1-2-3 Sundays: Inversion Thinking, 2023 & Fun

1 Theme

The Feeling I Always Have After A Break

If you're optimising for productivity then one aspect you should always consider is rest.

Scheduling in recovery time every week is imperative for beign able to operate at your highest levels.

I love travelling and visiting new places so going away is what I use to let my brain switch off for a bit.

Afterwards, I feel revived with a new sense of motivation.

Riding that wave is a great feeling as it's a natural boost - it helps you gather momentum.

2 Positive Outcomes

Listening To My Body

I got a cold this week.

It really threw me off as I was getting back into my routine.

Instead of getting frustrated, I listened to my body and took some rest days. The energy I would use for workouts was focussed on relaxing, reading and content creation. I also closed a few open loops I've had open for too long.

I've been able to fully prepare for the week ahead with the anticipation of being fully recovered.

2023 Planning

Reflection is the best way to know if what you've done and are doing is working.

From there, you can plan out where to go next and what you want to achieve.

As the end of 2022 approaches, I took some time this week to think about what's happened this year. what's worked well and what I'm most proud of.

I'll be jumping into this in more detail in the next month or so with a framework you can use for your own end-of-year review.

3 Things I've Learned

Inversion Thinking

This is the concept of thinking of a problem in reverse.

It was popularised by Stoic thinkers such as Marcus Aurelius, Seneca, and Epictetus where they would complete an exercise in imagining the negative outcomes of a situation.

The belief was by doing this they could overcome fears and anxieties before they became a reality, allowing them to make plans to ensure these outcomes didn't happen.

This may seem not very optimistic however it's a powerful tool as it highlights potential roadblocks that may not seem obvious at first.

Prior to completing the Edinburgh marathon in May, I asked myself what would stop me from completing the race in under 4 hours.

Some examples included:

• Going out too fast at the start.
• Sustaining an injury mid-race.
• Disregarding my fuelling strategy used in training

Inversion thinking is useful when innovating or when working toward a big-ass goal.

Bodyguard

I'm late to the game on this one.

Aimee and I watched the Bodyguard this week. It's only 6 episodes so it doesn't require a huge time dedication.

We both loved it.

Richard Madden was amazing in it and the tension was maintained throughout.

Definitely worth a watch.

Just For Fun

It's important to make sure you're doing something in your week that genuinely makes you happy.

That could be playing a sport, going for walks, drinking coffee at a cafe or pretty much anything. The list is endless.

We got so distracted from actually experiencing the childlike flow of doing something just for fun.

For me, sitting down to write with a coffee gets me into the flow state. Time becomes irrelevant and I commit my full focus to it.

What did you do for fun this week?

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