#16: stay in your comfort zone
What's on my mind
“Step out of your comfort zone” is too common to hear.
And a good model to follow to push past boundaries and grow.
Yet stepping out too frequently could mean not paying enough attention to what works for you.
What truly satisfies you.
Here’s an alternative:
Do seek the uncomfortable, but once you’ve reached a sweet spot, once you’ve found what works for you, stay there for a bit.
Or for as long as you need.
Until it no longer serves you. Or it feels too comfortable for your liking.
Then step out again.
Cherish the place you have taken the time to get to.
And only move forward when you think it’s getting out of sync.
As with most things in life, balance is key.
👋 Welcome to the 16th volume of Out of Curiosity, a weekly newsletter promoting ideas to help get 1% better everyday in work and life.
This week’s stories
⛰ How to be successful
1. Compound yourself
You have to be willing to let small opportunities go to to make room for step changes.
2. Have almost too much self-belief
If you don’t believe in yourself, it’s hard to let yourself have contrarian ideas about the future. And this is where most value gets created.
3. Learn to think independently
Give yourself a lot of chances to get lucky.
4. Get good at sales
The best way to be good at sales is to believe in what you’re selling.
5. Make it easy to take risk
Take risks early in your career; you don’t have much to lose, and potentially a lot to gain.
6. Focus
Figure out what to do, and then be unstoppable about getting your small handful of priorities, fast.
7. Work hard
One of the great joys in life is finding your purpose, excelling at it, and discovering that your impact matters to something larger than yourself.
8. Be bold
Be your most ambitious self, and don’t be afraid to work on what you really want to work on.
9. Be willful
Ask for what you want. You usually won’t get it, and often the rejection will be painful. But when this works, it works surprisingly well.
10. Be hard to compete with
You won't be hard to compete with if you mimic what everyone else is doing.
11. Build a network
Helping others as much as you can is an effective way to build a network.
12. You get rich by owning things
You get truly rich by owning things that increase rapidly in value, not by high salaries.
13. Be internally driven
This is the only force that will continue to drive you to higher levels of performance (after you've made enough money and gotten enough social status).
{15-min read}
⏳ Is it too late?
Time anxiety means your wellbeing is dependent on how much value you're creating with your life.
But could this "over-optimization" prevent you from creating the most value with the time we have on this planet?
To beat time anxiety, focus on shifting your focus from outcomes to outputs.
This way, you can spend your time and energy on what you can control. There are 3 ways to do this:
Define what activities contribute to "time well spent" for you
Make more time for these activities
Eliminate distractions
{4-min read}
🎬 All good things must begin
Austin Kleon looks back at the work of some outstanding writers to learn that even they needed an “ignite” to get to work!
The takeaway from it?
For any idea that’s on your mind—even if you don’t think it can be fully executed—write down what rings true to you about it.
Creative work is very hard, and some sort of self-deception is necessary simply in order to start.
{2-min read}
📰 Curators are the new creators
With how much content there's to consume, it's hard to stay focused and not feel like your'e missing out.
It's more important than ever to be selective. And separate signal from noise.
And it's fair to assume:
Curators are the new creators. And as consumers, we’re going to be willing to pay someone with good taste to help us sort through the ever-growing mass of information at our fingertips.
{6-min read}
I came across this article in this week's issue of BrainPint — One of the newsletters I look forward to receiving every week!
🥇Make time to do your best work
Deep work is rare.
To get more satisfaction from doing things (and feeling less stressed), you'll have to learn how to say no.
Saying no will give you more time to do less things, but do them well.
To do your best work, you have to commit all your attention to it for long periods of uninterrupted time.
And it won't be long before you realize your 3-hour deep work will be worth more than other people’s 8 hours!
Longer isn't always better.
{8-min read}
Final Thought
Until next week,
Reza 🍋