Use Your Idiosyncrasies

Originally sent exclusively to The Letter subscribers on June 22nd. Want to be the first to get my personal newsletter in your inbox every Monday at 7am? Subscribe for free here.

Sometimes success takes less than ten years. Most of the time, it’s a marathon.

If you want more from life, business or yourself, you’ll often be handed bad news. Reframe it immediately. You won’t be handed bad news, you’ll be handed challenges.

Mediocre doesn’t present challenges. You’re not mediocre.

Success isn’t a straight line. It’s years of eating shit until, all of a sudden, your consistent and persistent behaviour pays off.

It seems you have a run of great success - this too shall pass. Just like bad things. 

Challenges are what entrepreneurs eat three times a day, with a few extra helpings for snacks.

Still, we must pause and ponder.

Six months of the year have gone. We’re halfway through. What a good time to reflect.

Have you been busy being busy, or have you been effective?

Are you proud of what you’ve achieved so far this year?

Know this. Most people spend their days reacting:

• Emails
• Phone calls
• Meetings
• Problems
• Interruptions
• Other people’s priorities

Please, God, don’t let me fall into the trap of everything being very important and very urgent. Don’t let the time vampires in.

Please let me use my idiosyncrasies to make things happen, not spend my life in the weeds.

Are you thinking long term, even though the short-term pain feels tougher than a marathon uphill?

This is me talking to me.

Reminding myself to always be Mr Optimistic. Mr Solution. The motivator. The terminator of mood hoovers and pessimism whenever they rear their nasty heads.

I constantly ask myself:

Would the James of ten years from now be proud of the James of today?

Here’s a tip for you.

When challenges arrive, put them in your calendar as a journal entry for 30 days time. Just so you can see you’ve solved so much. 

If you think something really bad is happening, it probably isn’t.

It shall pass.

Know this: you won’t give it a nanosecond of thought in ten years’ time. You probably won’t think about it in a year. In fact, it’s highly likely it’ll be gone within 30 days. Heck, maybe even two weeks.

The people who make the biggest progress spend a disproportionate amount of time on important but non-urgent activities:

• Building systems
• Developing people
• Improving processes
• Looking after their health
• Strengthening relationships
• Strategic thinking
• Learning new skills
• Creating opportunities before they become necessities
• Recruiting talent
• Optimising capital and raising it
• Doing deals
• Getting their message out there
• Innovation, marketing and culture
• Destroying the constraints on a business: lack of talent, lack of capital and the limitations of the leader at the top

That last one matters.

You are the leader.

Spending time making yourself smarter is not a luxury. It’s vital.

These are the activities that rarely demand attention today but dramatically shape tomorrow.

Read the book, go to the seminar, book the conference, journal your thoughts, listen to the podcasts and do the courses. 

As we reach the halfway point of the year, ask yourself:

How much of your time has been spent working in the business, and how much has been spent working on the business?

How much of your calendar has been devoted to firefighting versus future-building?

The second half of the year starts now.

Let’s smash our goals. Big hairy goals. 

If you’ve had a tough time, good. You’re about to go up again.

Rest if you must, but never give up.

And as always…

To your continued success

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