to work.
Good How can I create a platform?
questions How can I create a service?
How can I create a subscription service?
How can I create a brand?
8 hours
Can I write a book?
How can I get a following?
Can I build a newsletter?
Or can I create an online workshop?
to play.

Dumb What’s my day rate?
question

A cautionary Assets need to make money as they go, not just when you sell that company or
note about service. An asset that provides you with an income as you go can be sustained.
creating Even if it’s not much. Don’t treat it like a hobby. Treat it like it needs to pay its way.
assets Treat it with respect. And it will respect you too. Ultimately, you are creating
something that can be scaled without you turning up to make it happen. And
who knows it may give you an income for life. Or even, a life-changing cheque if
you should one day decide to sell it.

Build your This is a connected world. And your success will depend on your network.
platform Invest in it. Build it. Maintain it.
before you The best time to start building it was 20 years ago.
need it The next best is today.
What trends or products have you seen?

What did you see before that went on to be big?
What trends have you noticed?
How many have you backed?
1,000 true fans explained Build your army
This is a theory about the entertainment business put forward by Kevin Kelly, the Ryan Holiday “In my definition, a platform is the combination of the tools, relationships, access,
founder of Wired magazine. “A creator, such as an artist, musician, photographer, Insight on and audience that you have to bear on spreading your ideas—not just once, but over
craftsperson, performer, animator, designer, video maker, or author – in other words, your platform the course of a career. So a platform is your social media and the stage you stand on,
anyone producing works of art – needs to acquire only 1,000 true fans to make a living. but it also includes your friends, your body of work, the community your work exists
in, the media outlets and influencers who appreciate what you do, your email list, the
A true fan is defined as someone who will purchase anything and everything you trust you’ve built, your sources of income, and countless other assets. A platform is
produce. They will drive 200 miles to see you sing. They will buy the super deluxe what you cultivate and grow not just through your work, but for creative work,
re-issued hi-res box set of your stuff even though they have the low-res version. They whatever it may be.”
have a Google Alert set for your name. They bookmark the eBay page where your
out-of-print editions show up. They come to your openings. They have you sign their This is the reason that if I could give a prospective creative only one piece of advice
copies. They buy the t-shirt, and the mug, and the hat. They can’t wait ’til you issue about platform, it would be this: Build a list. Specifically, an email list. Why? Imagine
your next work. They are true fans. that, for reasons entirely outside of your control, there was a media and industry
blackout of your work. Imagine that, due to some controversy or sudden change
One thousand is a feasible number. You could count to 1,000. If you added one fan a in public tastes, you were suddenly persona non-grata. Imagine if no publisher, no
day, it would take only three years. True fanship is doable. Pleasing a true fan is crowdfunding platform, no retailer, no distributors, and no investors would touch
pleasurable, and invigorating. It rewards the artist to remain true, to focus on the what you’ve made.
unique aspects of their work, the qualities that true fans appreciate.
Think about a band like Iron Maiden—radio hasn’t played their kind of music since
My view on the importance of a 1,000 true fans is not in just they help your sales, the mid 80’s. MTV hasn’t played their kind of videos in almost as long. But in that
but for me it’s bigger than that, these are the people who will tell your story for you. time they’ve put out a dozen albums which have sold millions of copies. How?
Social media is great but you can’t spread the word on your own. They have signed up Because their relationship was directly with their audience. They had a platform.
for the fight. They are on your side. They want your way to win. They have an enormous email list.

An army of 1,000 can fight better than an army of one. As creators, to do our work without a platform is to be at the mercy of other people’s
permission. As business people, to not have a platform means we are dependent on
having a certain job, or backing. Someone else must fund us, someone else must give
us the green light, someone else must choose to let us make our work. To a creative
person, that is death. It’s not a career, it’s a dependency. Having an audience that we
own? That we’re bound together with like hand and fist? That is life. Yet as I’ve said
before: this does not just happen. It must be built.”
Buy his new book: Perennial Seller.

Insight From Andreas Antonopoulos
When the internet came along in 1995, the cynics said it would change nothing. It
would only be used for gambling, for drug dealers and for pornography. And now
they say the exact the same thing about bitcoin and crytopcurrencies.

The following Bitcoin isn’t money.
insights are The Blockchain isn’t a system of currency.
from the It is a platform of trust.
visionary
Andreas It is not a company.
if bees
Antonopoulos It is not a product.
It is not a service you sign up for.
It is not a currency. That is just its first application.
It is the concept of decentralisation applied to the human communication of value.
were paid
Bitcoin introduces what is a completely decentralised system. It is not money for the
internet, it is the internet of money.
Money is language we use to communicate value, and it allows us to express value and
minimum
create social bonds. Bitcoin is the first system of money that is not controlled by any
entity and that is completely decentralised.
wage for their

It completely separates it from all previous notions of nations, sovereign issuers,
institutions that control. So, we go from institution-based money to network-based
money. It is the first system of money that is completely global, completely decentralised,
completely borderless, completely open. You can build applications because this money
is programmable.
You don’t need to ask permission. When you push innovation to the edges of the network,
when you remove the requirement for permission, exponential explosion of innovation
occurs, applications that could not be built because they required permission or a large
labour, a jar of
honey would
niche, can now be built.
It does not recognise borders, it does not recognise people.
cost £130,000
What is money?
(a store of value?)
The History Five major changes in 10,000 years. 7 The Bitcoin whitepaper was made open to the public under the pseudonym of
of money Satoshi Nakamoto. The identity of Satoshi is still a mystery yet to be solved.
1 Barter As of 3rd January 2018, Nakamoto holds 1 million Bitcoins, equivalent to $16.5 billion
2 Precious metals
3 Paper money 8 No one person controls Bitcoin, it exits on a blockchain.
4 Plastic money
5 And now, network money 9 Bitcoins are kept in software wallets.

When you push innovation to the edges, when you remove the requirement for 10 Bitcoin is a digital currency that exists outside the banking infrastructure.
permission, exponential explosion of innovation occurs. Money is entering its
fifth stage. 11 Bitcoin was created by people not a government.

23 Facts We can ridicule it. We can ignore it. We can call it names. But it is coming. 12 Bitcoin was released in 2009.
about So, what does all this mean?
Bitcoin 13 Miners solve complex maths problems and create bitcoins.
1 On 22 May 2010, two Papa John’s Pizzas were exchanged by Laszlo Hanyecz for
10,000 BTC. This was the first official documented purchase of goods using bitcoins. 14 Bitcoin is only one of hundreds of cryptocurrencies.
At that time, the worth of 10,000 BTC was $41.
At the time of writing this article, the worth of 10,000 BTC is around $25.8 million. 15 Bitcoin is the most popular and the first mover in the blockchain/cryptocurrency
space.
2 There will only ever be 21 million bitcoins.
At present, 16.3 million have already been mined and are being traded. The last 16 According to the experts, Bitcoin network has a computing power of 2,046,364
Bitcoin will be mined in 2140. After that, no new Bitcoins can be mined. Pflop/s. This is my personal favourite fact about bitcoin. If you go ahead and combine
the computing power of the 500 most powerful supercomputers, you’ll get a
3 Bitcoin can’t be banned. Due to the nature of Bitcoin, there is constant talk combined fever of 274 Pflop/s.
about “banning” it. This hostility towards Bitcoin is because it works outside the
jurisdiction of the traditional banking system. However, the fundamental design is 17 Bitcoins generated as a reward for mining halves every 4 years until all Bitcoins are
such that it can’t be banned, only regulated. As long as you have an internet fully mined.
connection and a Bitcoin wallet, you can engage in Bitcoin.
18 A new block of coins is solved every ten minutes which leads to about six new
4 Bitcoins are mined on the blockchain network, and they come into existence discoveries of Bitcoins per hour.
when miners successfully mine Bitcoin blocks. At present, the mining power of
Bitcoin’s network is 300 times more powerful than the world’s top five 19 A bitcoin transfer is irreversible
supercomputers combined.
20 1% of the Bitcoin community controls 99% of the world’s Bitcoin wealth.
5 If you lose your Bitcoin private key, you lose your bitcoins.
21 The Winklevoss twins (best known for their lawsuit against Mark Zuckerberg) own
6 Bitcoin is untraceable and Bitcoin is not untraceable.When making Bitcoin 1% of all Bitcoins in existence and started investing in them when they were only $9
transactions, your name/identity is not used in any form. Only your public address per coin.
is available. But the Bitcoin blockchain is a permanent ledger which is transparent.
If anyone knows your Bitcoin public address, they can see how many bitcoins you 22 64% of Bitcoins have never been used. And may never be used.
hold and what transactions you have made.
23 From March 2015 to February 2017, Bitcoin transactions are up by 1289%.
Understand where you are. Find a role model who is living the life you want
And where you need to be.
Where are you? Be honest. It is what it is, right. But don’t make it worse than it is. You don’t If you want to climb a mountain, talk to someone who has already climbed it. So one
And, the first step is the one to take. Because that is the hardest. have reinvent of the best ways to leave a salary, change career, start something, is to find people that
the wheel you look up to who have already done it, and work out how they did it.
Where Is your pension what you think it is?
are you Is you playing the stock market the answer when an index linked fund beats it every You just have to find someone who has made the wheel work for them. But the vital
actually? time? thing here is this: learn from the best. Because they got there fastest, and made the
Are your assets providing an income? biggest impact. Remember this, success leaves clues. These people all have healthy
What are your outgoings? egos. They will have written blogs, books, made films etc. Devour them. Follow them.
How can they be reduced? And you will be successful like them.
How can you swap your expensive lifestyle for a more frugal one?

How do you If there are seven forms of wealth, Ask someone Whatever you want in life, someone has already discovered how to get it — and you
define wealth? how do you rank yourself out of 10? who can help want to figure out what they are doing right. Someone can likely save you time and
you. But help pain with the knowledge they’ve gained in their own experiences, but understand
1 Physical wealth them also. that their time is valuable.
2 Emotional wealth
3 The wealth of relationships First, figure out how you can help them, add value to their life, and then they will
4 The wealth of time be more likely to help you.
5 The wealth of work/career/mission
6 Financial wealth People who They’re doing something different from anyone else. They have a strategy that
7 The wealth of contribution succeed works, and if you follow their strategy and you sow the same seeds, then you’ll
consistently reap the same rewards.
Good 1 What is financial security? are not lucky Study them.
questions 2 What is financial independence?
3 What is financial freedom?
What is your Are you on the right path?

blueprint for
where you 1 Where do you want to be in one year?
would like 2 Where do you want to be in five years?
to be? 3 Where do you want to be in 10 years?
Why do givers get lucky?
Life is about This is a story about a man who in 1994 had become a big fan of an unknown band
giving, how and wanted to help them become popular. So he built them a website.
you never
much are Hundreds of thousands of fans visited it when this unknown band suddenly became
you going to a huge deal. That band was Green Day.
give and
to whom? The website became so popular that Green Day’s manager contacted the fan who
built it and asked if they could make it the band’s official page. The response was
know
’Great; it’s all yours’. He just gave it to them. A year earlier, one of the visitors to the
website had written an email to him to suggest that Green Day was just pop music.
And they should be able to find more than just Green Day if you were a real punk fan.
who is
So, a series of links were added to the website, so fans of real punk had more choice.
The name of the fan who built Green Day’s website was Adam Rifkin. Some five years
swimming
later, Adam emailed the fan of who had sought to educate him on what real punk was,
and had a meeting with him.

The name of the person who had emailed him was Graham Spencer. He started
Excite which went on to become one of the early web portals and search engine.
So when Adam asked him for advice on his internet start-up, he agreed to meet him
naked
because he had helped him. Graham introduced Adam to a venture capitalist, who
ended up funding his startup.

Key Adam helped Graham without expecting anything in return.
takeaways He thought Graham was a mohawk-donning punk fan but took the time to help him.
He gave Green Day the website because he was a fan.

until the
As a side note, when Adam Rifkin was asked how a random set of emails back in 1999
had led to his company getting founded in 2,000 he recalls ’Givers get lucky.’
This story and much more is from a book called Give and Take by Adam Grant. It’s a
great book. And, it may change how we think about how you run your companies.
tide goes out.

Giving is a Give because it makes you feel good. Give because you can. But the best giving is
great when you do so without expecting a return. But know this, givers get lucky. Put your
strategy. But trust in that. Trust in the remarkableness of the human spirit.
Being human Say happy Monday. Ask how are you? How was the week? Not everything has to be a
is a strategy transaction. Be human. Not a brand. The best relationships and the longest lasting
are where value is given freely with no expectation of a return.

Listening is The person at the dinner party who only talks about himself never gets invited back.
a strategy We have all been there. That guest who spends hours talking about themselves. They
are on transmit. And you have no choice but to be on receive. And when you call them
a taxi, you make a mental note not to invite them back again. Giving is a long-term
strategy. That’s why so few adopt it. Warren Buffett
3
Physical If you want to be strong in the mind, you need to be strong in the body.
You will have to form the habit to make your default to be that you
fitness make your body stronger, more agile, leaner each day. Here is the
simple rule, it doesn’t have to be a big thing, but it does have to be an
everyday thing. A daily practice that becomes your habit. A tiny habit
that becomes a regular thing will do more for you than an occasional
big thing.
Reframe If you ask people, and we have, why they aren’t they fit, it isn’t the
time lack of desire. They know it is important. They get it. To look after
our family, to look after our business, our career, we need to be
physically fit. We all take out an insurance policy against getting ill,
but the best insurance of all is prevention. Exercise is the best form
prevention. Combine that with a great diet and you are looking
after yourself. And, that’s good because you need to look after lots
of people. But the one I hear more than any other for the reason not
to exercise is this: time.
We don’t have time to look after ourselves. We are too busy to look
after ourselves. So, if time is the barrier, how do we reframe that?
How much time do we need to find each day to make a difference?
For example, there is a seven minute workout that is available as an
app. It is the equivalent of one hours of exercise. So, can you spare
seven minutes? And what if you did that everyday?
Reasons to exercise when you just don’t want to
Because you know you’ll feel better.

Because exercise improves cognitive function.
Because fresh air.
Because you’ll get better at setting and reaching goals.
Because it’s free.
Because you have the best ideas when you sweat. Fact.
Because you’ll never be bored again.
Because you owe it to your loved ones and most importantly to yourself.
Because you have a marathon to run in six months. You don’t? Well, why not?
Because workout glow.
Because a zombie apocalypse may happen and you need to be prepared.
Because you are frustrated, stressed, have spouts of anxiety or all of the above
and you know it will significantly reduce these feelings.
Because adventure.
Because your sneakers have been feeling deserted lately. Do it for the sneakers.
Because it’s your you-time.
Because you’ll perform better at work.
Because your sex life will thank you.
Because you’ll have a better night’s sleep.
Because it prevents diabetes.
Because you will lower your risk of cancer. (A real-life life-hack).
Because you can do it alone or with a team.
Because sometimes it’s a game and we should all play more.
Because your future-self will thank you.
Because you need an excuse to check out that new gym, park, trail, pool.
Because you are way stronger than you think you are.
Because there’s a lion behind you, run!
Because endorphins.
Because dedication.
Because you do what you are. (healthy, vibrant, determined, strong, athletic)
Because you made a promise to yourself and self integrity is the root of all integrity.
Because what a beautiful thing it is that the human body takes care of us
if we take care of it.
Because you’re thinking too hard. It’s time to get out there and sweat.

Super athletes Mindset
As a means of inter-village communication, transportation, and hunting, Mexico’s Hotel Hotel cleaners spend a good amount of their days engaged in physical activity.
Northwest tribe the Tarahumara have developed a tradition of long-distance cleaners on From moving heavy equipment around long hallways, walking up endless flights
running, sometimes up to 200 miles in one go. They call themselves Rarámuri which perception of stairs, and constantly moving furniture around, on top of many other physically
translates to “the running people.” Their long distance running isn’t made easier by demanding tasks.
the terrain they call home. The Sierra Madre mountains are rugged, complex, and
adorned with foot paths the Rarámuri have worn into the land. Wearing sandals made It is interesting to note, that when asked in a study done by Harvard psychologist
from deer skin or found tyres (Huraches), these super athletes break all preconceived Ellen Langer, most of these women don’t see themselves as physically active.
notions of human physical potential. What is their super athlete diet you ask? During 67% reported they didn’t exercise.
harvest they consume corn beer increasing hydration and glycogen status - high in
carbohydrates. Beans are one of their protein staples and are often taken with them Despite the fact that all of the women in the study far exceeded the US Surgeon
on long journeys. And meat such as fish chicken and squirrel constitutes less than 5% General’s recommendation for daily exercise, the bodies of the women did not seem
of their diet. Hydration. High Protein. And the slightest sliver of meat. Noted. to benefit from their activity.
Physical A four-minute mile means completing a mile run (1,760 yards, or 1,609.344 metres) in Langer and her team took measurements of the cleaners. From body fat to waist to
and mental less than four minutes. It means running at 15 miles per hour. Or 22 feet per second. hip ratio, to BMI, and blood pressure. All of these indicators matched the cleaners’
barriers But there was a time where this was a huge barrier. perceived amount of exercise, rather than their actual amount of exercise.
After Roger Bannister beat the almost impossible record of under four minutes a These 84 cleaners were then divided into two groups. The first group were shown
mile in 1954, it stopped becoming a huge barrier and in the last 50 years the mile how many calories their daily tasks burned and were informed that their daily level
record has been lowered by almost 17 seconds, and currently stands at 3:43.13. of physical activity surpassed the Surgeon General’s recommendation and actually
constituted them as athletes. The second group was given no information at all.
Pain is 37 runners broke the four minute mile after Roger did.
a friend Just one month later, Langer’s team returned to take more measurements. The
findings were surprising to say the least. The group that was educated saw a decrease
in blood pressure, weight, and waist-to-hip ratio, whereas the second group had no
major changes.
The conclusion made by Langer’s team was this: If you believe you are exercising,
your body may respond as if it is. It’s the same as if you believe you are getting
medication when you are actually getting a sugar pill – your body can sometimes
respond as if a placebo is actually working.
This leads us to ponder even further about the physical reality of our bodies and how
mindset can be incredibly formative.
Tendai Buddhist Monks
Circling the mountain, also know as Kaihõgyõ is an ascetic practice performed by HIIT versus You don’t have to choose. And the best thing you can do, is not choose at all. Although
Tendai Buddhist monks. A practice that involves walking/running a route on Mount cardio each type of work out makes massive improvements to one’s health, sticking to just
Hiei (the location of the Tendai school headquarters) while offering prayers at halls, versus High Intensity Interval Training, or just Cardio, or just Weight Training is the least
shrines and other sacred places. weight effective (and most dangerous) choice in keeping your fitness goals well-rounded.
training
1,000 days of walking/running meditation and prayer. Seven years. 26 miles a day for Each specialisation serves its own purpose. HIIT is a series of sprints, rests and
periods of either 100 or 200 consecutive days. The total distance is relative to walking repeats which is good for burning fat, building muscle, and improving metabolism.
around the entire the circumference of the Earth. Cardio is the aerobic form of exercise, with a sustained steady state, think running,
swimming, biking, etc. These activities are great for your heart as well as weight loss.
The following is an outline of the seven years: Weight training uses resistance to promote strength which builds muscles to burn
fat, as well as increasing strength in joints and connective tissues, making you less
Years 1–3 Run 30 km per day (about 18 miles) for 100 straight days. prone to injury.

Years 4–5 Run 30 km per day for 200 straight days. Modern day Modern day footwear can wreak havoc on the feet and even more on alignment, hips,
footwear ankles, knees, and back.
After completing the fifth year of running the monk then goes nine days with no food, for runners
water, or rest. Beside him are two monks that assure he does not fall asleep. If your shoes are constricting your toes, you have high chances of experiencing heel
strike and joint stress. Numbers for hip and knee replacements are significantly on
Year 6 Run 60 km (about 37 miles) per day for 100 straight days. the rise. Blisters, bunions, nerve damage, and arthritis all surround the dark side of
wearing modern footwear. Past the glamour of the perfect running shoe, there has
Year 7 Run 84 km (about 52 miles) per day for 100 straight days. Then, run 30 km per day been one recent and not so recent idea gaining momentum. Running barefoot.
for the final 100 days.
Studies have shown that barefoot runners are likely to have fewer musculoskeletal
This is where it gets a bit extreme: during the first 100 days of running, the monk injuries. They were shown to have a further range of motion in the foot, and more
is able to withdraw from the challenge. distribution developed from flexing, spreading and gripping the surface of whatever
ground they were on. There are between 100,000 and 200,000 receptors in the foot
However, from Day 101 onwards, the monk must either complete the Kaihõgyõ that signal to your brain the adjustments that need to be made to protect bones,
or take his own life. joints, as well as make you a more efficient traveller. Modern shoes are suspected to
interrupt this natural brain-to- body process.
A rope and a short sword are carried at all times on their journey.
The verdict is still out, but it seems the surplus in footwear studies keep backing
In over 400 years, only 46 men have completed the challenge. up a transition to a more natural and instinctive footwear approach.
Now, to make toed running shoes as sleek as modern footwear.
1 If something is important to you, complete it. If not, be done with it.
2 Commit to nothing, be distracted by everything.
3 Time doesn’t matter, just get started.
Hack your breathing
Let’s start this section with a small breathing exercise
Step 1 Sit upright, slowly exhale, get oxygen out of your lungs.
Focus and be conscious of what you’re doing.
Step 2 Inhale four counts slowly and deeply through your nose until your lungs
are completely full. Feel the air move into your abdomen.
Step 3 Hold your breath for a slow count to four.
Step 4 Exhale through your mouth for the same slow count of four.
Expel air from lungs and abdomen. Be conscious of the air leaving your lungs.
Step 5 Hold your breath for four counts before repeating this process.
Repeat steps 1 to 5 four more times.
This is Box Breathing. It is used by many as a way to calm the nerves, improve mental
focus and attention, warm up the lungs, and improve mind and body control.
The best thing about this technique: it can be done anywhere. Try it out over the next
few days and let us know how you get on.
A conscious 20,000. That’s the number of times a day we inhale and exhale unconsciously. Oxygen
effort gets absorbed by our blood, Carbon dioxide is dissolved. The amount of oxygen we
inhale, correlates with energy released into our body’s cells.
What gets interesting is when we consciously take part in our breathing patterns,
specifically in areas of physical exertion and other moments of fitness activity and
wellbeing practices. In full workout mode, it becomes harder to concentrate on
breathing alone, which is why it is always good to prime yourself with deep breathing
during the warm-up phase of your fitness regimen.
Each type of activity from Cardio to HIIT has its own best breathing technique to
supply our muscles with the optimal amount of oxygen at the most intense moments.
For cardio, make sure to breathe from your belly without letting your chest rise or
fall. For weight training, you want to exhale when you exert energy, so, exhale while
pushing the weight away from your body and inhale while pulling it towards your
body. During yoga you want to inhale when opening the front of the body and exhale
when compressing the front of the body. In through your nose, out through your nose
(with the exception of a few yoga poses where mouth exhales are encouraged). For
HIIT it’s a series of focused deep breaths.
Although each form of exercise hails a different breathing method, one thing remains
the same, and that’s priming. Taking a moment to consciously think about your
breathing and your body as a system has significant benefits both while working out
and while in a state of rest.
Hydration In order to have a good workout you need to be hydrated. This means before, during, pH levels A number of recent studies have stressed the importance of our pH levels,
and after physical activity you are drinking that magical clear liquid we sometimes specifically of our body’s fluids, cells, and tissues, favouring a slightly alkaline pH.
take for granted. Being hydrated will improve the quality of your workout, reduce
fatigue, and reduce recovery time. Water makes up 75% of your muscles and losing Lower, acidic pH levels are linked with conditions such as heart disease, type two
just 2% of your body weight in fluid during exercise can decrease performance by up diabetes, bone loss and obesity. Higher, alkaline pH levels are linked to improved
to 25%. cognition and memory, better sleep, good digestion, and lower risk of hypertension
and stroke.
To be hydrated means your body temperature is regulated, your joints are cush-
ioned, oxygen and nutrients are being transported to your cells, your organs and When it comes to exercise, low PH levels can limit endurance while accumulating
tissues are protected, and your nitty gritty waste removal process is taken care of. lactic acid is directly related to pain and fatigue.
Water is a resource, a life-source, an energy source, and a vital molecular compound
that allows not just humanity to thrive, but all forms of life. Diet, as for most things, is the most direct way to impact and balance pH levels.
Some immediate adjustments to make are increasing intake of fresh produce,
If for some reason however, all these benefits don’t cut it for you, and you are feeling beans, and seeds, reconsidering grains and bread full stop, saying no to artificial
extra ’anti-water’, just think about the cosmos and how this amazing clear liquid, sweeteners, only saving the condiments for special occasions, and reducing all that
that allows you to LIVE, was brought here by asteroids and comets. That’s correct, alcohol, dairy, and coffee in your life.
the liquid you need to survive was sent here from the depths of the galaxy. The next
time you see water streaming out of the tap, we give you permission to stand in awe. Your body is naturally 80% alkaline, 20% acidic. Diets emulating the same ratio
(Disclaimer: turn off the tap before immobilised universal wonderment). are encouraged.
GI index The Glycemic index is a carbohydrate rating system, showing how quickly different But, diet isn’t the only way to maintain good pH levels. Stress and breathing make
foods affect your blood sugar (glucose) levels when eaten on their own. In order to a big difference too. When we are stressed we sometimes go into a state of shallow
prevent diseases like diabetes, risk of cancer and keep an all around healthy lifestyle, breathing. When too much carbon dioxide is built up in our systems it can
a low glycemic index diet is optimal. Low GI foods include: fruits, vegetables, nuts, ultimately lead to a more acidic internal environment. Make sure to breathe a little
beans, minimally processed grains, low-fat dairy food. High GI foods include: white deeper from now on.
bread, rice cakes, breakfast cereals, bagels, crackers, doughnuts, etc. Low GI foods
help you stay full for longer and keep your blood sugar even. About 60-90 minutes So. How do you know your body’s pH levels? You’re in luck, pH strips are available at
before a workout it’s good to have low to medium GI carbohydrates, to give your your local pharmacy. Grab a box and check up on yourself from time to time.
body time to digest. About the only time it’s ideal to eat High GI foods is about 30
minutes before an intense workout to boost immediate energy resources.
Your second brain
The biggest achievement of this century won’t be self-driving cars, it won’t be AI, it
won’t be space travel. The biggest achievement of this century will be the learnings of
and explorations into our second brain, the gut. Yes you read that correctly. You can
let us know in 100 years if we were wrong.
Although we still only know little about our first brain, we have only just scratched
the surface of brain #2’s intricacies.
ENS Three very important letters. They stand for Enteric Nervous System. The ENS
responds to emotions, both sends and receives impulses, records experiences,
acts independently, learns, remembers, and produces feelings. The ENS is a
complex network of proteins, neurons, and support cells. The ENS produces
neurotransmitters like serotonin, dopamine, enkephalins (from the endorphins
family), and more. The ENS contains over 100 million nerve cells. The ENS is also
in the gut.
The gut is directly connected to the brain’s emotional and cognitive centres.
So, gut feeling? That’s real. The brain and gut work as a system both educating
each other on the state of your wellbeing. Both physically and mentally.
What we do know right now about the gut? Stress is bad. Processed food is bad.
Gluten is bad. Probiotics are good. Sleep is good. Vegetables and fruits are good.
And we need to start paying much more attention to this complex ecosystem.
There are so many important bits of information we don’t have room to put into this
manual, but we encourage you to do some gut research yourselves. More is being
discovered by the day.
To start, we recommend this book of lovely gut knowledge:

Gut: The Inside Story of Our Body’s Most Underrated Organ by Giuila Enders
Food/ It’s no news that protein is an essential nutrient in our diets. Protein plays a key part
energy/ in providing energy as well as building and repairing muscle tissue. For ultra-ath-
protein letes, the word protein might as well be tattooed on their hands as a reminder every
time they are cooking or every time they pick up a piece of food.
What does seem like news however, is the real fact that protein doesn’t just come
from meat. Pause everything. You’ve read this correctly. We have been convinced
that our bodies need protein from one source and only one source and that’s just not
true. For instance. Gorillas. They’re vegetarian (aside from the occasional ant). And
I’m positive we can agree there is no lack of muscle there. So if you consume animal
products or if you don’t, worry not, you are still able to get the amount of protein you
need to maintain an active and nourished lifestyle. This can be thanks in part to: nuts,
spinach, quinoa, avocados, beans, seeds, kale, melon, whole grains, and various other
foods that everyone can eat.
Cold exposure Cold showers
By taking cold showers and baths you aren’t just healing your muscles
at a quicker rate, you are also contributing to a long list of body benefits
Due to increased levels of cortisol, when being exposed to extreme cold, If you are new to cold exposure, just end your warm shower with 15–30 seconds
inflammatory proteins in our bodies become non-existent. People that take cold with cold water only. Begin with your feet and then follow with your legs, your
showers every day have more white blood cells in comparison to those that don’t. stomach, shoulders, neck, and back. An initial shock, shivering and hyperventilation
White blood cells fight diseases. Cold exposure has also been linked to higher is normal. Try to remain calm and breathe easily. Close your eyes and really try to
metabolic rates throughout longer periods of time, activated immune systems, embrace the cold. Don’t pour the cold water over the head if you are not used to cold
and reduced soreness. So really, what are we all waiting for? exposure. If you feel any strong physical uncomfortableness, like heavy shivering,
numbness or pain, get your body warm again as soon as possible. Cold exposure
How to master cold showers works like weight lifting, you get stronger over time. There are little muscles around
your veins that contract when they get into contact with the cold. After some time
Get Sit in a meditation posture, whatever is most comfortable for you. Make sure you can (only 1–2 weeks according to Wim) these become stronger, making your veins
comfortable expand your lungs freely without feeling any constriction. It is recommended to do healthier and reducing the force that your heart has to use to pump blood around
this practice right after waking up since your stomach is still empty or before a meal. your body. You can increase exposure over time. At one point the cold will feel just
as comfortable as wearing your favourite pyjamas and you can skip the warm
30 power Imagine you’re blowing up a balloon. Inhale through the nose or mouth and shower completely. Notice how you feel amazing after a cold shower and sluggish
breaths exhale through the mouth in short but powerful bursts. Keep a steady pace and use after a warm one.
your midriff fully. Close your eyes and do this around 30 times. Symptoms could be
light-headedness, tingling sensations in the body. Recovery Working out is partially us creating microscopic tears in our muscles to make our
muscles stronger and partially putting stress on specific areas of our body at one
The hold, After the 30 rapid successions of breath cycles, draw the breath in once more and time. The body strengthens and repairs itself between workouts. If you are working
retention fill the lungs to maximum capacity without using any force. Then let the air out and out often, you’ll need some speedy recovery methods. The following can aid in that
after hold for as long as you can without force. Hold the breath until you experience the speedy recovery:
exhalation gasp reflex.
• Stretch.
Recovery Inhale to full capacity. Feel your chest expanding. When you are at full capacity, hold • Replenish fluids.
breath the breath for around ten seconds and this will be round one. The breathing exercise • Consume Protein.
can be repeated three rounds after each other. • Get quality sleep.
• Add some variation to your workout routine, to give certain muscles healing time.
After having completed the breathing exercise take your time to enjoy the feeling • Reduce stress.
afterward. This feeling will be more and more like a meditation. • Take naps.
• Massage it out ( therapist or foam rollers).
When you start doing these exercises we recommend to take your time recovering • Ice baths (once a week).
from the breathing exercise. After doing the breathing exercise and you feel good, • Compression garments such as NormaTec recovery attachments: massages limbs
you can start with taking the cold shower. and mobilises fluids through compression and massage patterns.
• Consume natural anti-inflammatory spices like turmeric and ginger.
Summary 30 times balloon blowing:
• Breathe in fully
• Breath out without force and hold until gasp reflex
• Inhale fully and hold for 10 seconds
• Repeat until finished and recover from the breathing exercise
• Bonus Power-ups

Cold After the body scan of the previous exercise, you are ready to let your body embrace
exposure the cold. It is very important to try to relax as much as you can, really be with the
cold, only then can your body process the signals and start thermogenesis.
As Wim says, “the cold is your warm friend!” Referenced from Iceman, Wim Hof
Worry and stress
Stress is certain. It will no doubt sneak up on each of us from time to time.

What isn’t certain? The way in which we handle it.
One way is to engage with and manage stress, harnessing it as a tool and actively
taking steps to soften our response. The other is to succumb to its intensities. Living
in the spouts of fear and self-doubt that can sometimes arise. The good news. We
have a choice between the two. As said by Epictetus, “It’s not what happens to you,
but how you react to it that matters.”
Our bodies need a stress response, they need to know when we’re in danger, but our
bodies also need to be able to tone down this response and ultimately turn it off.
The benefits are hard to dislike, just think of our addiction to a low-key stress
inducer called coffee. Stress can improve our performance, enhance our wellbeing,
and motivate us. Past stressful moments can also strengthen us for future moments.
Once you are put in a stressful situation, your brain is biologically hardwired to
learn how to handle and react if faced with a similar situation ever again. Emergency
responders, astronauts, and professional athletes use specific stress training to force
learning and growth at a quicker rate in order to prepare themselves to be more in
control when facing their daily high-stress situations.
The positive effects of stress, however, are short-term. If we carry stress with us for
a longer period of time we begin to blur the line between mind and body. If we aren’t
able to shut off our natural fight or flight response we become susceptible to being
debilitated by it. Chronic stress has been linked to cancer, disease, mental
illnesses, and weight gain. It has numerous effects on behavior and self-control.
If you are pregnant the hormones produced can even have long-term negative
effects on your child.
Worry and stress Meditation
So, how There are numerous ways to stop patterns of chronic stress in your life, but We are unable to restructure and change our thoughts and habits if we haven’t first
do you mindfulness is always the first step. When you feel a wave of stress coming on, try developed the ability to identify the source of our thoughts and habits. Simply to even
manage it? to recognise it immediately. Thank your body for trying to protect you. Ride the let these go, we must first know what they are.
stress out. Then take control. Do what you can to nip it in the tail the second it is
of no use to you. The following are great methods to try: Right below our conscious mind, are thoughts and feelings that can often guide the
majority of our decision making.
• Exercise.
• Meditation. Among so many other benefits, meditation is a proven method in accessing the root
• Eating the right foods. of our behaviours and thoughts, as well as learning to let these pass without influence
• Getting enough sleep. to our every day.
• Reading.
• Taking walks. Sometimes just being aware of certain thoughts and deciding they aren’t legitimate is
• Learning to say no. enough to deal with them.
• Breathing.
• Nature. Meditation creates a space in which we can redirect and ultimately silence our
• Prioritising. internal dialogue, allowing us to truly understand who we are, and understand
• Unplugging. who we need to be.
• Spending present time with loved ones.
After time, we can see the practices of meditation play out in our daily lives. Breath
So there it is. Freedom. is to meditation as the current task is to your work day as individual sentences and
You no longer have to hate stress, you simply have to manage it. thoughts are to your conversations.
We’d be good to think of the mind as a series of muscles. Strength in our focus, in-
tention, presence, and calm can only be improved through exercising those specific
muscles.
There are many different forms of meditation, from guided to mantra, some people
even find exercise brings them into a meditative state. It is good to try a few out to see
which ones suit you best. If you want something you can begin with right now,
try this beginners breathing meditation technique:
1 Set a timer anywhere from two to ten minutes.

2 Get into a comfortable position.
3 Observe the sensations of your breathing.
4 Follow your breath in through your nose, into your lungs, and out through your mouth.
5 No need to force your breathing, just observe.
6 Your mind will wander, that’s normal, when it does simply bring your attention
back to your breath.
Sleep
Feeling extra hungry today? Being a bit snappy? Has your ability to retain
information seemingly disappeared? These are just a few clear signs that you didn’t
get enough sleep last night.
Sleep is There’s no sneaking around pretending you got more than you did, your body knows
honest better and unfortunately others know too.
It’s no secret sleep deprivation has a long list of severe negative impacts, including
but not limited to: deficits in both short and long-term memory, weakened immune
systems, weight gain, shorter attention spans, increased risk of heart disease, spouts
of anxiety and depression, the list goes on.
Are you working into the wee hours of the night? Counterproductive. You loose your
next day’s productivity resulting in an endless cycle of catch-up.
Insomnia Take appropriate steps to fight it, try proven remedies, try unproven remedies, and
if nothing is working, seeking out professional help is a must. You deserve to have an
uninterrupted night of restorative rest, and it’s up to you to make it so. How then, can
you gear yourself up to be more in tune with your circadian rhythm?
Intention Sleep needs to be your priority. It sets the tone of your every day. Even though
everyone needs a different amount of sleep, studies have shown that anywhere
under 7 hours can be damaging to your body, mind, and overall health. We officially
know too much about the importance of sleep to not be proactive about it.
Here are different ways you can sleep with intention.

1 Have a set bed time every night.
2 Take naps during the day if you need to. No apologies. Try to make them 20 minutes
or less. Or in increments of 90 minutes.
3 Make sure you are getting over 7 hours of sleep each night. Optimally over 7.5.
4 Turn off all screens and devices well before you intend on snoozing. Your body
naturally produces melatonin before it’s time to sleep, screens inhibit this production.
5 Exercise daily. By the end of the day, your body will be prepared to rest and restore.
6 The last thing you see before bed and the first thing you see upon waking shouldn’t be
a screen. Invest in an alarm clock. Also, a notepad, to keep by your bedside for any last
minute ideas or thoughts you need to write down (not type down).
7 Meditate.
8 Read.
9 Take a walk.
10 One of our favourites: Have a pre-bed ritual or evening routine. Treat yourself
to a calm and restorative environment, stress-free before you drift off. Start at a
certain time, turn off all screens and only do things that help you get into a relaxed,
non-stimulating state (this means no screens). Read, light some candles, have a bath,
put some mellow music on, write about your day, write about your tomorrow, do
anything that will contribute to creating a time you look forward to each night.
The problem is
all inside your
head she said to me
The answer is easy
if you take it logically
I’d like to
help you
in your struggle
*50 Ways to Leave Your Lover Paul Simon
to be free*

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What are the three pillars for self-mastery according to the text?

What are the three pillars for self-mastery according to the text?

What does emotional fitness entail according to the text?

What does emotional fitness entail according to the text?

A user manual for creativity

This fitness requires the mastery of our emotions. A daily practice.

When we are in control of our emotions, no harsh words can

He who angers us, conquers us. We have to conquer the

And learn techniques to control your emotions. The mind can

To understand why we are all so complex,

80% of every decision is psychology. It is confidence, mindset, optimism

As a man thinketh, so he does.

Basketball Australian psychologist Alan Richardson made a little experiment. He took a

The results were astounding.

think, you are

then free to do the

you’ve ever done

XXXXXXXX What makes

A Stanford professor called BJ Fogg is leading the way in behaviour change.

having pain &

Disagree, but we don’t need to be disagreeable. John Wooden

Oh wait. Do you mean there is no escalator up to the top of the mountain?

The multiplier manifesto The daily battle

What trends or products have you seen?

Buy his new book: Perennial Seller.

It is the concept of decentralisation applied to the human communication of value.

wage for their

It does not recognise borders, it does not recognise people.

What is your Are you on the right path?

tide goes out.

Because you know you’ll feel better.

Let’s start this section with a small breathing exercise

Step 3 Hold your breath for a slow count to four.

To start, we recommend this book of lovely gut knowledge:

Stress is certain. It will no doubt sneak up on each of us from time to time.

1 Set a timer anywhere from two to ten minutes.

Here are different ways you can sleep with intention.

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