After last week’s soul-revealing, life reassuring post - many of you have reached out. Thank you.

Feedback, ideas, and words of encouragement were overflowing: #monthlyaction, #weeklyaction academy, accountability partners for the extra lazy of you, workshops, webinars, podcasts. All of which - I shall explore.

One thing stood out - a large proportion of my subscribers (the data confirms) read almost every newsletter. That is to say - you click on the title of the e-mails, you open them, and you read them. That is it. No action. No change. No actual self-development.

Reasons? “Can’t find the time”, “It is inspirational, and that is enough for me”, “It is hard to get myself to do the actions.”

To that, I can only say - get it together, because your current approach to changing your life is simply not going to work. This week’s action will explain why.

⚡ The Action

Take a look at the list of actions that we have already explored, it can be found here, and do the one that you want to do the least.

Pick the one that makes you question your whole existence and the one you found to be the most irrelevant, annoying, and borderline stupid. You must go towards things you fear if you are to change.

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🤔 The Why

My best friend recently told me this. If you are taking action and trying to solve your life problems, and yet - somehow the problems persevere and are reluctant to leave, well - then you might have a “Problem-Solving Method Selection Problem” or PSMSP for short. Yes, I just made that name up.

PSMSP is when you are simply choosing the wrong problem-solving methods. For instance, you might be taking actions that are inherently easy, as they make you feel good about yourself but are actually the wrong ones for your life. Maybe you meditate and feel good about it but take no real action. It is possible that you read a lot of books, but don’t actually change your daily routines. Perhaps you have explored your relationship with your parents in your head, but have not actually gone out to talk to them openly. The right actions, are often the ones you want to do the least.

For instance, as a mentor, and a coach - it always seemed a bit strange for me to get a mentor myself. Yet, having had the PSMSP realization - I decided that this is exactly what I must do - the first meeting is to take place next week.

So, this week’s challenge is to do something which you do not actually want to do, and you could pick it up from the list of previous #weeklyactions.

🍁 New Sections. New Format. What do you think?

Thanks to the previous post, I shall be playing around with the format. This edition is not going to have Lazy Mode, Personal or Professional Applications, etc.

Instead, I am going to explore with another section: “Personal Insight Of The Week”. Let me know what you think. I will only keep the sections someone comments on, and requests for it to stay.

💡 Insight Of The Week

Any shortcut taken, deprives you of opportunities for wisdom.

Other than the discovery of the PSMSP, I have been pondering on the concept of shortcuts, and on our desire to always get to our “goals” - quickly. To do that, people cheat, circumvent learning, and in general do everything possible in order to fasten and ease the difficulty of the process.

In reading Zen Mind, Beginners Mind, an example was given that often a student that gets everything quickly and speeds through their understanding will actually have less wisdom in the end, compared to the one who struggled through every minute of Zazen.

If people have difficulty without realizing they have difficulty, then that is true difficulty. - Zen Mind, Beginners Mind

Similarly, any shortcut - has a cost. The cost is the fact that you might gain something immediately, but because you will do so without the struggle, the fight, and difficulty - you will deprive yourself of the realization that it was you who achieved and created the wisdom, the learning, and the success.

Hence, I have come to peace with the idea of arriving to my destination at the right time, instead of getting there as quickly as possible. All shortcuts have a cost, and difficulty has hidden diamonds hidden within its menacing palms.

Take Action. Over and out,

Dima