The Post on Productivity I Wish Someone Else Had Written



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Though the title of this blog is ‘viral marketing’, regular readers will know that it’s far from being the only thing I talk about. Sometimes I’ll share a case study to inspire you. Sometimes I’ll offer insights to educate you, and sometimes I’ll give you step-by-step advice so you can take action.

This post is, purely and simply, for those who want more from their lives. If you’re happy with the position you’re in or at least like how you spend your days, then skip this post and come back next week (I have $7K/m case study on the way). Today I’m simply sharing what I wish someone else had written a few months ago when I was once again at the busiest point in my life and questioning the direction I found myself heading.

In the hectic position I was in, on the verge of the Guardian launch and the countless other travel and project commitments that I couldn’t turn down, I honestly felt as pressured as I had ever been. I decided that since there was no way I could drop any of what I was doing, I was going to use this time to find the best strategy available to deal with my workload.

I’ve spoken about productivity a lot on this site so I was hesitant to do so again. Especially since I still stand by all of what I’ve already said. Then again, if I play tennis daily, I should expect my backhand and serve to improve a lot over the space of a few months. If I’m learning to speak a foreign language then I should, in time, be able to string together a few basic sentences. If I put a lot of focus on getting things done – which I have – then my process and viewpoint should eventually evolve.

I’m now a few months on from when I started my research and I have to be honest, I didn’t find it. Through countless hours of reading, and planning and testing, no magical or mind-blowing solution revealed itself. Not one experiment in the last few months made me a productivity guru. I really wish something had — this blog post would be a lot more popular.

My lack of results wasn’t through lack of trying. My list of tactics and ideas was pretty exhaustive. Though most of what I tried helped in some way, I still never found what I was looking for: A productivity method that would make hard work easier to overcome and thus increase my output. I did however, after spending more time then I would like to admit reading books, watching videos and looking into the lives of successful people, come to a conclusion that I’m satisfied with.

If I had to sum that conclusion up in one sentence then I would say something like this…

There is not a productivity method in the world that can help people as much as they can help themselves.

That’s it. Nothing too flash or (admittedly) interesting. It probably doesn’t make you very excited for the rest of this article either, so let’s hype it up a little. I elaborated on how I came to this conclusion with a friend and he sent me this email a few days later:

systems administrator

And now, if you’re interested, I’ll elaborate on it for you.

Here’s How It Started Out

Before I continue, I want to first say that though my writing style from here on out makes me seem very confident about what I have ‘discovered’, be careful not to interpret this as me wanting to convince you of something. I’m not trying to make you believe me. There is enough research in here to help you come to your own conclusions about whether or not what I’m saying will benefit your personal journey.

Now that we’ve gotten that out of the way, let me tell you about one of the first methods I decided to try. The six-step process found in Think and Grow Rich. If you haven’t read this book already then I highly recommend you do so. It’s free, since its copyright has expired. Written in 1937, the book is a published account of what its author, Napoleon Hill, discovered after 500 interviews over 25 years on the topic of what makes people successful (rich).

The entire book is written around Napoleon’s Six Step process to getting whatever you want out of life, which is basically as follows:

  • Step One: Fix your mind on an exact amount of money that you desire
  • Step Two: Determine exactly what you intend to give in return for this sum
  • Step Three: Decide on a date you’ll possess this amount of money
  • Step Four: Create a definite plan for how you’re going to carry out this desire and begin at once
  • Step Five: Write a clear, concise statement of the money you wish to acquire, when you wish to have it, what you intend to do in return, and how exactly you’re going to do that
  • Step Six: Read your written statement twice daily. Once in the morning and once at night. As you do this, see yourself already in possession of the riches you seek

It’s a nice little formula, and he sells it very well. I followed the six-step process for over 30 days and found that while it felt good to have a much clearer focus of where I was heading, I still wasn’t having any fun or ‘easy productivity’ on the way. Work was still a challenge.

One key theme throughout the book that Napoleon stresses is how important it is to have a ‘Burning Desire’ for your goals. In his words:

“The ease with which lack of persistence may be conquered will depend entirely upon the intensity of one’s desire. The starting point of all achievement is desire. Keep this constantly in mind. Weak desires bring weak results, just as a small amount of fire makes a small amount of heat. If you find yourself lacking in persistence, this weakness may be remedied by building a stronger fire under your desires.”

I especially liked his focus on the idea that, simply, if you want $10,000 then you don’t get it by wanting or needing, but instead by providing $10,000 worth of value. Though the book didn’t provide the ultimate solution I was looking for, I came away with a new perspective that I think helped me clarify some concepts later on.

One of my favourite productivity methods has been, for a long time now, the Pomodoro Method. I’ve talked about it once on this blog when I stated that the method basically consists of working on something for 25 minutes (a Pomodoro) at a time. Though there is a little more to it than that.

I used this on and off through the months, finding it useful on a lot of days when I wasn’t really into the task at hand and ‘just another 25 minutes’ didn’t sound too bad in my head.

I had heard through Napoleon Hill and countless others that visualisation was crucial, so I would also sit down and vividly imagine already having what I want. The idea behind this being that I’ll create a more emotional (and thus stronger) connection with my goals and be more likely to achieve them. It’s something I’ve tried in the past but had never really stuck with it. It’s easier to say what the results of this were not rather than what they were. They were not what I was looking for.

I tried a few more things like reading out loud my ‘Dream Day’, using EFT and the Sedona Method on my procrastination and a few other things. All of them, as I said, having their benefits, but none convincing me that I should stop looking for other solutions.

Through my research I came across Jim Rohn, a veteran speaker and author in the personal development world who is sadly no longer with us. I really connected with his no-BS approach to self improvement and quickly went through three of his books; one just dedicated to some of his best quotes. He put a lot of emphasis on the fact that we are our own value and totally responsible for our current situation in life.

“If we lost everything tomorrow, we could easily replace it all. Why? Because we acquired those things as a result of what we are. Assuming “what we are” has not changed; in time we will attract back into our lives everything we may have lost. The same applied knowledge, the same attitude, the same effort, and the same plan will always produce the same results. This fundamental should give us cause for both elation and alarm.”

Think of Steve Jobs being fired from Apple and starting up Pixar or Donald Trump losing his entire fortune and building it back up a few years later.

Like Napoleon, Jim opened me up to more ideas and concepts, but I was still just gaining a lot of knowledge. No matter how much I visualised what I wanted, learned new concepts or tried certain productivity tactics, I wasn’t getting an ‘Aha’ moment. Maybe there wasn’t one out there.

In the end I resigned to the fact that this productivity ‘secret’ solving is a really, really long road. I could be researching the subject for years and not come up with some perfect answer that I’m satisfied with. So, I stopped and looked at what I had managed to achieve in all this time whilst trying to find my answer.

That’s when something clicked.

Though getting things done had not been easy, I had managed to achieve two things that I’m quite proud of. One of them will be revealed next year, and the other was this very article. I realised that the journey to finding an answer had actually been the most productive thing I did. I didn’t need some productivity tactic or tip to start to get going, and there wasn’t even a guarantee that I would get an answer. I read dozens of books, watched countless videos and made pages upon pages of notes. Yet, doing all of that was really easy.

All I can say about the things I completed with much more ease (and to a higher standard) is that I really enjoyed doing them. I know that’s probably not the answer you were looking for. And trust me when I say it’s not the one I wanted to find. But the science does back me up.

Introducing Myelin: Your New Best Friend

After having read a few books on getting things done, my Kindle suggested that I might enjoy The Talent Code. One reviewer described it as being like taking Malcolm Gladwell’s book Outliers (where he highlights that many professionals have taken 10,000 hours of practice to become immensely talented) and looking at the science behind his findings. Early on, author Daniel Coyle introduces something called Myelin, which I found really interesting.

Myelin, neurologists have recently discovered, is basically the key to all human talking, reading and learning skills. If you view every human movement or thought as an electrical impulse travelling through a circuit of neurons, then think of myelin like the insulation which wraps around these fibres and increases their signal strength. “The more we fire a particular circuit, the more myelin optimizes that circuit, and the stronger, faster, and more fluent our moments and thoughts become” recaps Coyle.

He then looks at research by Simon Clifford into why South America (specifically Brazil) is a hotbed for footballing talent. His findings showed that the popular way of playing football there, known as Futebol de Salão, had a big influence. The game is played on a small court and uses a ball that is half the size of a regular football yet weighs twice as much, so rarely bounces.

A study by the University of Liverpool found that Futebol de Salão players touch the ball six times more per minute than people training with a normal ball on a regular pitch. Futebol de Salão players were able to wrap their football talent circuits in more myelin over a shorter period of time. It also meant that when they played on a full-sized pitch, players felt like they had “acres of space”.

The book also highlights the story of the Brontë sisters, and their love for character creation and writing short stories as children just to keep themselves entertained. Juliet Barker, a six year curator at the Brontë Parsonage Museum revealed that the sisters wrote “twenty-two little books averaging eighty pages each in one fifteen-month period”. That’s a lot of writing.

Coyle once again links this back to Myelin, noting his belief that the sisters’ talent was developed through little more than constant practice. To add even more legs to that theory, Barker says that “The first little books weren’t just amateurish – a given, since their authors were so young – they lacked any signs of incipient genius. Far from original creations, they were bald imitations of magazine articles and books of the day.”

Many of you will know that Charlotte Brontë went on to write literature classic Jane Eyre with her sister Emily producing another, Wuthering Heights.

Coyle comes to the conclusion that passion and persistence are the key ingredients of talent and success. Why? “Because wrapping myelin around a big circuit requires immense energy and time. If you don’t love it, you’ll never work hard enough to be great.”

Once again I found myself getting back to point of just ‘doing what you love’.

“Does This Fit My Reality?”

That’s what I asked myself when I went through research by Daniel Pink, author of Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us. I had come across Drive a few years ago and remembered that the ideas found inside were fascinating, but if I had to read it again, then maybe it just hadn’t included what I needed to hear the first time around.

One of the main concepts presented in Drive, backed by numerous studies, is the idea that if a task is purely mechanical (i.e. you do this and get that), then offering someone an increased salary will lead to increased output. If the task however requires even the smallest form of rudimentary cognitive skill, that same increased salary will actually lead to a decrease in performance.

Pink pointed out that the three things which really motivated us were Autonomy (being self-directed), Mastery (getting better at something) and Purpose (why you’re doing something).

When Pink talked about autonomy and how important it is that we’re self directed, I couldn’t help but think of this quote by Robert Benchley: “Anyone can do any amount of work providing it isn’t the work he is supposed to be doing at that moment.”

Not being totally susceptible to ideas just because they’re written in a book, I decided to test the concept based on what I know of my own reality. Was I motivated to do things that weren’t being driven by money? The first ‘Yes’ that came to mind was a house I had built for a friends cat last year when I was bored. Nobody had asked me to build it (autonomy), I had never built one before so I was going to learn how (mastery) and the cat would finally have a place to sit outside (purpose).


Not the greatest looking ‘house’, I know, but he seemed happy enough.

I then thought of something else I had done recently: Split-testing signs and sales tactics for homeless people here in Africa to try and help some of them sustain themselves. Nobody told me to go out and do it (autonomy), I was highly curious about which signs would result in physical sales (mastery) and I had a purpose to help the people I was working with to get off the streets. It once again fit the model.

If you’re interested in how that went, I’ll write a bit more about it on a future post. I do remember at one point a guy I was helping said: “Why are you doing this? You’re losing money” (we were selling R6.50 newspapers for R5 to help increase his confidence). I said “Don’t worry, I’m getting something out of it as well”. I meant it, but I wasn’t sure what I was getting out of it at the time. I feel like I have a better idea of this now thanks to refreshing myself on the AMP model.

I could even look at hugely successful and talented people in their fields and the model would fit their circumstances as well. Jonathan Ive, the head designer at Apple, gets an extra $10m in company stock every single year. Do you think he still needs to cash his pay-cheques? I’m pretty certain he has an abundance of autonomy, mastery and purpose in what he’s doing.

Or what about Doug Morris, the 72-year-old head of Sony Music who helped to create Vevo, the music video player which has a partnership with Youtube. He’s now set on the goal of making Sony the most ‘pre-eminent’ music agency of the next decade. People 10 years his junior are preparing for their retirement years so they can relax and do nothing that looks like work. He’s aiming to transform a huge company from an office each day.

Finally, the model could even account for times when I was doing what I love but then suddenly stopped enjoying that thing. In pretty much every case it was because my autonomy (my self-direction over the work at hand) had been taken away from me. An example being when I was working as a social media manager and loving what I was doing, but had clients that were so rigid and intimidated by the web that I couldn’t implement 90% of the ideas I was so passionate about.

With this science, theory and personal testing behind me, I can now assume an interesting idea: If Tiger Woods had started to play tennis at three years old instead of golf and really enjoyed it (thanks to AMP), he would be one of the best tennis players in the world today. He would have enough time to build up the necessary Myelin for that particular skill and enough motivation to help him keep building it.

One More Thing.

Was the only answer I had gotten out of this entire research just: ‘Do what you love as much as you can’?

In a way, yes. I shot off an email to Guardian journalist Andrea and asked if, like me, she gets some weird satisfaction from writing a sentence that just fits? She confirmed almost instantly, complete with an example sentence to go with it. Based on the science we’ve just covered it should now be no surprise to you that she’s really good at what she does.

Since I tell people who ask what I do that my life is just like those guys from The Social Network (just kidding?) I can’t help but think about Mark Zuckerberg who – despite whether or not TSN was an accurate portrayal of reality – must have been having the time of his life creating Facebook.

I thought about someone else I had researched, Tony Hawk, and found that the basis for all of his success was nothing more than really loving being on a skateboard. When asked in an interview how long it will be until he stops skating he replied ‘When I’m physically unable’.

In a way, no. I have friends that seem to love activities just as much as I do, if not more. One is obsessed with home decor. She can find the quirkiest pieces in the most mundane shops, wont settle for anything other than a certain item once she’s seen it and she’ll even call friends in spontaneous moments to share her excitement about a particular discovery.

I have no doubt that an interior design company somewhere would be lucky to have her. They would get so much more value out of her than any staff who are clearly just ‘going through the motions’.

I have another friend from Liverpool who loves to cook. She is picky about every fine detail when it comes to food preparation. Every meal will be like some big event she has to share online. When someone is having a party she’ll nominate herself to be caterer and go all out. Yet, she currently spends her days as an assistant in an accountants office.

At the start of this post I ‘hyped it up’ by showing you an email from a friend who had been invited to go for a job interview. It all came about when he mentioned one day that he had found a way to speed up the process of something at work, but his manager wasn’t interested when he tried to explain it. I told him what I thought about that, so he documented what the change was (which he thought would be valuable to the company) and sent it to his managers manager.

Then he received an email, inviting him to interview for a higher position in the company. Did he get the job? Sadly not. He was asked to perform a lot of tasks (IT related) that he couldn’t perform. But that’s okay. He now knows what it takes to get the position that he wants so he’s learning the skills he doesn’t have.

The reason he didn’t do anything before talking to me is the same reason my food and decor obsessed friends will probably never spend much time in the food or interior design industries: They think that have too much time and too little permission. They’re not consciously aware that our time on this planet is slowly but surely slipping away, and they have full control over what they want to do about it. If they are, then it’s just not important enough to them.

Think back to Tiger Woods getting the necessary Myelin to be skilled in tennis (instead of golf). We’ve deduced that the only way (okay, easiest way) he can become skilled enough is to love it, because it takes so much effort. Is that enough to make him one of the best players in the world? I would argue against it. Unless you actually have a drive to achieve something with that skill – like winning competitions – and commit to keep going until you do so then you’ll just be another hobbyist.

Steve Jobs was going to turn his love for electronics and building things into a computer. Bill Gates was going to turn his love for programming into Microsoft. Arnold “gym is better than sex” Schwarznegger was going to turn his love for the working out into Mr Olympia titles. 9 year old Keiron Williamson, who’s being dubbed as ‘Mini Monet’, began painting when he was just 7 and took a major liking to it. He turned that into an exhibition and recently sold 33 paintings within 30 minutes. With the earnings from the show he purchased a £150,000 house for his parents.

Unless you decide to do something with your passion, how can you expect it to go anywhere? When things aren’t quite working out, which will sometimes be the case, that love for what you’re doing is there to help keep you going. This article, for example, was a huge mental challenge to put together, but that’s not to say I don’t enjoy the process as much as I love hitting Publish.

Whether or not you put any meaning on this life and whether you decide to ‘achieve’ something with it has to be 100% your decision. Why? Because this is 100% your responsibility. Maybe you can try and utilise the science for something you don’t love. Maybe you’ll end up liking it and get good at it, similar to how there’s probably a specific item of food you didn’t used to enjoy but now you do. Maybe. I don’t know; and I’m not sure why you’re willing to find out.

Sitting in front of a computer screen gathering statistics for a blog post is on one hand just the most boring, unglamorous looking thing on the planet. But to the person who wants to be doing it it’s also just the most awesome thing. Ever. If you can’t say that about the work you’re doing, in and of itself, then you’re probably doing the wrong thing.

It’s possible that Napoleon Hill came to the same discovery, and then just added some action steps to make his book far more interesting and valuable to the average person. Maybe he realised that if you’ve found the thing you truly loved and attached a goal to that, the ‘BURNING DESIRE’ and the avoidance of bad habits is just going to come as a byproduct of the first step.

Did Thomas Edison have to say I want X money by X date to himself morning and night? Or did he just have a real passion for figuring things out and those 10,000 attempts at creating the first commercial lightbulb weren’t down to anything more than loving what he was doing and setting a goal he would never give up on? The fact that he is the owner of 1,093 US patents make me think that’s pretty likely.

I noticed that on the journey to figuring this out, entirely new procrastination habits came into play. For instance if I was focusing on one thing then how I totally waste my time (be knowingly unproductive) was not the same when I was focused on another task. After learning more about Myelin I had to wonder whether procrastination is a just a myelin-dense habit I have which needs to be overwritten.

It’s not like you’ve never done it before…

“A genius looks at something that others are stuck on and gets the world unstuck. A genius brings human insight to a problem and solves it in a new way. A genius writes the manual instead of following it. We’ve all done that. We’ve all found a shortcut, led a discussion, made a connection. We’ve all solved interesting problems, at least once in our lives. No one is a genius all the time. The goal is to be a genius once. And then perhaps again. Small steps.” – Seth Godin

What’s Next

If you think the following action steps here are really important then you either just haven’t quite got this concept yet or I’m such a bad writer that I can’t make a point in 5,000 words. My apologies. They’re just here because I think they’re going to help save you some time once you have the first ‘step’ in place.

Every in-depth piece on productivity comes equipped with action-steps, but these are totally secondary to the person that is following them.

Know the Affect of Your Surroundings

Your surroundings (friends, education, feedback) are a huge factor in determining what you know and what you think is right or wrong. Walk around the streets of Vietnam, even on days where it’s 35C at 70% humidity and you’ll see people outside with umbrellas, wearing so much clothing that they don’t reveal an inch of skin. This is purely so they don’t get a sun tan (being whiter in many Asian country implies wealth). Walk around the streets of any big western city and you’ll easily find tanning salons so that people can get darker.

In the West your typical ‘WoW nerd’ (World of Warcraft game player) is often thought to be wasting their lives but in the East, millions of people are trying to become professional gamers. Corporations like World Cyber Games, a South Korean company, are sometimes paying out up to $2,500,000 in prize money at events.

It’s likely that you had zero input on which of these examples is ‘normal’ to you. And overall that’s a good thing, because being able to adapt to society has allowed humans to evolve and survive, but where is current society leading us?

The average person, out of all 400 million+ people who log into Facebook every single day, visits the site 40 times per month and spends roughly 23 minutes there each time. And that’s only tracking people who go to the website, not the many more who are using related apps throughout the day.

Youtube isn’t much different, with the average person visiting 14 times per month and spending 25 minutes there each time. That’s not counting the views of videos embedded into other sites, which I imagine is much, much higher. And this is just the internet.

I heard a statistic a few years ago that said the average American adult watches 4 hours of TV per day. I guessed that would have declined a lot since the rise of the internet, but Nielsen research from last year states the figure is currently at 4 and a half hours.

There’s nothing wrong with TV, Facebook or Youtube of course. They’re awesome. I’m sure if you woke up tomorrow and they no longer existed you would feel some loss. If not, you would at least hear someone moaning about their disappearance. All I’m trying to get you to see is that current society and what it’s normal to spend your time on is not very conducive to productivity.

If you do decide that you want more from life, not many people are going to make this change easy for you and there are plenty of distractions that will happily get in the way. It’s also very possible that you’ll drift away from a lot of the things and people you’ve always been around. If this happens, then just accept that it’s normal.

I like how Sam Keen’s father put this, as he outlines in his book Fire in the Belly: “The last thing he said before I left was probably the single most important bit of advice I ever got about being a man. “Sam,” he said, “there are two questions a man must ask himself: The first is ‘Where am I going?’ and the second is ‘Who will go with me?’ If you ever get these questions in the wrong order you are in trouble.”

Get on the Right Side of Myelin

“Myelin wraps – it doesn’t unwrap. Once a skill circuit is insulated, you can’t un-insulate it (except through age or diseases). That’s why habits are hard to break. The only way to change them is to build new habits by repeating new behaviours– by myelinating new circuits.” – Daniel Coyle

With this in mind, it’s clear to see that the sooner you start forcing yourself to implement the right habits the better. During this experiment I went from checking Facebook a few times per day to not at all (I deactivated my account) with total ease. The first few days took a little conscious effort, but after that I wouldn’t even think about it.

The other success I managed to achieve, which I said I would reveal next year, also required that I do certain things at specific times throughout the day. It was hard to get the motivation (and memory) going for the first few weeks but after that I was doing things pretty much on autopilot. I’m sure you’ve experienced many similar things yourself.

Make Your Call

Yeah, you. You reading this article right now, probably propping your head up with your left hand (hah). There aren’t many things I will claim to know with certainty on this topic, but there is at least one. The decision to get whatever it is that you want, if made, has to become your number one priority. You can’t just mix it into a group of things you’re trying to achieve. It can’t just be a thing it has to be the thing.

If you just kind of want it, don’t expect anything more then just kind of wanted it results.

Ultimately, this whole thing to me is about looking at the type of person you want to become. Looking at what you’ll accept from yourself in this cosy little existance we call life. At the beginning of this article I said that you shouldn’t keep reading if you like how you spend your days. Based on that, I should be right in stating that you’re not doing what you want to be doing. For me, that isn’t acceptable. What about you?

In Drive Daniel Pink also looked at companies which give employees one day per week or 20% of their time (Google) to work on whatever they want. In these periods people usually fix long outstanding issues and come up with some great ideas. It’s ironic that most people will let their employer give them freedom of direction yet they won’t give it to themselves.

In one of Jim Rohn’s videos he said one of the biggest realisations he had on the path to becoming a millionaire was provided by a mentor of his “Your income is directly related to your philosophy. Not the economy.” We’re at a point in time where the world economy is in a huge mess; starting a new journey in a totally new direction is the last on most peoples minds. Just don’t forget that there will be someone, somewhere, getting through whatever happens and coming out of it in a much better position.

How’s that for a perspective that is likely to take you somewhere?

You may have reached this point and – using your own ideas and whatever information I provided – came to a totally different conclusion to me or none at all. If that’s the case, then make sure you figure out what to believe about productivity, purpose and motivation for yourself. Go and get an answer that’s likely to change something in how you spend your time. If you somehow discover there’s not point to doing anything and you should just keep watching TV or browsing Reddit all day, then at least be able to say that you found out. Don’t let it be the case that you’ve read almost 6,000 words and learned nothing.

You can decide to look and you can decide to start, or you can keep putting things off until you don’t have a choice anymore. The clock is ticking, but I’ll pause it for a few minutes so you can leave a comment. After that I’m going to let go of the second hand…



192 Comments


  1. Glen says:
    November 11, 2011 at 8:33 pm

    For popularity reasons, it was a really bad idea to launch this on a Friday night. But, I made a promise that I would launch it on Thursday — it just wasn’t good enough then. Hopefully someone gets something out of it before the weekend 😉

    Since this is almost 6,000 words, there are likely to be typo’s & errors no matter how many times I read over it. I’ll fix them!

    Reply
    • Lompo Ulu says:
      November 14, 2011 at 10:16 am

      Suddenly I got a headache after read this post. But don’t worry, It’s just a collateral effect.
      but, the answer that is coming to my head is how do I find what I love?
      yes, I know that question is so general, but I really confusing to answer it.

      Reply
      • Omojole says:
        November 14, 2011 at 12:03 pm

        Glen, thanks for posting this, I have read hundreds of post on-line that discusses about productivity, but none of them examined it the way you did.

        Thanks one again and am confident that whosoever read and implements the 6 points you outlined should be rich in the near future 🙂

        Reply
      • George Millo says:
        May 16, 2012 at 1:38 pm

        ‘how do I find what I love?’

        My answer would have to be: try stuff out. Try anything! Don’t worry about getting it right the first time (you almost definitely won’t), just keep trying different stuff and eventually you’ll find something you can be passionate about. Learn a musical instrument, take up a new sport, learn to program, start a blog, shit, if you’re really stuck for ideas just go join the library and read until you have some. Do anything!

        I’m at the age where most of my friends are just graduating, and most of them have no idea what they’re passionate about or what they want to do with their lives. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that at age 21, but still the pressures that are put on us as students make us feel like if we haven’t got it figured out by now there’s something wrong with us. Bullshit.

        The problem is, most people I know are trying to fix their lack of direction by NOT DOING ANYTHING ABOUT IT. Instead they’re just moping around, hoping that they’ll get hit by a lightning bolt of clarity and it will all suddenly become clear to them, instead of going out and actively searching for something they can be passionate about. Again I think this comes to down to a failure of our education system and the pressures that are put on is: we’re so convinced that we have to get everything right the first time that we’re afraid of trying anything.

        George

        PS how do I get an avatar for these comments?

        Reply
    • Isobel says:
      November 14, 2011 at 5:05 pm

      “typo’s” is a typo 😛

      Thank you for not taking the obvious line and leaving it at “do what you love.” I discovered that what I LOVE is starting something new – unfortunately for those projects that never get finished. I think it’s all that unlimited potential that attracts me – and once I can see the end result, it’s not unlimted any more.

      I was a student of Jim Rohn’s nearly 20 years ago and was fortunate to sit in front of him many times. “Gentleman Jim” was a joy to listen to; the first person to tell me “for things to change, YOU have to change.” That was mind-blowing to me then, that I could actually have control over what happened in my life.

      More recently I’ve been aiming to leverage my time with “inspired action”; when it comes through, it’s far more powerful than motivation.

      Really great article – thanks 🙂

      Reply
    • sui says:
      January 5, 2012 at 1:39 am

      Hahaha… I read this with my head propped up on my left hand. Thanks for the article Glen.

      Reply
  2. alex - unleash reality says:
    November 11, 2011 at 8:36 pm

    first 😉

    Reply
  3. Carla Marshall says:
    November 11, 2011 at 8:36 pm

    Fantastic article as always Glen.

    The War of Art by Steven Pressfield has been a major ally for me in terms of overcoming procrastination and determining and then sticking to the right path.

    http://www.amazon.co.uk/War-Art-Through-Creative-Battles/dp/0446691437/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1321043619&sr=8-1

    Reply
    • Glen says:
      November 11, 2011 at 9:03 pm

      Thanks Carla!

      Another one to add to my wishlist, though I’m feeling totally over this topic 😉

      Reply
    • Dave says:
      November 13, 2011 at 3:43 pm

      I second Clara, The War of Art is an amazing book and very recommended. It seemed to me that the author, Steven Pressfield, was able to put into words the exact problem I had and still have and will probably always have.

      But after reading that book I finally figured out what I was dealing with and it makes it much easier to overcome.

      Great post Glenn, as always. It is nice that you always mention the number of words you wrote in the post so we can grasp how much we just finished reading 🙂

      Reply
    • Sami says:
      November 15, 2011 at 1:20 pm

      I concur! The War of Art is such a beautiful book that even thinking about it makes me shudder! I read it almost a year ago and now that someone mentioned it, and after reading your spectacular article, I feel like I should read it again 🙂

      Oh, and thank you Glen for your book recommendations! Gotta add ‘Drive’ to my reading list.

      //sami

      Reply
  4. Sean Mal says:
    November 11, 2011 at 8:39 pm

    I don’t care if it’s Friday or not…you FINALLY updated VC, yay 🙂 Thanks Glen for another great article.

    Reply
  5. Jon Cooper says:
    November 11, 2011 at 8:45 pm

    Must. Reread. So. GOOD!

    Awesome job Glen, you nailed this one!

    But did you actually spend 90 hours writing this one?

    Reply
    • Glen says:
      November 11, 2011 at 8:48 pm

      Hmm 90 was probably a very bad guess. I’ve done very little else besides Monday morning, so factor in 8-10 hours of sleep and other things then it’s probably more like 40-50.

      A few hundred if you include all of the research. Thank you! 🙂

      Reply
  6. Tim Brownson says:
    November 11, 2011 at 8:46 pm

    I haven’t read everything you have written by any stretch Glen. But I can remember running a guest post from you 3 years ago that I ummed and ahed over. It was ok, but not mind blowing by any stretch.

    This otoh, is a brilliant post and the best I have read my you in terms of quality of writing, research and delivering the message. It’s also definitely the best post I’ve read this month, by some way.

    I have a really busy weekend with clients and it would be easy to think that was a bummer. But because I LOVE coaching I’m more than happy with that and money doesn’t even enter the equation. I earned 4 x the money when I was in sales, but I’m 100x happier now and I know the money will come back eventually.

    Jim Rohn is a legend and glad you like his stuff because it’s timeless genius.

    Reply
    • Glen says:
      November 11, 2011 at 8:59 pm

      Hey Tim,

      Hah you had me worried at the start there. Thank you very much!

      One example I didn’t give was an investment company I was working with last year. I was making more money than I ever have in my life but going from total freedom to someone having a little control was a huge shock to the system. Huge enough for me to quit and say goodbye to a lot of money. I’m glad you can relate 🙂

      Thanks for the comment!

      – G

      Reply
    • Onibalusi Bamidele says:
      November 11, 2011 at 9:28 pm

      I second that Tim!

      This is also the best article I’ve read by Glen so far, and also the best I’ve read this year…and that really means a lot!

      Reply
  7. Mitch Monsen says:
    November 11, 2011 at 9:13 pm

    Great article! I’m glad I had a chance to happen upon it. 🙂

    As much as I seem to find myself in a similar situation as yourself back when you embarked on your productivity quest, I’ve yet to fully overcome the myriad temptations to procrastinate or rest. I know we’re all looking for the silver bullet that doesn’t exist, but the true “I just love this” has never hit. I don’t know just what I’d be looking for, and I don’t know that I’d even recognize what it was that I truly loved to do if it punched me straight in the mouth.

    There are a great deal of things I enjoy doing, and few things I could say that I love doing. Have you found what it is that you love to do, Glen? The sort of thing that will drive you to the maximum potential you have? I suppose it’s not really a question you can answer, but if you have a feeling for it, I’d love to hear what makes you think that it’s the thing that will engage you forever.

    Again, thanks for the post. I appreciate your insights and will apply some of these points to my thinking.

    Reply
    • Glen says:
      November 11, 2011 at 10:32 pm

      Hey Mitch,

      Thanks. I’m glad too 😉

      Yes, I have. I’ve found two things that I think I could do for the rest of time. What’s interesting though is that one simply makes more sense for me to focus on as it comes with more benefits that I want right now. Kind of adding weight to my own theory that it’s about actually taking steps forward with something, but preferably one thing, otherwise nothing is going to change.

      That being said, I’ve worked out a schedule to incorporate both. I enjoy an amount of what I am doing. I enjoy enough to get me over the demotivated times. I enjoy it enough to not think that I should be doing something else.

      You’re welcome. Thanks for the comment!

      Reply
  8. Jonathan says:
    November 11, 2011 at 9:20 pm

    Interesting post man, I’ll be honest I’ve only skimmed it in true procrastinator style, but think it’s one of those that I can refer back to over and over again.

    Reply
  9. Onibalusi Bamidele says:
    November 11, 2011 at 9:23 pm

    This is EPIC, motivating and inspirational!

    Every word you wrote connected with me, and I think you have a solid point in regards to the environment – My environment and people around me is currently my biggest stumbling block right now, and as a result I spend most of the time playing these days instead of working. I know this shouldn’t be, but I’m in the process of completing my home office to cut off the distractions.

    You’re also totally on spot about passion and persistence being key, and I’m just learning about the concept of Myelin for the first time – I’ll be getting Daniel Coyle’s book to learn more about that!

    BTW I think everyone needs to read this article over and over again – it’s packed with so much value!

    Reply
  10. Rosa says:
    November 11, 2011 at 9:32 pm

    You wish someone else had written this? It probably wouldn’t have helped you as much.
    Maybe you didn’t get to an “aha” moment but you did learn a lot and wrote an amazing article which will help a lot of people open their eyes and maybe feel “delighted” to read you. 😉

    It’s like when you decide to clean your room or closet and while doing it, get distracted with the cool stuff you forgot you had and then decide to organize this and that too and when you finish you realize you did a lot more than you set out to do in the first place and the journey to the goal was just as enjoyable.

    Oh and I’m soo curious about that other thing that will be revealed next year! You sure know how to keep your audience interested.

    Reply
  11. David Garcia says:
    November 11, 2011 at 9:39 pm

    I particularly liked the concept that perhaps “procrastination is a just a myelin-dense habit”. Going along with that, I think it’s possible to train an “ending procrastination” habit. The more I kick my self to get over a hump and back to work, the easier it becomes.

    Forcing myself to find my second wind while running trains my mind and makes it easier to overcome writer’s block. Making myself study in the evenings trains me to make myself shut down Facebook. Why? Because “avoiding distraction” is a skill I’m training.

    Reply
  12. James says:
    November 11, 2011 at 9:56 pm

    “Yeah, you. You reading this article right now, probably propping your head up with your left hand” – HAHA how did you know?

    Speaking of “do what you love”, have you read “The Millionaire Fastlane” by MJ DeMarco? He says that it’s extremely difficult to build a successful business if you’re trying to do what you love.

    He says that you just need to develop passion for an end goal (be it money, people who you want to prove wrong, freedom etc.). Doing what you love for a business is dangerous, because you can start a business that doesn’t solve any real problem or doesn’t fulfill any real need (plus there are thousands of people already trying to do what they love for a living, so there’s a lot of competition). And I agree with him. What’s your opinion?

    Reply
    • Glen says:
      November 11, 2011 at 10:15 pm

      Totally different viewpoint? I like it. Thanks for sharing!

      I haven’t, though I’ve seen Pat recommend it on his blog. It’s another one I’ll add to the list. When you say “He says that it’s extremely difficult to build a successful business if you’re trying to do what you love. ” that doesn’t really surprise me. That’s pretty much what I was getting at, it’s not enough to have something you love for its own sake. It’s fun, sure, but if you want to take control, you need to attach some definitive aim to that.

      Or what about if I turn that on it’s head. I would also imagine it’s EXTREMELY difficult to build a successful business if you’re not doing what you love.

      Are you in a typical job with a boss right now? If so, how is motivation for the money you’re getting paid going? Serious question. I can’t say that I ever found it getting me anywhere.

      There are always going to be conflicting models out there, everyone can back up their own points with enough ideas. I would be curious to read more about it though for sure.

      Do remember that this is not about marketing or even about building businesses. Thankfully for us, some people just want to become really great doctors, designers, chefs, event planners. You name it 🙂

      Reply
  13. Hugo says:
    November 11, 2011 at 10:05 pm

    Good stuff here, Glen. I can’t get enough of the productivity topic either ; )

    I really like the concept of training for distraction avoidance and I feel that I’ve recently embarked on a very similar journey (which has resulted in a significant drop in overall Twitter profile updates, etc.)

    I also find it helpful to push myself to keep working on a single long-term task (e.g. takes more than 1-2 hours to fully complete) without taking a break. I find it similar to sports/running training and so far the results have been promising.

    Thanks again for the long detailed piece and the great reading recos!

    Reply
    • Glen says:
      November 12, 2011 at 7:06 am

      Hey Hugo,

      Good to see you over here. That’s interesting. I find that when I’m really into something I actually have to stop myself from doing that, otherwise it’s going to run into other things I’m supposed to be doing.

      You’re welcome!

      Reply
      • Hugo says:
        November 12, 2011 at 1:21 pm

        Yeah, I get the same way when I’m doing the stuff I really enjoy (e.g. learning something new or researching something interesting or novel). It’s the more repetitive or somewhat mundane tasks that require me to focus on focusing ; )

        Reply
  14. Usman says:
    November 11, 2011 at 10:51 pm

    Wow, Beautiful Post. Reminded me of what Steve Jobs said – ‘Your time is limited’

    By the way Glen, whatever happened to your Million dollar site?

    Reply
    • Glen says:
      November 11, 2011 at 11:00 pm

      I have been working on it. Not a whole lot, but there’s progress. I really just never gave it enough attention

      Thanks! I’m glad you liked it 🙂

      Reply
  15. Gogo says:
    November 11, 2011 at 11:17 pm

    Glen,

    I have a hard time describing exactly what I like so much about this piece on productivity, but I’ll try:

    1. Productivity today is about what I call the 4Ps of productivity – prioritization, patience, planning, and preparation.

    None of it happens without prioritization because per the lessons of Barry Schwartz in “Paradox of Choice” (a great book if you haven’t read it), we are all facing an avalanche of choice, at least in Western (and Westernized) market societies…and it has the potential to make us seriously miserable with overload and indecision.

    Using “passion” or “doing what you love” as a framework to prioritize our attention and activity investment is as valid as any other logic…and from what you write, maybe even more so.

    2. The Power of Autonomy

    We have entered a new era where all sorts of unprecedented advances have been made in communication, collaboration and creative technologies. There is a tremendous opportunity for those who accept the responsibility to be auto-didacts – self-led, self-directed, and self-managed learners. I have made this argument to coaching and consulting clients, and to audiences in education and in business.

    This article gives me new insight as to just how much of a productivity and success advantage those who choose to answer the call to be auto-didacts will benefit. This doesn’t mean that you abandon all teacher-led learning, but that you select teachers based on curricula of our own design and choosing. That’s how the Steve Jobs’s and Bill Gates’s of the world were created.

    Those 10,000 hours are the Auto-Didact’s Curse – the time required to chart a course that of both ORIGINALITY and MASTERY.

    3. Your Writing

    This article is an amazing demonstration of how a skill improves with practice. I find it hard to believe that you were ever anything less than an amazingly skillful writer, capable of making complex concepts clear and accessible. This, may be, the most encouraging aspect of all with this article.

    Congratulations on being able to write a 6,000+ word blog post and have it be interesting and readable. I wrote a 2,000 word blog post once and I couldn’t read it myself.

    Amazing!

    Reply
    • Glen says:
      November 12, 2011 at 11:42 am

      Excellent comment Coach, thank you!

      Trust me when I say that my older articles are terrible. Reading some from the PluginID days (as good as the message may be) makes me cringe when I see all of the errors they contain.

      I appreciate your support; it means a lot.

      – G

      Reply
      • Gogo says:
        November 12, 2011 at 3:13 pm

        Thanks, Glen.

        I also forgot to mention…your mention of Jim Rohn… Jim Rohn was a treasure. He harkes back to the old days of sages and storytellers. I mourned him like my own relative the day he died.

        Reply
    • Ahmad says:
      December 18, 2011 at 1:34 pm

      Wow I learned so much from your comment Gogo and a new way of lookign at productivity and at Glen’s article… thanks! 🙂

      Reply
  16. Jeff says:
    November 11, 2011 at 11:30 pm

    Crazy good article.

    It’s great when someone takes a complex/difficult subject and simplifies it.

    I love Jim Rohn’s stuff and how he makes “life” sound so simple. The truth is that it is pretty simple but we complicate it unnecessarily.

    I really like how you put it:

    “The decision to get whatever it is that you want, if made, has to become your number one priority. You can’t just mix it into a group of things you’re trying to achieve. It can’t just be a thing it has to be THE thing.”

    I came across a really good video that touches on exactly what you wrote about. It has a few minor technical problems but it really hit home for me.

    You can check it out here, if interested:

    http://superbadinternetmarketing.com/how-to-succeed/

    Thanks for taking the time to research, write and share this!

    JC

    Reply
  17. Eric says:
    November 12, 2011 at 12:14 am

    Hey Glen,
    Loved the post. Your referral to Napolean Hills reminds me of a an acronym I use every morning when I wake up – DFPAC. This means:

    – Desire: You’ve got to have the burning desire for whatever you’re doing. Desire is the trait that will keep the motor rolling when tough times roll around. And they will.

    – Faith: You damn well better have confidence that you will succeed. Have you ever seen someone that isn’t confident do something at very high level? I doubt it.

    – Plan: A plan is a hypothesis of what your roadmap will look like in the coming months or years. However, be aware that a plan is just a guess. Things will change and you might have to pivot from your current plan. It’s still a very important to have a plan though.

    – Action: Ever read a bunch of blog posts with great tips or think of great ideas? Great, that all means nothing if you don’t take action. My rule with this is for every hour I spend researching, I use two on executing. This is my 2:1 ratio.

    – Consistency: This is by far the most important trait. If you nail all four of the steps above but give up when times get tough, then you’ll have done all that work for nothing. Consistency is what will get you to where you want to be.

    Cheers!
    -Eric Siu
    Co-founder of Evergreen Search

    Reply
    • Glen says:
      November 12, 2011 at 7:52 pm

      Hey Eric,

      That’s interesting. What do you mean by using it? Just reading it or it actually helps you get things done…

      Reply
  18. Danielle says:
    November 12, 2011 at 12:21 am

    This was a long article, but I’m glad I stumbled across it! Thank you for sharing your insight.

    Reply
  19. Robert @ The College Investor says:
    November 12, 2011 at 3:17 am

    Interesting article Glen. I find that sometimes I need to just power through. As much as I HATE it in the moment, I always feel better I did afterwards. Since I’m getting ready to launch a product soon, I feel exactly what you are describing. While not Promodoro, I stick to 30 minute intervals on things I hate – like proofreading copy!

    Reply
    • Glen says:
      November 12, 2011 at 7:53 pm

      Yep, I didn’t really find anything other than that for things that I just really don’t want to do.

      I enjoy proofreading though 😉

      Reply
  20. Allison says:
    November 12, 2011 at 5:23 am

    I especially love this line of your post: “If you just kind of want it, don’t expect anything more then just kind of wanted it results.”

    I’m often asked how I can possible write so much every day, and the answer is simple: I absolutely LOVE writing. Even on days I hate writing, I love writing. Explaining how this kind of productivity works to people who don’t have a passion for what they’re doing is something I’ve always found difficult, so thanks for writing this post!

    I also love the line “if you want $10,000 then you don’t get it by wanting or needing, but instead by providing $10,000 worth of value.” Amen to that!

    Reply
  21. Oisin says:
    November 12, 2011 at 6:46 am

    Incredible.

    That is all.

    Reply
  22. Anne Lyken-Garner says:
    November 12, 2011 at 8:33 am

    I’ve always enjoyed the quote by Winston Churchill. I know I’ve been guilty of finding answers to things but just picking myself up and wishing I had a pen to write down what I’d just discovered. It’s good to make a plan as you said, but also equally important to remember why you made it and what it was in the first place.

    Our modern lifestyle determines that we have very short memories. We never even have to remember anything, so the memory doesn’t get used too much. I don’t even know my own daughter’s phone number. If I lost my phone and needed to call her I’d be stuck.

    Reply
    • Glen says:
      November 13, 2011 at 8:09 am

      Hey Anne,

      Hah that’s very true; it’s actually something I’ve been reading a lot lately. Basically that we’re evolving ourselves into having a very low memory-span because we’re constantly just going to Google or elsewhere and finding the answers, not needing to remember any of them.

      Thanks for your comment!

      Reply
  23. Emelina Minero says:
    November 12, 2011 at 9:02 am

    Productivity is a huge back and forth battle for me. Lately I’ve been solidly on top of things, but that’s not always the case. My favorite slogan for being productive comes from Nike, “Just Do It!”

    Reply
  24. Shaun says:
    November 12, 2011 at 9:52 am

    “If you don’t love it, you’ll never work hard enough to be great.”

    I’m still trying to work out what it is that I’m passionate about. I’m so glad I read this post though, it’s everything I would want to say myself.

    Thanks Glen

    Reply
  25. Mohul says:
    November 12, 2011 at 12:05 pm

    Too much of wisdom to absorb in one single sitting.. Really appreciate and acknowledge the stuff which you tried to convey.. and eventually did.

    Hats off.

    My summary in few words: Do what you love and keep on doing that. with time and with the gracious help of Myelin, you will eventually succeed.. The burning desire and passion helps fuel your ambitions..

    Awesome.

    You have made my life a lot easier.. Gonna take a printout and stick it everywhere.. It shall be the manual for my life for atleast 6 months..

    And then I shall explain the changes I experienced..

    You always rock, sir..

    Reply
  26. Jeff says:
    November 12, 2011 at 1:18 pm

    Awesome post Glen. Very engaging read, and ties in with a lot of stuff I’ve been mulling over lately too. The connection between “Outliers” and Myelin is very interesting, I’ve read Outliers but not “The Talent Code”. Looks like that’s my next book purchase! Also highly agree on the Jim Rohn recommendation, the guy was a legend. I HIGHLY recommend stuff by Bryan Tracy also, he has excellent content.

    Reply
    • Glen says:
      November 13, 2011 at 8:18 am

      Thanks Jeff,

      It’s always good when you come to a conclusion that “starts to make sense”.

      I actually had a quote in here by Brian Tracy before hitting publish on the surroundings section.

      “People who aren’t going anywhere want company”.

      Reply
  27. Cathy Skipper says:
    November 12, 2011 at 1:41 pm

    Thank you for this post. Your provided a lot of food for thought, and I especially appreciated your research and references to those materials. I am at a cross-road in my life. When I’ve been stuck in the past I have followed the practice of stopping, listening and “doing the next right thing.” This works except when you realize that what you have allowed what you’ve been “listening to” become filtered by expectations of others.

    As far as your being able to write 6000+ words amazes me. I’ve spent at least 30 minutes writing and re-writing this simple message.

    Thank you for helping me with gaining some perspective of where I am, how I got here and a way to find a new path.

    Reply
    • Glen says:
      November 13, 2011 at 8:19 am

      You’re welcome Cathy,

      Hah, well I spent a good 4-5 days putting the whole post together (besides the research) so it wasn’t too simple.

      You’re welcome, thanks for the comment!

      Reply
  28. Kate Baker says:
    November 12, 2011 at 4:30 pm

    Excellent article! Interesting and thought provoking – I read it from start to finish without my mind drifting off as it usually does. Thankyou.

    Reply
  29. travelwriter says:
    November 12, 2011 at 5:15 pm

    Good job as ever, Glen..

    The best book about productivity, combined with better living and more success I know is
    “The lazy way to success” from Fred Gratzon. Perhaps you´ll try it.

    Cheers,
    Markus

    Reply
  30. gerry says:
    November 12, 2011 at 7:56 pm

    Glen, this article is great and it is a direct compliment to what I write about on my site. I have created a simple way to achieve your goals by getting to the root of why we fail, and change them. By altering your habits and creating habits that support the required behavior to accomplish your goals you will eventually achieve them. Thanks for the great article, and I plan on writing an article that uses this post as support for it.

    Gerry

    Reply
  31. Jared Silver says:
    November 12, 2011 at 8:32 pm

    My one productivity tip that makes all the difference for myself and my clients:

    “Doing things is not the same as getting things done.”

    Reply
  32. Richard Goutal says:
    November 12, 2011 at 8:40 pm

    Thanks for taking the time to summarize all that you learned and didn’t learn about productivity. And for doing it so well. (BTW, it was my right arm.) I have not read a lot on the subject myself, but that is in part because a lot of what I see on the topic by others is either more “woo-woo” than I can tolerate (from the “Secret” crowd to the “Purpose Driven Life” crowd), or is so laden with “steps” and tactics that it seems wearily impossible.

    Consequently, I appreciated immensely the way you integrated the best ideas from what you read – no BS – just weighing theory from various writers against the reality of your own experiences and against the theories of others. Distilling it. A bit like the process of making maple syrup.

    I had forgotten about the 25 minute Pomodoro thingey. But I have certainly found that I have to let up for 25 minutes (or more) and I need to put that into my life more frequently (build up some myelin for reflection?). Amazing how I can get clarity on something I have struggled with for days by going for a walk, raking the leaves, or cutting the grass.

    OK – I guess I’ll have to read the Talent Code. But as someone who spent a lot of time as a “technical training consultant” I can tell you that the research on “practice” is abundant. So much time is wasted on “training” or “learning activities” that have no practice that it is appalling. It dovetails with the myelin research.

    Thanks again.

    Reply
    • Glen says:
      November 14, 2011 at 9:20 am

      Hey Richard,

      Hah really? No mouse in your hand then? 😉

      Great comment! Thanks for taking the time to share your feedback.

      – G

      Reply
  33. Todd says:
    November 12, 2011 at 10:46 pm

    Have you read the book “Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress Free Productivity” By David Allen? It is a straight forward no nonsense process for improving efficiency.
    You should check it out.

    Reply
  34. Sandi says:
    November 12, 2011 at 11:23 pm

    Hmmm . . . very profound. Not what I was expecting from you Glenn, but more.

    I read a lot of stuff; anything I feel will propel me toward my goal. I practice, practice, practice and I get better and better.

    Now I have to work at getting myself out there. That is the hard part for me, but to be successful I have to do it. I will try that 25 minute thing. I will also put the building good habits thing to work.

    I like another post you did about not being afraid and other things to consider with blogging. One of the first articles of yours I read.

    This was time well spent for me. Thank you for consolidating the research.

    Reply
    • Glen says:
      November 14, 2011 at 9:41 am

      Thanks Sandi. As far as the ‘not expecting’ goes, I’m not sure if that’s a good thing or a bad thing 😉

      You’re very welcome!

      Thanks for the comment.

      Reply
      • Sandi says:
        November 14, 2011 at 12:05 pm

        Glen, it is a good thing. I find all of your posts valuable to what I am doing. This particular touched on a subject I am having doubts on. It helps shape things up for me. Thank you.

        Reply
  35. Pavel says:
    November 12, 2011 at 11:36 pm

    Great piece, Glen.

    The only thing that could make this awesome article better is perhaps a quick summary at the end of the main principle.

    Don’t know if it’s just me, but I skipped more than a few lines while reading this article, reading for bold statements and a summary list. Perhaps it’s just my ADD though 🙂

    Reply
    • Glen says:
      November 13, 2011 at 8:26 am

      Yeah, it wasn’t really an article I could write for skim-readers.

      I guess that’s just because of my angle on the topic. “See everything I see and maybe you’ll get the same conclusion”.

      Thanks for reading though.

      – G

      Reply
  36. Matt says:
    November 13, 2011 at 2:22 am

    My favorite line :-; was this one:

    “Think back to Tiger Woods getting the necessary Myelin to be skilled in tennis.”

    Tiger Woods plays golf.

    Reply
    • Glen says:
      November 13, 2011 at 8:24 am

      I guess you didn’t read the whole post? 🙂

      “I can now assume an interesting idea: If Tiger Woods had started to play tennis at three years old instead of golf and really enjoyed it (thanks to AMP), he would be one of the best tennis players in the world today.”

      Reply
  37. Ian says:
    November 13, 2011 at 7:03 am

    Hardly ever do I encounter a weblog that’s both educated and entertaining, and let me tell you, you may have hit the nail on the head. Your thought is outstanding; the problem is something that not sufficient individuals are speaking intelligently about. I am very comfortable that I stumbled throughout this in my quest for info referring to this.

    Reply
  38. Sandra Boehner says:
    November 13, 2011 at 12:16 pm

    Dude, this is OUTSTANDING!

    It’s about time you wrapped your wisdom up and published it in book-format me thinks 😉

    There are so many people who really need a wake up call to take their lives into their own hands. Most of my friends and family for starters – sooo busy, sooo unproductive, sooo unhappy. Yet they all don’t read blogs unfortunately…

    PS: Seriously, this is one of my favourite blog posts of all time –

    A topic that is very close to my heart, and that I’m experimenting with on a daily basis, too. So all your literature references are very welcome

    Reply
    • Glen says:
      November 14, 2011 at 9:22 am

      Thanks Sandra!

      Hah I would but it took 80 comments for someone to suggest it so maybe I shouldn’t 😉

      Seriously though, it’s something I’ve thought about, but I’m not sure I’ll ever go about doing it.

      Thanks again 🙂

      Reply
  39. Sandi says:
    November 13, 2011 at 1:56 pm

    I spelled your name wrong in a previous post, Glen. Sorry about that.

    Reply
  40. Adam Humphreys says:
    November 13, 2011 at 3:16 pm

    “Do a job you love and never work a day in your life” – Confucious
    Kaizen philosophy “Continuous improvement”

    Reply
  41. Tom says:
    November 13, 2011 at 5:23 pm

    I’ve read a lot of books, a lot of blogs, and listened to a lot of self-development speakers, and this post really connects a lot of those different philosophies together. From NLP to Outliers to Steve Jobs’ Stanford speech to Tony Robbins to neuroscience.

    This is an amazing article, Glen.

    Reply
  42. Remco says:
    November 13, 2011 at 6:16 pm

    What I like to add is that one needs a LOVE-HATE relationship with whatever you want to achieve.
    I recently read the autobiography of Andre Agassi “OPEN” and he just kept repeating that he hated tennis.
    At the end Stephi Graff also admits to hate this.

    I know quite some athletes, and they love what they do, but they also hate it. I guess the hate is more focussed towards the discipline and routine they need to have to excel and get their desired results.

    on a closing note: I just love Jim Rohn, who actually got Tony Robbins started.

    And I am currently reading Think and Grow Rich on my ipad, which also is a fabulous reading, especially considering the fact that the book is 74 years old !

    Reply
  43. Ronny says:
    November 13, 2011 at 9:33 pm

    Great article Glen. My eyes actually hurts now, have been a long time since I have read such a long article :-), Or it may be that I should be in bed now….

    Reply
  44. Chris Slinger says:
    November 13, 2011 at 9:42 pm

    Hi Glen.
    Firstly I was proping my head up with my right hand not my left. You know, you are less than half my age and you have come to realise all this, wheras I have only come to realise it in the last couple of years. You truly are lucky, although, in my day there was no internet to try and do busines on, just getting a part time job.

    At 48 I still havnt found what i really love to do. I seem to start something, find it interesting, then loose interest. So can you do a post on how to find your true passion next???

    Thanks for a great post.

    Reply
  45. Dave Starr says:
    November 14, 2011 at 12:45 am

    Being 66 years old, I particularly liked the example of Doug Morris.

    Being “formally” retired (as in drawing a pension and not having to report to an office), I feel pretty fortunate .. but fortunate only in the sense this allows me time to do things that interest and excite me.

    I’m appalled, or at the least, confused, by men and women my age who want to sit on their butts and do nothing, because they “earned” it. What a horrendous waste of time and talent.

    Like Tony Hawk, I don’t intend getting off this skateboard until my legs no longer work. This IS the time of our lives (the only thing everyone of gets our “fair share of”, so why not LIVE as if it’s the time of our lives.

    What, anyone out there not reached 66 yet? Fear not, it’ll be here sooner than you think, if you’re lucky.

    What will you do with your life between now and then?

    Reply
  46. Ralph says:
    November 14, 2011 at 12:54 am

    Wow…. I haven’t read the whole post yet as I didn’t want to forget what I was trying to tell you.

    I’m currently reading the “Free” book by Chris Anderson… Really such a great book and opens various new avenues we can take our business. I loved “The Long Tail” so decided this one would be a good follow up..

    Ok.. back to reading the post.

    Reply
  47. Takeshi says:
    November 14, 2011 at 1:46 am

    Check out the book “Talent is Overrated” by Geoff Colvin. It covers a lot of the same topics as your post, and it literally blew my mind when I read it.

    Reply
  48. Vijay says:
    November 14, 2011 at 6:43 am

    Glen,

    This is a brilliant article and very timely Couldn’t stop it once I started.

    I am reading Steve Job’s riveting biography and I have come to a similar realization. First and foremost, We got to insanely love what we do. Once we have this, We just have to handle the distractions and focus and then everything else falls into place.

    About Jim Rohn It took a long.. long time before I understood what he meant by “philosophy”. Sometime the Journey of discovering something is very good. I know it is a lot difficult to explain but you have explained it brilliantly with the Vietnam examples and “Wow Nerd”.

    Thanks for the timely inspiration . Keep sending us these kind of fabulous posts.

    Reply
  49. Thanh Pham says:
    November 14, 2011 at 9:50 am

    Wow this took forever to read! In a good way.

    I’m a little confused what you were really trying to hit home with everyone. It’s obvious you’re a self-help enthusiast with the books you’ve read and that really shines through. A lot of good points were made but I missed the connection between all of them. My guess is that taking 100% responsibility is the core essence behind productivity. You could argue it’s “taking action no matter what” is too.

    Reply
    • Glen says:
      November 15, 2011 at 8:32 am

      My argument is that I didn’t find anything. I didn’t find any secret.

      I found what I found, and what I do with the rest is totally up to me. It’s very much about looking at your current life situation and deciding whether that’s acceptable for you. Are you going to try and use productivity methods on things you don’t enjoy and aren’t passionate about, or are you going to align your life with the things you do care about, and do everything you possibly can to make that happen.

      When I quit my job at age 19 (and haven’t worked for anyone since) you can be sure that nothing else had been my focus leading up to that point.

      Decide for yourself, what is going to make a difference?

      Reply
  50. Haroun Kola says:
    November 14, 2011 at 10:22 am

    Nice article Glen, I’ve learnt lots of great tips and look forward to implementing them in my life 🙂

    Reply
  51. sree says:
    November 14, 2011 at 10:48 am

    Very thoughtful post Glen.

    The post felt like An Instant Personality Development Course in 6,000+ words. Personally this article has made me to stop.think and decide to take a decision .. where am i heading? and i am glad i made it 🙂

    Thanks very much Glen !!!

    Reply
  52. Cristina Ansbjerg says:
    November 14, 2011 at 10:55 am

    Wow, Glen. I don’t know what to say. This post is full of brilliant concepts… and brilliant conclusions. I could write a comment as long as your post, lol.
    One of the many thoughts I have in my mind right now is that every day I do so many things that are not money-driven (yet I don’t feel I’m wasting my time) that maybe I could be rich if I did them for money.

    I’ll re-read your post and think about some of its points. It deserves deeper analysis.

    Cristina

    Reply
    • Glen says:
      November 14, 2011 at 11:51 am

      Hey Cristina,

      I wondered where you were 😉

      I have some thoughts on answering that but I want to think about it a bit more. There are sooo many things we do not driven by money, but of course for at least survival then we have to focus on something for $. Putting a focus on something you really love doing seems to be my best suggestion right now.

      Even after writing 6,000 words, I think I have to mull it over a bit more as well!

      – G

      Reply
  53. Stuart McLeod says:
    November 14, 2011 at 11:44 am

    Hi Glen,

    Followed you for a while, thanks for another great article and some good advice I hope your readers take on board.

    Cheers

    Reply
  54. Cathy Presland says:
    November 14, 2011 at 11:58 am

    Great article Glen, Lots of books I love like Drive and The Talent Code. And I know -it’s shocking to think how much time the average person spends watching TV. Or in the car. Or on social media. Do less of the mindless and more of the mindful!

    Thanks 🙂

    Cathy

    Reply
  55. MaryM says:
    November 14, 2011 at 12:21 pm

    Very succinct post Agree that a book would be good (perhaps with some funky illustrations). I’m going to do one myself (maybe tomorrow!!)

    Am a recent subscriber and faithfully learning the new skills through the BloggingCaseStudy but as many a procrastinator with low attention span and mad/impulsive/creative (the medics call it ADHD) the Pomodoro (25 mins) is my favourite suggestion. It resonates with the maxim that ” if motivation gets you going only habits keep you going” (paraphrased Jim Ryun).

    I too easily become distracted by the interesting things I find on my route somewhere and can spend hours deviating.

    Also liked Jared’s “doing things is not the same as getting things done” comment. I have worked for many years watching those around me being painfully busy without achieving much!

    Feel inspired so only have to break those habits (decorating my office instead of working in it, reading self help books instead of writing them, writing plans instead of executing them – world is full enough of plans and lists …..)

    Great fun following your posts! Take care

    Reply
  56. Debz says:
    November 14, 2011 at 12:28 pm

    Fantastically, inspiring post Glen. Thank you 🙂 I am working hard to reach the point where I’m spending my days doing what I love.

    Reply
  57. nicky says:
    November 14, 2011 at 1:47 pm

    Glen, this is such an insightful post. I’ve also been on a journey – soaking up all the knowledge and words of wisdom in some of the books you talk about – Think & Grow Rich, Outliers, and countless others- and I didn’t realise it until you mentioned it. This journey of reading and wanting to understand what makes human beings tick, what drives us and particularly how I can achieve what I want has, in itself, proved the point of desire. I want to understand, I have discovered so much more about myself and now it’s time to take action. I know exactly what I want to achieve, and I know exactly how I’m going to do it.

    Thanks for an amazing post, and some cool new books, which I’ve already bought on my kindle.

    Looking forward to hearing what this new project of yours is, next year.

    All the best.

    Nicky 🙂

    Reply
  58. Scott says:
    November 14, 2011 at 3:39 pm

    Glenn, really great post!

    I’ve found that creating for yourself the belief that YOU are what created your success and that even if you lose it all, YOU can get it back because of your skills and who you are, has been incrediblely useful for me. Its allowed me to become comfortable in situations of uncertainty and overall, be a more self-reliant, confident individual.

    I think where that fits in with productivity is that the above mindset allows to trust yourself and follow heart when you find a new path that excites you, even if it may be more risky in the short term. Its an enabling mindset that puts you in a position to challenge yourself and become a better person, which will increase productivity over the long haul.

    One thing I’d like to add is that momentum plays a huge role in my personal productivity, and sometimes the best thing I can do for myself is just START. Once I get myself into the mode of productive work, theres is a compounding effect to it. Though the same holds true with unproductive, mindless, time wasters. I still struggle with getting sucked into mindless activity and then having the momentum build into several hours of lost time.

    Reply
  59. Mark Aylward says:
    November 14, 2011 at 4:49 pm

    Glenn
    Amazingly prolific and I won’t attempt to compete with the volume (or the insight), but in the spirit of keeping things simple I liken many things to exercise and/or sport (as you’ve done with Tiger here). I’ve had lifelong experience with sport and it mirrors life in that; If you think you can do it, you can, and you learn how to run a marathon by first running a mile. We can literally do whatever we want if we think we can and commit to it with undying perseverance. We are limited only by ourselves and no matter how many posts or books you read, it’s ultimately up to you. All good sayings and writings on similar topics are really the same, simply stated differently.
    Cheers on your inspiration!
    Mark

    Reply
  60. David W says:
    November 14, 2011 at 5:17 pm

    It’s not unusual for me to enjoy a piece of your writing, but this one is the whole damn cake.

    You’ve somehow written one piece that sums up the insanities I feel and the reason I want to keep pursuing them for all my days.

    Thanks brother! This is so good!

    Reply
  61. Brandon Johnson says:
    November 14, 2011 at 5:52 pm

    Glen
    Thanks for taking the time to put all of your thoughts down into a great article. This is a topic that has interested me as well. I think because I have been looking for a silver bullet. But, there is no easy way around it, everything takes hard work. Having a passion for what you are doing makes that hard work more enjoyable. I find that when I am truly doing something I enjoy time seems to disappear and I just lose myself in the moment.

    Keep up the great work!

    Brandon

    Reply
  62. Drama says:
    November 14, 2011 at 6:22 pm

    What a phenomenal post Glen. Thanks for taking the time to share this!

    Zach

    Reply
  63. Caleb says:
    November 14, 2011 at 6:40 pm

    Regardless of a persons belief, race, or sex after studying anything for a certain period of time one line in this post stands out:

    then my process and viewpoint should eventually evolve..

    To me life is all about evolving and if what you are trying to do is not in some way connected to that then it is the wrong thing to be doing and therefore very UNproductive!

    Now I am not saying you must be perfect but as Vince Lombardi once said “Perfection is not attainable but if we chase perfection, we can catch excellence”… I got that from the book WIN by Dr.Frank Luntz another great resource for you Glen and anybody else reading this 😉

    probably propping your head up with your left hand (hah)

    You so busted me with this one 😆

    btw,
    Thanks for making the free Viperbar as it has really been helping to increase my subscriber base. Do you plan on evolving it?

    Reply
  64. Rafael Tano says:
    November 14, 2011 at 7:02 pm

    Glenn,
    This is a fantastic post. I’m twenty years old and go to Florida International University studying advertising. I worked as a project manager for an SEO company (one of the top 3 for “SEO agency” in Google) and I learned so much from it. Honestly, I’m not even sure if SEO falls under advertisement. I loved doing SEO for the company and I was very creative with it, but I left to start my own agency. I find it so hard to acquire clients, especially as a kid in college. Because of this I’m really doubting myself.
    According to Erik Erickson’s stages of development I’m going through the identity vs. confusion stage. I feel like your article can go hand in hand with this stage of Erickson’s theory.

    Reply
    • Kirk Eisele says:
      November 15, 2011 at 5:17 pm

      It sounds like you have the skillset to do the work but are at the beginning of developing your skillset around getting clients. Try not to let it frustrate you too much that clients don’t just react logically to your clear abilities and knowledge. Learning to navigate the irrational/emotional ways that other human beings make decisions will serve you well for the rest of your life. That’s the real power of sales experience and training.

      A quote I like that helped back when I was doing client sales work:
      “People only do things for two reasons. The one that sounds good and the real one.”

      Good luck!

      Reply
  65. Yolanda says:
    November 14, 2011 at 10:11 pm

    It’s been a LOOONNG while since I’ve visited this blog and I came back at the perfect time. Loved this post (and shared it with others)! This topic has been on my radar over the last year and you summed up what I have found very well. I didn’t have the terminology down though – you really put a lot of research into this blog post! I’ve come to a similar conclusion about doing what I love, as much as I can, and it will pay off for my life. I’m just working on being more strategic about it (which brought me back to your blog today). I think an addition to that is to make sure I’m being authentic to my true self… this takes care of any competition worries too – no one else can provide my personal perspective!

    I’ve gotten discouraged in the past but I’m fully embracing the fact that I only get one shot at this and it’s MY shot to take. Thank you for sharing your perspective!

    Reply
  66. Rachael says:
    November 15, 2011 at 2:24 am

    “The decision to get whatever it is that you want, if made, has to become your number one priority. You can’t just mix it into a group of things you’re trying to achieve. It can’t just be a thing it has to be the thing.”

    This point alone made me stop in my (reading) tracks and then further cemented my resolve to keep fighting for what I am aiming for.

    Great post Glen!! Well worth waiting for!

    Reply
  67. Dana Duncan says:
    November 15, 2011 at 2:36 am

    Great article Glenn! It’s hard to write a long article as well as you did and keep your audience’s attention all the way to the end. Clearly from all the positive feedback and comments you accomplished just that, much respect.

    I can personally relate to the part about getting stuck in certain habits that absolutely kill productivity. Before I quit my job a year and half ago, I was working in a typical 9-to-5 office setting. People would setup meetings to talk about the next meeting, and replying to email quickly and writing documents was emphasized more than completing real projects. In other words, productivity wasn’t close to the top priority.

    When I quit and started working for myself full time, I was really struggling with productivity at the beginning. No matter how much I worked I just couldn’t get as much done as I wanted. Eventually it dawned on me that a lot of these bad habits from my old job were harder to leave behind than the job itself! I’ve worked hard to eliminate a lot of these habits (such as checking email ALL THE TIME). By doing things in a more focuses, less distracted way OVER and OVER every day my productivity has skyrocketed. It’s still not perfect, but as you put it I’m “getting on the right side of Myelin”.

    Again, thanks for such a well-written post!

    Reply
  68. Bobby Huang says:
    November 15, 2011 at 4:55 am

    It’s funny you mention the covering of skin in Vietnam.

    I’m currently living here and folks go to great lengths to cover their skin and bodies, many look like ninjas.

    I make fun of some of the folks I know who do this, just for fun, that all the time they spend putting on all the clothes and taking it off after a bike ride, they could use to build wealth to get the “car” they want.

    A car is a super status symbol here and I can see how it ties in with being not tanned. I also think lighter skin is considered beauty by many folks in the east, not just wealth.

    Usually darker women/men work in the fields/outside which is meant as poor to many folks.

    —

    I didn’t really think about South Korea like that, I love playing games, and spend my time trying to stop the habit and focus on my business.

    I’ll keep it in mind, I may choose to become a professional gamer in the future.

    Well, I’ll be off to creating some Myelin for internet marketing, and my product creation.

    I gotta focus focus focus and keep building these muscles, I love what I’m doing, but as you mention, the work I sometimes procrastinate.

    Reply
  69. Morten Pauch says:
    November 15, 2011 at 8:34 am

    Sometimes the answer is right in front of you.
    I did get quite a few “aha” moments from this nice article of yours.
    However, what struck me the most, was how much time I would be able to cut out of an ordinary “habit”-day of my own?

    I already eliminated a lot of TV-watching, but I wonder what else I could easily live without in order to boost my productivity? – Social Medias, Newspapers, Newsletters, RSS – readings, Random Surfing etc. I think I’ll try to invest a little time on finding out where I would be able to get even more time in return.

    Thanks

    Reply
  70. Sameh says:
    November 15, 2011 at 9:15 am

    As you noted, looking at how much time and energy you put reading, watching videos, searching for an answer to your original question on finding an effective productivity methods without you even know was a good way to look at it. Wanting/Loving to find an answer to your question was enough to make you productive without you even know it .. Maybe for a shorter period of time but it’s enough to make you try to scale it.

    As usual, I really enjoyed every minute reading your post.

    Reply
  71. John says:
    November 15, 2011 at 9:18 am

    This post is spot on.

    I’ve been thinking about this a lot lately. Being productive is simple. So is losing weight, stopping smoking, making money, building muscle, and any other goal. Books and content exist simply because most people prefer to read about doing something rather than just doing it, whereas the people who succeed just get busy and do it.

    Mental rehearsal and visualisation have their place though, as they can be a way of creating new neural pathways and using myelin to condition them. And doing it has potent effects in reality too. The key is to make it vivid.

    Reply
    • Glen says:
      November 16, 2011 at 10:11 am

      Yep. Success is not some overnight event. Just simple steps in the right direction over a long enough time period 🙂

      Thanks for the comment John!

      Reply
  72. Tim von J says:
    November 15, 2011 at 4:59 pm

    I had this post sitting on my work desktop since last week and finally managed to read it. Best spent time in a while!

    I never realised that autonomy actually fuels my desires. I’m very easy to motivate and burn hot for a new thing. Sometimes however, I burn out too fast and I never really understood why. I lost autonomy.

    I had a business that I absolutely loved until a few months ago when I totally lost all enjoyment. Now I understand why. I had lost my autonomy because of two new business partners. While reading your post I understood that simple point and that was really a BIG aha moment. Holy ****!

    Just as I was wondering where to go with that business you completely opened my eyes to something that I knew deep within all along.

    Glen seriously – a huge thank you. You’ve opened my eyes a few times already but this one was the biggest help you’ve ever given me.

    Much appreciated. If you ever need a place to stay in Munich, I owe you!

    Cheers Tim

    Reply
    • Glen says:
      November 16, 2011 at 10:09 am

      Tim,

      It’s so awesome to read that you clicked with a lot of the things here! I’m glad I could help

      Thanks a lot for the offer. I have been to Germany but would love to check out Munich.

      Keep well!

      – G

      Reply
      • Tim says:
        November 16, 2011 at 10:56 pm

        Whenever you want to come here you’re very much welcome. We’ll get you some Lederhosen and visit the REAL Oktoberfest 😉

        Btw already acted upon the insights from yesterday. It’s impressive how much 6,000 words can change.

        Reply
  73. Maria says:
    November 15, 2011 at 6:50 pm

    Thank you so much, Glen, for this amazing and motivating post!

    Reply
  74. Dorothy says:
    November 15, 2011 at 6:57 pm

    Wonderful post Glen. Find what you love to do and you never have to work a day in your life and the money comes. When you love what you do, you do focus; however, you can’t allow interference from outside sources–help yes, encouragement yes, but you have to do what you know is best regardless of what others think. We are totally responsible for what we do and who we are and we must focus on our goals and not permit our time to be wasted whether through our own negligence or interference from outside sources. That, however, does not negate responsibilities toward those closest to us when they are in need, but when everything is OK on the home front just focus on your goals and avoid time wasters.

    Reply
  75. Edgar says:
    November 16, 2011 at 8:16 pm

    gosh with over 6,000 words did you forget to mention anything else lol jk

    nice work

    Reply
  76. 3bagsfull says:
    November 16, 2011 at 10:38 pm

    Great article! I am going to start using the pomodoro method and see how it goes. 25 minutes is very doable. I also am going to read The Talent Code – I want to learn more the research – very interesting.

    I look forward to an update with the Guardian writer.

    Reply
  77. Alan Valdez - Negocios Por Internet says:
    November 17, 2011 at 3:58 pm

    Hey Viperchill,

    More than a productivity post I saw it as an Inspirational one. I think this is something we always need to remember. The “why” of the things we are doing, that would give us the focus and motivation to do whatever comes in our travell.

    Thanks a lot.

    Saludos desde México, tienes un gran fan aquí 🙂

    Reply
  78. emile says:
    November 20, 2011 at 3:10 am

    Amazing!!!!!!!!

    Reply
  79. Sean Davis says:
    November 20, 2011 at 12:53 pm

    I had to share on Facebook, Twitter, and Google+ with this one. I also had to subscribe. What an outstanding piece of writing here.

    Reply
  80. Jim says:
    November 20, 2011 at 7:39 pm

    Thnx for the treat! But yeah Thnkx for spending the time to discuss this, I feel strongly about it and love studying extra on this topic.

    Reply
  81. Jay Sallas says:
    November 25, 2011 at 2:41 am

    Wow that was a long read!
    I have read about the ‘Napoleon’s Six Step process’ and truly believe in it!

    I will likely be checking out The Talent code’ .. if they have a audio book version lol

    Thanks again for your post!

    Reply
  82. Tim Soulo says:
    November 25, 2011 at 12:12 pm

    I did really notice that when you have a pattion for something, you don’t need any tips or techniques to get it done.

    But it’s risky to follow your pattions and the 9to5 job seems more comfortable. That makes me sad.

    Reply
  83. Chloe says:
    November 26, 2011 at 5:39 am

    Glen, you are the bomb. I am learning so much from you. Thanks so much.

    Chloe

    Reply
  84. Blog Tyrant says:
    November 27, 2011 at 4:53 am

    I feel like I could write a whole essay-comment for this one.

    I find the drive for success interesting from an evolutionary point of view; people are often driven to work hard and innovate because that’s what mammals are designed to do.

    Secondly, I think something that may be missing (on purpose) from this article is that a lot of successful people have MASSIVE egos. Steve Jobs, for example, was said to be quite a mean guy. Investment bankers love to see their portfolios rise while their “mates'” fail. I wonder if this is an evolutionary thing too?

    Lastly, I encountered a concept in the Buddhist monasteries in the Himalayas called Bodhicitta – the idea that every thought, word and deed you do should be for the benefit of other beings as that is the only way to live a meaningful life and have no regrets at death.

    I find that concept drives me on more than growth for my own sake.

    Tyrant.

    Reply
  85. Marcos says:
    November 28, 2011 at 10:02 am

    Thanks a lot for such and inspiring and educations the post.

    Myelinating is, clearly to me then, the scientific probe for will and key to success, whatever it is. Autonomy, mastery and purpose, the pillars.

    My personal point is, what if I tend to myelinate all things that I love or make me happy? Do I loose focus (said to be absolutely key to success because of the alignment of resources applied to a purpose) or just give it to a more abstract or superior intention?

    Cheers,

    m

    Reply
  86. Jason Chen says:
    November 28, 2011 at 9:50 pm

    You’re either productive or you’re not. Its kind of more like a state of mind. I discovered this book almost a year back. Books like these used to give me a highs, when the high wore off – I was back to being my unproductive self again. And then I found stability…

    Reply
  87. Boni says:
    December 4, 2011 at 6:20 am

    Hey Glen,

    You are awesome man!
    You write extraordinary articles… Cheers to that!

    Just one thing i wanna share with u about this post, it was seriously bit long.

    I want short post from you with the same essence, if possible!

    Thanks!

    Reply
  88. Zach says:
    December 5, 2011 at 6:19 pm

    Hi Glen,
    This is the first post of yours that I have read, and I’m afraid if I read more I will only be disappointed.

    Maybe it’s because I’ve been on a similar search that this article resonated so well with me. I think also your piece is written more from my perspective (the reader’s) than from that of the “expert’s” (the authors’ – Napoleon Hill, Jim Rohn, etc).

    Also, I particularly enjoyed the length and depth of your article. Many blog posts on these types of topics are often quick and short (BOOM!! BANG!!!) and lack any sort of real substance (as is much of the media presented to us these days).

    I’ll for sure pick up a copy of The Talent Code – I definitely identify well with the more science-based books.

    Best of luck with everything!
    Zach

    Reply
  89. Ahmad says:
    December 18, 2011 at 1:18 pm

    Hey Glen,

    I’ve followed your blog(s) and your success for quite a while.

    I’m always curious on the productivity and mindsets that successful people have so I can learn and get better in living those shoes.
    One thing I love about your writing is that you are very open, honest, and give out your real take on the story with all the value you can possibly give.
    It was through your 7 life lessons article, that I found out about Sedona Method which helped me out alot, as well as my new discoveries I have yet to read on The Talent Code, Psychocybernetics, Pomodoro Method.

    I learned alot that productivity and loving activities essentially are not going to be developed by some secret system that forces you to get everything you want to get done. In essence all time management and this is, is managing ourselves. We want to understand how to get results we want, but we never sit and observe how we think, feel, and function at a deep level. I learned the essential key to productivity and success(from Islam and from Zen and from these courses) is that it would be much easier if we first calmed our inner emotions and thoughts down… a state of being in life in a clear flow from activity to activity! Then we can focus for hours even on activities we want and enjoy each moment like eating our favorite food or playing video games! The only problem with such a focus on developing productivity is that it requires patience to develop and isn’t your quick fix type of solution.
    Most rich and “successful” people are those who out of dumb luck found loved a certain art, and it happened to be that that specific art was highly valued by the rest of society= high pay. As Coyle mentioned, they don’t even know how they do the great things they do! For the small percentage who do understand and consciously develop themselves in a direction they want, they can master multiple arts and be great at it! Famous Examples are: Muhammad, Bill Gates, Gandi, Edison. These multi-talent code successful people are those who truly understand the power within themselves.
    For practical purposes: Simple reflections and/or prayers and meditations with a high level of consciousness daily help foster such a mindset and state of being.
    Hope this helps someone!
    -Ahmad

    Reply
  90. Trevor "Will" Watkinson says:
    December 26, 2011 at 4:07 am

    Hi Glen,

    I had to leave a comment here to say how refreshing it is to see someone writing about productivity and happiness as they relate to passion!

    So many sites exist today where the authors are sharing their journey of trying to “quit their job” and work from home in an effort to inspire others, yet how is that inspiring?

    One blog I have read in the past is written by a guy who openly admits that he HATES his job in the financial industry, so he is building his blog so he can eventually quit and work from home. What he does not understand is that unless he devotes 100% of his effort to his blog, his dream of quitting the financial industry may never happen.

    In contrast to that blog, your fantastic post accurately points out what I have learned from reading close to 50 different books recently that are related to happiness, passion, purpose and life balance:

    1) Quitting the regular workforce to work from home is not necessarily the key to happiness for everyone.

    2) Doing what you love is always the best idea for a vocation (examining your favorite activities from childhood is a great place to start).

    3) Time is limited. If you are not happy in your current job, then quit NOW. Don’t hesitate. Go find something that makes you excited to get out of bed in the morning.

    I quit my last job about a week ago because it inspired no passion in me and was detrimental to my health and relationships. I am currently taking time off to determine my passions!

    So thanks for another great post! Your blog is insightful, well written and totally credible due to the fact that you obviously do what you love.

    Reply
  91. Cason says:
    December 26, 2011 at 9:16 pm

    Holy shit AMAZING post. I’ve learnt so much. Especially about the Myelin thing and surrounding bit which I’ve implemented in my life about a week ago.

    It’s delivering great results for me. I’ve created a new “business account” for my Facebook/Twitter, turned off my phone, MSN, basically isolating myself from my old “surrounding” and creating a completely new one. Just last week, I’ll be hating myself for playing 5 games of DotA every day, spending 2 hours coming up with hilarious tweets every day, playing Tetris Battle on Facebook until my game-energy dries out, and ending up not pursuing my passions. (not that DotA isn’t one of them, but it’s lower priority cause it’s a frickin game)

    Your habits and surroundings can KILL you. It will force you into do things you’d hate yourself for doing, every single fucking day. And worst of all, it gives yourself a logical reason that it’s okay to live your life like that (because everyone else is doing the same anyway!).

    Basically, getting stuck in a bad habit and environment comes down to this — it’s a choice between having no ambition, or hating yourself everyday for having an ambition. That’s definitely not a good way to live your life. But your logical side of your brain will convince yourself that it is…. logic’s a bitch.

    On the ambition/passion side,

    I’ve been searching for the “ultimate answer” for motivation and happiness and the closest that came in is the book Drive by Daniel Pink. And as well as Strengths Finder 2.0 by Tom Rath.

    I discovered that many of our “passions” are not really passions at all. We just deeply crave for a few things during the activity — a combination of purposes. (I know it doesn’t really make sense now, just keep reading..)

    It really doesn’t make sense that we’re biologically wired to somehow love golf or writing. God didn’t somehow make Tiger Woods love golf. I believe it’s a combination of things that we’re exposed to when we were in our growing stages of life (I’d say 2-6 years old) which built up the deep core foundation of our current mindset.

    We deeply crave for a few things. And the activity that provides just the right amount of each “thing” we crave for, is our largest passion.

    Personally, I’m still in the midst of self-discovery, but I think I’m coming rather close. For now, I think I’m driven by a major combination of competition, ideation (is it even a word?), and self-assurance. Note: 3 of these came from the 5 “strengths” I got from Strengths Finder 2.0. I highly recommend this book. I got completely mindblown from the “accuracy” of what the book was saying. When someone says something you want to hear, you get excited. Let’s just say the book plastered a smile on my face for the entire day, it’s the feeling when you finally solve a question you’ve been searching for an answer for months or years.

    Anyway, here are the 3 “purposes” of me. (I know you probably don’t care, but it might just relate to you since we have an obvious similar passion, otherwise we won’t be on this website anyway)

    Competition — I love to challenge myself and win. As much as I hate to accept this, I hate losing. I learn much more from my victories than losses. I set huge goals and hustle hard to achieve them.

    Ideation — I love ideas and new concepts. Whenever I come up with new ideas I get a huge rush. I can lie on my bed eyes wide open until the sun rises just mentally developing my idea. That’s why put myself in a position of learning new concepts and ideas from people, books, blogs. Which is why I love reading your blog. It often offers tons of insight on topics I’ve put on pause.

    Self-assurance — I have ridiculously high confidence. This may be something bad, it sometimes lead to problems that root from over-confidence or sky-high ego. But I can say that once I set my eyes on a goal I’ll never ever ever ever give up, I just somehow know I can seek a method to get to my goal. In 99.99% of my problems, I can just chill the fuck out because I just somehow know that I can get through it, easily.

    Once again, I believe our passions are deeply aligned with our “purposes” — the combination of “why”s we’re doing something.

    e.g. I love business because it’s a great method for me to compete with others. I want to earn huge money, just cause’ I can earn more money than people around me and feel great because of that. I want to earn $1M before I turn 18 just cause I can feel like I won the entire world. And while doing so I get to capitalize on crazy ideas, I get to validate my self-assurance… you get the point.

    Probably Tiger Woods could be the best in tennis if he was exposed to the sport before golf? 😛

    My entire 2nd part of the post basically says this: Passions are formed by a combination of 5 to 10 of what I’d call “purposes”, with 1 of them as the strongest drive. For me — competition.

    I guess people will probably not get until this point, given that it all came out of my mind instantly, and I’m not going to read through this comment and edit my grammatical mistakes. Oh well, at least it has helped me crystallize my “purpose theory”.

    Once again awesome post. This is why I love ViperChill.

    Reply
  92. Will Kwan says:
    December 30, 2011 at 11:30 pm

    You really struck a chord with me on this post. When people talk about productivity, there’s a heavy emphasis on output. Oftentimes, it’s good to start off slowly and build skill, so that we do it right the first time and don’t have to go back and start all over.

    And the myelin stuff really intrigues me, i always used to imagine the neural associations literally being formed as skill is developed, but this layering makes a lot more sense.

    Reply
  93. Federica says:
    December 31, 2011 at 12:35 pm

    I finally got round to reading this article after it has been languishing in my email box for weeks …great post and I totally agree with the effect your environment can have on you (and how interesting the physiological connection).
    But then again your environment, like everything else, is what you make of it or is the result of your choices. Therefore you can change it. I think that at the core of all this is the concept that ‘everything is constantly changing’ and ‘change is good’ (which incidentally is a Buddhist teaching); the more adaptable you learn to be the more successful and happier you can be as no change, however dramatic, is likely to have any major effect on you. If you embrace change you can learn to ‘surf the flow of life’ rather than get passively dragged and thrown here and there with no control. Habits and routines are killers as they minimise your brain activity and I am pretty sure that, from a physical point of view as well, this is very damaging. Also, by embracing change you are far more likely to come across new people, new experiences, discover new places and therefore enrich your life immeasurably.
    Another concept which goes hand in hand with the above is learning to be open to both situations and people, welcoming whatever comes your way with as open and objective a mind as you can.
    Having said that, this is not as easy to do as it is to write; but as you correctly point out in your article, at the end of the day it all depends on how much one wants something (this coming from someone who actually ‘found the time to read this post more than a month after it was published’ is not a great publicity…). And it does not need be about turning your life upside down but it can be done in gradual steps. The important thing is that we all have the necessary tools that allow us to keep moving, to keep an active, curious and inquisitive mind and push ourselves out of our comfort zone, even if just sometimes. We, and no-one else, are in charge and responsible for what we do or choose not to do.
    —————————————
    As for the typos and errors you mentioned in one of your earlier replies to comments, well if you ever need a hand with revision and proof-reading (after all, you must be a very busy person trying – quite successfully it appears – to juggle several projects), just ask…. it is my job (one of several) 😉

    Reply
  94. Bob Day says:
    January 11, 2012 at 10:29 pm

    Just a few short words to thank you for some great insight. The internet in its self can be a great time waster, Add a person with A.D.D and you can really go round in circles. I have had to fight to keep my self productive, sometimes with very little results.

    I am new to this writing business ( plus my typing leaves a lot to be desired) but I want this so I know that I am heading in the right direction. I will look forward to future post and all the best for the New year.

    I believe a verse comes to mind that a double minded person is unstable in all he does.

    Thanks again
    Bob Day

    Reply
  95. Alex says:
    January 18, 2012 at 1:12 pm

    Great post once again! Fantastic read and I really like the steps that you had put down!

    A coach of mine once told me to do this for my goals and targets, 9 months later I had reached every single one of them!! Pure genius!

    Reply
  96. rjcid says:
    January 31, 2012 at 7:45 pm

    Most. Epic. Post. Ever.

    Reply
  97. Stanley Lee says:
    February 9, 2012 at 7:28 pm

    Did you find the Pomodoro method working well even if it’s for time-intensive tasks (e.g. troubleshooting a program you’ve built) that you can’t simply outsource?

    Reply
  98. Luca Verzelloni says:
    February 24, 2012 at 2:16 pm

    Hi Glen, my name is Luca and I write from Italy.
    I want to say thank you (even if my english is not so good…)
    I’m reading your posts and watching your video in these days and I think you are great.
    This post impressed me (as many other).
    Hope to write better comments in the future
    Thank you
    Luca Verzelloni

    Reply
  99. wilson says:
    March 30, 2012 at 3:39 pm

    Great post. It is really a long and informative article which I think that you really put your heart into it. I appreciate it. We humans are often distracted by a lot a lot of things that might cause us to lose the focus and direction. It is not easy to stay focus and go in one direction. I am still working towards it and I wanted to provide as much value as I can to people, improving other people’s lives. Once again, thanks so much for sharing and I have read almost every single word that you wrote!

    Reply
  100. Dan Schumann says:
    April 18, 2012 at 12:22 am

    Glen,

    Great post! Thanks for laying it out the way you did. It resonated. I learned some great new concepts that I hadn’t heard of before (Myelin & AMP). It explains the “why” behind experiences I never thought to consider. Thanks for plugging Daniel Coyle’s book as well – another great resource and blog I’ll be following. All great stuff that I will be sure to learn from and use. Without you taking the time to share, I would not know what I do now. Thanks for taking the time to share. Great blog.

    Dan

    Reply
  101. Dean Mastern, Ph.D. says:
    April 29, 2012 at 8:13 am

    Great post. There’s a lot to think about here.

    I am new to the whole blogging thing, and I have learned quite a bit from reading your blogs.

    I have a passion for helping people find and fulfill their God-given destinies, and your information on Myelin was fascinating. I will have to research this subject further.

    Thanks!

    Reply
  102. Gemma D Lou says:
    July 29, 2012 at 3:38 am

    Hey Glen,

    Oh my, this was an epic post! I love how you broke down science, not in an analogical way, but showing how we actually work, by building myelin fibres from activating the same neurons. That’s way the day after guitar or piano practice, your fingers follow more intuitively. I just never thought of the science behind it, and that it can be applied to almost anything we do, not just in a musical, sport or physical activity sort of sense, but with anything!

    And your point about new habits is definitely something I realised. I think Albert Einstein said something about, Insanity being when we do the same things over and over again, but expect different results. He was right, something has to change if we want circumstances to change.

    “That’s why habits are hard to break. The only way to change them is to build new habits by repeating new behaviours– by myelinating new circuits.” – Daniel Coyle

    Very epic post. I’m realising that most of your posts are. Quite new here. 🙂

    Gemma

    Reply
  103. Derek Lauber says:
    October 27, 2012 at 11:00 pm

    Hi Glen,

    I have recently been introduced to your work and have to say it is tremendous! I have been learning, practicing and struggling with changing my own habits, patterns and beliefs for years. I have had some great success and have had some epic failures. What resonated with me is that you must love what you are doing. Without that connection great success will allude you.

    Derek

    Reply
  104. Katy Online Marketing says:
    December 5, 2012 at 9:47 am

    Really very impressive post. I must say this is one in the most well written posts, that I have seen with this topic in a very long time. Indeed, it was. Will probably get a link up here at some point. Well done!

    Reply

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