“There seems to be some perverse human characteristic that likes to make easy things difficult.” – Warren Buffett
As I write this, my brain feels like applesauce.
The reason:
I entered into a solo retreat last Saturday, where I’m…
Eliminating salt, oil, sugar and caffeine (and most other foods for that matter)
Meditating intensively
Restricting all inputs (social media, reading, tv, etc)
For two weeks.
My plan was to keep working as usual:
Banging out YT content, emails, and the new offer I’m working on.
But my brain had other plans, and decided to teach me a surprisingly valuable lesson in how to:
Match the work you’re doing to the state you’re in.
It started when I tried outlining a new YouTube video, and flew through the first 80% of the ideation phase before smacking into a brick wall when I tried to apply the final 20% polish necessary to actually record and post it.
In other words…
When I zoomed out and focused on the big picture — the central idea, the core points, the stories — I could see it perfectly.
But when I zoomed in on the details — the hook, the examples, the supporting evidence — everything went fuzzy and my mind turned to mud.
This is normal during solo retreats like this:
Cutting out salt and stimulation and cranking my meditation volume way up pushes my analytical, detail-focused left brain into hibernation.
But it also lights up my intuitive, vision-focused right brain and activates a higher intelligence that is often drowned out by the noise and stimulation of regular life.
That’s the point of doing these retreats, after all.
So I should have known better.
But it still took my stubborn ass four days to stop fighting against my state and start working with it.
In practical terms, that means waiting until after the retreat to:
Polish and record YouTube videos
Write my email welcome sequence
Build out my new offer
And instead, spending the next week:
Coaching one on one clients (the intuition boost has made coaching even more effective)
Clarifying my big-picture vision
Planning big ideas for content & offers
Identifying & removing any psychological blocks that are slowing down my business & personal life
In my younger years, I would have been way too bull-headed, too brainwashed by mamba-mentality to shift gears when I ran into excessive friction.
But this retreat has schooled me in the value of:
Matching my work to my internal state.
And I hope it gives you permission to dump the grindset propaganda and introduce more flow into your own work, as well.
Of course, sometimes the task just needs doing.
And before you shift tasks, it’s always a good idea to:
Make sure you’re in the right state for the task ahead of time (lifestyle, diet, training, sleep)
If you’re not in the right state for the task, put yourself in it (movement, breathing, caffeine)
Try grinding for ~20 minutes until your state naturally shifts and you sink into the task.
But sometimes that’s either not possible, not efficient, or not optimal.
Sometimes, the wrong state for the task you planned is the right state for a task you didn’t plan.
And sometimes you just need a nap.
Hope that’s helpful.
Let me know if anything landed for you.
– T
P.S. This means, most likely:
No new YT talks or emails for a couple weeks.
But I’m not sure yet.
I’m going to run the rest of the retreat as an experiment in following my energy and seeing where it leads me.
Should be interesting…
“Relaxation is essential for the full expression of power.” – George Leonard, Mastery
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