T.H.U.R.S. #10

Hola and welcome to The Summit, my biweekly newsletter where I share my unfiltered thoughts on navigating the peaks and valleys of adulthood.

My mission is to question everything, grow every day and have fun along the way. The Summit’s mission is to invite you to do the same.

Today: T.H.U.R.S. #10

Thoughts:

• Something light:

I must be on the motivational/development side of social media because I am always stumbling across absolute gems, like this William Feather quote.

When I read this, I immediately thought back to the movie, About Time, and its beautifully crafted message to cherish the present.

There is so much joy around us every day, we just have to choose to look for it, stop, and enjoy it. Even if it’s just for a few minutes, building this habit can compound more happiness throughout your day, week, month and life (or so I like to think ;).

• Something heavy:

Let me start with: I don’t think there is anything ‘wrong’ with average. Most people are average in most areas because of course, that’s what makes an average. But remember we are also multifaceted people. Great at some things, terrible at some, and average at most. The point here is not to avoid average (it is inevitable in many aspects of our lives).

However, my takeaway is that if you want to achieve extraordinary results in any facet of your life, you need to be willing to put yourself out there (stand out) and work harder than most (beat the average).

The math is mathin’ in my opinion… what do you think?

Highlight:

My favourite thing I learnt this week: Eat the Frog

Growing up, I have had this saying engrained in my mind (thanks mum). Not because I love the idea, but because it sounds so stupid. Why are we eating frogs? Like who came up with that 🤔?

But if I ignore the lack of logic, I do love this strategy to fight procrastination and enhance productivity.

So, what is the strategy, what does this silly saying mean?

My best explanation of ‘Eating the Frog’ is simply tackling the biggest, scariest, most difficult or most important thing on your to do list first (the Frog).

Have you ever had a million little things on your to-do list that you never get around to the big important things? I have already spoken about the Covey-Matrix for productivity, but this idea of the Frog takes an even simpler approach.

Every time you sit down to write or tackle a bunch of to-do’s, ‘eating the frog’ suggests that you label the ‘frog’ of your to do list and start there. To identify the ‘frog’, ask yourself, “what is the single most important thing I need to do to make this day a success”.

That way, if all else fails, the day is still a success because you got the most important thing done first.

Not to dive into another topic, but I also think ‘eating the frog’ is the single best solution to productive procrastination. That is, when you put off doing the big scary thing on your to-do list by mistakenly prioritising all of the smaller less important things first. i.e. when I would randomly decide to vacuum and clean 🤣 before actuarial exams.

So, next time you need to study for an exam, do your taxes, or have a hard conversation with someone, don’t go clean the house first, EAT THE FROG!

Uplift:

Something uplifting that I stumbled across and want to share:

Nedd’s 1000-mile run. I spoke about Nedd’s Uncomfortable Challenge a couple of weeks ago and now it’s here! He is literally running right now as I write and as you are reading. He’s probably somewhere around the 900km mark right now and it is absolutely insane. What he is going through is incomprehensible.

His team shared a video yesterday:

neddbrockmann

View more on Instagram

Again, insane! His dedication, discipline and mental fortitude is something to be studied. He is doing this all to raise money for homelessness in Australia and in my opinion, is an Aussie legend.

Reflect:

A question to consider this week:

❓️How are my friends doing? Have I checked in on them recently?

💁‍♂️ It can be super easy to become self-absorbed in the day-to-day and forget to look out for your mates (I know I do this way too often). Before you know it, months could go by. If you value them, you should make the effort to check in.

Summit:

A challenge I set myself: more mountains - Rundle and Sulphur!

With few good hiking days left (before it gets too cold and snowy), we set out to conquer another couple of Banff’s big bad mountains: Mount Rundle and Sulphur Mountain. When doing Rundle yesterday, we started nice and early (to get it done before work) and were treated with northern lights, a sexy sunrise and some pretty gnarly views. I made another couple of TikTok’s if you want to see some pics:

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