3 thoughts that can bring you from bad to good…but not good to great (part 3)
Thought #3: I have to control myself.
Over the last couple days, we’ve been talking about the operating model flip you have to make in order to go from good to great.
There’s a whole bunch of things that totally worked to bring you from bad to good.
And now you have to start doing the complete opposite of those things in order to go from good to great.
If you don’t, you’ll stay stuck at Good and never get to Great.
We’ve covered Thought Flip #1 and Thought Flip #2.
And today we’re talking about the third thought you have to flip—
Thought #3: I have to control myself.
Going from bad to good is like driving a car 🚗
A car can’t do anything by itself.
If you want it to go somewhere, you have to manually start it up, manually choose which direction it’s driving, manually hit the gas, manually turn, manually brake, etc.
Similarly, when you’re going from bad to good in a field, you don’t have any helpful habits or instincts yet.
So you have to do a lot of things “manually.”
If you’re a first-time runner, you have to:
Learn proper form
Get yourself on a consistent running schedule
Push past discomfort when you get sweaty and out of breath and want to stop
If you’re a first-time fiction writer, you have to:
Learn basic story structures
Make sure to show, not tell
Meet deadlines even when you’re not inspired
If you’re a first-time investor, you have to:
Develop a clear investment thesis
Have a structured process for gathering and analyzing information about possible investments
Be disciplined about avoiding off-thesis investments
All of this is “manual” work.
You won’t necessarily feel like doing it. But you should do it anyway.
Or, said another way:
Your instincts won’t necessarily tell you to do these things.
But you should do them anyway.
Because you don’t have good instincts yet, in this area.
So you need to “manually drive your car” through these actions.
Going from good to great is like driving a self-driving car 🏎️
When you’re going from good to great, you DO have good instincts in this area.
You’re no longer sitting at the wheel of a manual car.
You’re sitting at the wheel of a self-driving car.
If a manual car is driving along and then suddenly stops, you should ask:
What’s wrong with my car?
If a self-driving car is driving along and then suddenly stops, you should ask:
What did the car notice that I didn’t? How is my car right?
A manual car needs to be overridden all the time. It doesn’t know anything. YOU have to drive it.
A self-driving car should NOT be overridden all the time. It knows a lot. You have to let it do its thing.
In the same way…
If an experienced runner doesn’t feel like sticking to their running schedule anymore…
They shouldn’t push themselves to follow the schedule anyway.
They should ask:
What did my instincts notice that I didn’t?
How are my instincts right?
If an experienced fiction writer feels like writing a story with a totally untraditional structure…
They shouldn’t push themselves to follow the normal structures anyway.
They should ask:
What did my instincts notice that I didn’t?
How are my instincts right?
If an experienced investor feels like making an off-thesis investment…
They shouldn’t push themselves to stick to their thesis anyway.
They should ask:
What did my instincts notice that I didn’t?
How are my instincts right?
This is the third thought flip you have to make—
Thought Flip #3: I have to trust myself.
You are no longer a beginner with zero instincts.
You have experience, which has honed your instincts and given you a trustworthy gut feel, in this area.
I’m not saying you should follow your instincts blindly.
But you should give your instincts the benefit of the doubt.
You should ask yourself:
How are my instincts right?
Even when – especially when! – they go against the conventional wisdom of your field.
Often, the basic rules can only get you to “basically good” performance.
Getting from good to great requires something extra.
It requires YOU.
Your unique perspective. Your particular angle on things. Your distinct twist.
And you can only find out what that is when you trust yourself.
What do you think it takes to change your life?
To feel better, get unstuck, and start moving in the direction you want to be moving in?
It doesn’t take lots and lots of ideas.
All it takes is ONE idea, fully implemented.
“I have to trust myself” — fully implemented.
“If I make a mistake, I should let it go” — fully implemented.
“Even when I give my all, I expect to fail a good portion of the time because that’s a normal feature of going after expert-level pursuits” — fully implemented.
My writing gives you lots and lots of ideas.
(I hope they’re all helpful! I love giving them to you :)
But here’s why coaching takes this work to the next level.
Coaching helps you implement ONE idea, all the way through.
That’s what we’ll do when we work together.
We’ll identify an idea in your life that need to be changed.
We’ll find a more helpful idea you need to be living by instead.
And then we’ll actually implement that idea in your life.
We’ll turn that idea into action.
And that will change your life.
Learn all about my one-on-one coaching program here…
And then book a free consult call with me.
We’ll talk about what you want to work on in coaching, how I can help, and which package might be the best fit for you :)
What my clients have to say…
“Coaching helped me get up and feel empowered and feel like I could actually change my outcome based on how I thought about things.
Having been a real academic overachiever, I get into this situation where if things are not perfect, I get stuck in a rut. Unless it's all perfect, I don't move forward.
But Pooja taught me the concept of ‘quantity creates quality’ and gave me practical goals every week, and that really helped me move forward in my professional life (and even in my dating life!).
I moved from just sitting around in my room overthinking everything and not really taking any action, to having weekly appointments to move things forward, and having someone holding me accountable to getting stuff done.
And that just gave me a lot more self-belief and structure.”
—Client | Communications Consultant turned Lawyer
Did you know I have a full table of contents, where all my work is categorized by topic, so you can easily find what you need right now? Check it out below! :)
⬅️ Thought #2
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