8 Mindset Shifts to Do Less and Achieve More

Hi team,

I’ve been unwell this week with a viral chest infection. Routines have been all over the place and I’ve not written content as I usually do.

So for this week’s newsletter, I’m resharing an article I wrote last year where I share my top 8 points from a book called 10x is easier than 2x.

It is a much longer article (it’s more of a book summary) than the usual weekly newsletter. But you can use this as a resource to continue to come back to.

We had a great workshop discussing The Power of Expansive Choices on Wednesday evening. For those who would like the replay, let me know by replying to this email and I can send this to you.

I will be hosting a workshop next month with details coming in due course.

See you next week 🙂

1. Quality vs Quantity

Jimmy Donaldson, also known as Mr Beast, shed his 2x identity continuously to become the number 1 YouTuber in the world. At 17, he was a middle-class kid living in North Carolina who made mediocre YouTube videos in his bedroom. Now he is an internet sensation with 150 employees and an umbrella of businesses bringing in more than $1 billion in revenue.

When Joe Rogan asked him in his podcast interview how he is able to get such exponential results, Jimmy said:

“As weird as it sounds, it’s much easier getting 5 million views on 1 video than 100-thousand views on 50 videos. When you begin thinking in terms of quality over quantity you funnel your energy better. You stop burning yourself out, pumping more and more, or doing a million different jobs as a rugged individualist.”

Going 10x means spending more time and energy focussing on that 20% that makes you really really REALLY good at what you do and building a team or people around you to do the rest. “To go 10x bigger you have to focus on getting 10x better.” That requires an elevation of the vision and starts of what you do.

Most people stay at 2x because they fear making others feel inferior. Anytime someone wants you to remain as you are, they do so for their own self-preservation. As you go 10x, you have to understand that most want to stay comfortable at 2x. There will be many people in your life that won’t understand why you’re doing what you’re doing. It defies logic.

10x people repel 2 x thinkers. Most people are afraid to shed old standards and strategies, especially ones that are currently work.

10x is qualitative not quantitative. What you’re now doing is incomparable to what others are doing. It’s non competitive. “It’s not about you doing or being better than anyone else. Rather, you’re being increasingly unique and different from what everyone else is doing.” Sullivan and Hardy write.

“10x quality and transformation is how you get to the top. 2x quantity and competition is how you race to the bottom.”

So, what about you?

2. Attention vs Effort

Dr Alan Barnard, a leading expert on constraint theory says “if you’re trying to make $10 million, rather than solving 100 problems, at $100,000 each, it’s much easier attempting to solve a single $30 million problem.“

There are many people out there who put in a lot of effort yet do not achieve big results. It’s obvious that effort alone isn’t going to create quantum results in your health, relationships and in the workplace. What matters is where attention is directed. 

“It’s not effort that matters but where effort is directed” they write “most people miss the gold coins around them because they’re focused on finding bronze coins.”

Where focus goes energy flows. You get what you’re focused on. When you think exponentially it’s no longer about effort. It’s about focusing attention. 10x immediately allows you to bypass what everyone else is doing.

So what about you?

3. Identity and Psychological Flexibility

When you look back on your life and think of a time when you made a transformational change, it required you to BE someone different than who you were before. For things to change externally, you had to change who you were internally.

It required an identity shift. 

Sullivan and Hardy describe an identity shift as two things:

They write that the top achievers in this world have the ability to accept a new identity quickly. This first requires letting go of old identity.

According to prospect theory, humans have a huge aversion to loss. We fear and avoid loss more than we seek gain. This makes it difficult to let go of the 80% that’s keeping you where you are.

“Psychological flexibility is to become increasingly comfortable and adaptive to situations and challenges which are initially uncomfortable to you.”

What can increase your psychological flexibility?

Seeing yourself as the context of your thoughts and emotions not the content of your thoughts and emotions. I.e, you are not your thinking and emotions, but you are the space where your thoughts and emotions reside.

As you evolve and expand your context, the content of your life will change. For example, if you want to leave your job and start a business, it will require you to start seeing yourself as an entrepreneur vs an employee.

You’ve emotionally evolved and expanded as a person when it feels comfortable and natural to be this new standard and identity. This is an ongoing process and required at every 10x leap you make.

What about you?

4.10x Goals Eliminate Noise

In today’s world we are bombarded with options and choices. We have shiny object syndrome as we are marketed new things and get distracted from doing the work we really need to do.

When we focus on 10 x goals, it eliminates a lot of noise and it creates fewer paths. Few options means less distractions.

“Impossible goals help you identify ONE or FEW conditions that have the highest possible upside. Those are the areas to focus your scarcest resource – your limited attention.” – Dr Alan Barnard

The authors write “With 2 x goals there are too many potential pathways to reach the desired destination.  This creates paralysis by analysis and makes it extremely difficult to know where to focus your best energy and effort.”

“The goal determines the process. Having a quantum goal forces you to find different pathways to where you want to go. You ask different questions. You seek different people. It forces you to stop doing everything you’re doing which is ultimately a waste of time. It forces you to put yourself in environments where others are thinking at a 10x level.”

It also forces you to stop operating from habitual past to a more deliberate and intentional future.

Many of us think thinking 10x requires more from us when in fact, it requires less. Less effort, more focus. Less external noise, more inner work.

So, what about you?

5. Need vs Want

I love this quote from the book: “People don’t get what they want because they’re too busy seeking what they believe they need” WOW that really hit me.

Wanting comes from a place of abundance. Honouring your desire and owning and allowing them to be expressed through you is a very freeing way to live. It’s a life of honouring who you are and what is wanting to be expressed through you.

Needing something comes from a place of scarcity. How do you feel when you say you need something vs when you say you want something?

Wanting is 10x whereas Needing is 2x.

So what about you?

I’ve written a separate Substack article on Wanting vs Needing you can read here.

6. Unique Ability

James Clear is someone who has made many 10x leaps in his career. For several years James focused on blogging and building an email list. He then spent three years writing a book, Atomic Habits, that continues to be Amazon’s top selling book of ALL TIME. Just one book he wrote and it continues to stay at the top consistently.

What made James so successful at what he does?

Every time James made a shift he went deeper on the 20% of his unique ability. The 20% that made the difference with more mastery and focus. He continued to step into his unique ability and every stage.

Unique ability is a term I came across in Gay Henricks book “The Big Leap” where he talks about our “Zone of Genius” I was excited to see a similar concept in this book where Sullivan and Hardy describe it as “the purest and freest expression of our self and our purpose…it’s how you create value and wealth that is unique and specialised.”

“Your Unique ability is personal and internal. Therefore, it takes being honest with yourself and about what you most want.”

No one else can compete if they wanted to. It’s where you see never ending possibility and improvement.

It takes extreme commitment and courage to commit to your unique ability. You’ve got to bet on yourself. You have to face worrying about what people think of you.

Things come easier for you in your unique ability. You’re in flow. You’re all in on it and because you are, you grow and transform at non-linear and exponential levels.

So, what about you…

7. Gap vs Gain

We live in a world today where social media makes it too easy for us to compare ourselves to others. Where we “should” be by now. It can feel like the gap never ends. There’s always more. And it can become draining and have a real impact on our mental health. Too many of us are focused on this “gap” rather than the “gain”.

“Your level of capability in the future depends on your measurement of achievements in the past. You can’t move forward until you’ve acknowledged how far you’ve come and have properly measured your gains.” – Dan Sullivan

The Gap is a lens by which you measure what is against what could be. Measuring what is against what you believe should be. It puts you in a place of lack.

In this place, your past becomes a problem. Even though you have made progress, the framing of this progress, the lens at which you measure yourself and your experiences creates a distorted reality of no achievement.

“Measuring yourself against ideals is a losing battle. Ideals are like the horizon in the desert. No matter how many steps you take to the horizon, it continues to extend out ahead of you.”

The “Gain” is a proactive, creative and internal approach to measuring yourself and your experiences.

“When you’re in the gain, you’re never measuring yourself against anything external. You’re only measuring yourself against yourself. More directly measuring yourself against were you were before”

Appreciating your progress allows you to feel better on who you are and where you’re at.

You’re in an abundance and appreciative state. Confidence and momentum come as you start to see the wins. Wins you normally wouldn’t consider as progress. “In the gain, you’re antifragile. Everything happens for you and not to you.” they write.

Research continues to show happiness and positive emotions – especially gratitude – leads to more creative thinking, better decision making, higher performance, and self determination.

So, what about you?

8. Recovery: slowing down to speed up

LeBron James is known for sleeping a minimum of 8 -10 hours a day, often 12 hours. In an interview with Tim Ferris, Le Brons athletic trainer and recovery specialist Mike Mancias gives insight into how Le Bron has been able to play 50,000 minutes when most hit the wall at 40,000 minutes.

“Recovery never ends. Recovery never stops. If Le Bron plays 40 minutes one night and 28 minutes another night, we’re still going to keep recovery as our number 1 focus.”

Sullivan and Hardy write about the importance of psychological detachment from work.

“Being busy isn’t how you become world class” they write, “if you’re never fully unplugged, you’re also never in the zone.”

Your best ideas will not come in front of sitting in front of a monitor. To receive the best ideas, you need a lot of free high quality time. Time where you’re rested, relaxed, and open.

So, how’s your recovery?

Summary

We make many 10x leaps in our lives. It isn’t a one off thing. The more comfortable we get with this way of life, not only do we achieve greatness externally and live in more abundance, we feel more powerful, aligned and alive internally.

What one idea stood out the most to you? What will you now change in your life? Let me know in the comments below!

p.s. I currently have 3 1:1 coaching slots available. If you’d like to explore what that may look like – just reply to this email and I’ll send you a few questions to answer.

Want me to speak at your next event? Drop me an email and tell me more about it and we can explore if it’s a good fit.