🧭 Stagnation is Worse Than Death

Hey Builders! 🚀

Here’s what you’re going to learn today:

⭐️ Stagnation as a visionary is worse than death
⭐️ How to prevent stagnation
⭐️ The absolute BEST way to get rid of mental cobwebs
🎤 Taft Love and I share our most incredible, life changing experiences

Reading time: 5 minutes

⭐️ Stagnation as a visionary is worse than death

Many successful people will tell you that in order to reach and maintain success, the best way to do so is by creating a routine.

Routine can absolutely help you reach your goals because your daily life can become more predictable.

Predictability enables you to create more time in your day to focus on more important things.

Some instances of routine are working at a certain co-working space every day, going to the gym every night to tell yourself you’re done working and switch off your brain, or meal prepping so you save time by eating the same dinner every night for 7 nights.

The only problem with rigid routines is that you start to become stagnant.

Stagnation will appear slowly and become harder to deny over time.

At first, it might show up as being less dynamic in meetings, or being able to offer your team fewer ideas of value.

Your business might slow down the pace of innovation, allowing competitors to catch up or surpass you, leaving your business in a perilous spot.

[image of falling into a trap]

Do you feel like you’ve fallen into this trap by trying to control too much of your daily life?

⭐️ How to prevent stagnation

If stagnation is created by routine, there is only solution that not only allows you to regain energy, passion, and innovation, but also to still have that time to think about those hard problems your business is facing.

The solution is to change up your routines.

Changing your routines allows you long-term stability accompanied by short-term flexibility.

It’s this flexibility that forces you to change things up like your environment, which allows your mind to stay fresh and engaged.

Doing this made my life SO much more interesting, but what exactly did I do?

I don’t use an alarm clock to wake up, so some days I’m up at 4:45am, and other days I’m up at 5:45am.

Some days I’ll meditate with a guided track and other days without.

Some days I’ll stretch inside, and other days I’ll stretch in the park.

Some days I’ll walk all the way around the block before allowing myself my coffee, and other days I’ll drink before my walk.

Some days I’ll work at one café next to my house, and other times I’ll take my backpack and travel to places near the river where it’s very beautiful to get inspiration.

Recently, I’ve also been focusing on how I spend my time after work.

I used to love bowling, archery, golf, frisbee, ping pong, biking, and many other activities, but over the years as I’ve moved to different places, I lost access to the facilities to enjoy them.

Luckily, I live in Lisbon now, and I can do ALL of these activities, AND there are social groups around them, so I get to meet incredible people who have similar interests.

This means instead of working myself to death and becoming stagnant, my daily routine, my work schedule, and my down time change all the time, allowing me to enjoy life much more and make it less about work for work’s sake.

Have you tried this and find it’s not helping? Well, I have one super hack to override your sensors, and I promise it works extremely fast.

[image of someone checking in at an airport]

⭐️ The absolute BEST way to get rid of mental cobwebs

If you are in a rut and find it difficult to make a mental change, get on a plane and fly to another country immediately.

Travel has been one of my most enduring and beloved hobbies for the last 20 years.

I plan multiple trips a year, and try to spend a month in each location so I can be there long enough to understand the local culture and build up new routines that I can destroy as soon as I leave.

This radical change in environment hacks your brain into being more awake and aware so you can figure out how to survive the uncertainty of the new location.

In 2023 alone, I’ve spent a few months in Florida and Georgia, a month in Guatemala, two months in Czech Republic, three weeks in Spain, and a few months in Portugal.

I love moving around, and it helps me see how others live, and gives me tons of new ideas for how I can better live my life and serve my clients and teams.

[show a brain in cobwebs]

❓So which would you rather be?

Next steps

I interviewed Taft Love about his experience being a police officer, then his move to South Korea and then becoming a sales leader. We also talked about my experiences in China!

We talked about why we made those choices, and why doing both made him a better entrepreneur.

Watch it below!

Listen to the interview here:

• YouTube

• iTunes

• Spotify

Next Friday we will talk about the pros and cons of business relationships, see you then!