Friday Five #15 – How to Focus, Stand-Out + the 4% Rule

Hey, good morning!

I’m back!! Here is your Friday 5 bi-weekly roundup on health and wellness, innovation and science, freediving and fitness, laughs and life. 

🤓 How to focus as an entrepreneur, athlete or language learner?

When reading about successful entrepreneurs, athletes, linguists and the like, I see a 3-step process to growth that can be applied to nearly any field:

I’ve seen this played out in almost everything I’ve done. When I started freediving (~2014), I would train intensively for freediving almost every day, many times twice per day (volume). Then I focused on deep diving, doing the best specific in-water training I could for deep freedives, cutting back a bit time-wise to two days on, one day off (quality). My deepest dives in 2018-2021 required much less time in the water but far more time in dry preparation, doing morning/evening routines with meditation, stretching, and breathing exercises and implementing nutrition and recovery elements with more days off between dives. That enabled me in 2021 to freedive to depths of 70+ meters (230 ft) very consistently and more effortlessly (intuition).

With the “learning Arabic” challenge, right now it’s now all about the “doing”, which I’ve only started, and will ramp up the volume. Then later on it’ll be probably be more about the “quality” like learning the extended vocabulary, various expressions, getting the accent right and becoming more fluid. The “intuition” phase is likely several years away…

Worth noting: Quality is typically a natural byproduct of volume so:

Intuition = Volume X Time

This is why I’d highly recommend to most people: just focus on consistent execution (and it helps to get a bit obsessed / passionate about your topic) – the rest tends to take care of itself.

🙋‍♀️ How to stand out in life and in business:

Stand for something and live by your own values.

1. Know Yourself
   • Know what your vision is, what your cause is
   • Know what you stand for
   • Know what your values are
     
2. Be Yourself & Live True to Your Values
   • Work hard to do things that represent what you stand for
   • Operate in a way that represent your values 
   • Make decisions consistent to what you stand for
     
3. You Start to Stand-Out
   • People start to be able to say I know what you stand for
   • You start to become predictable
   • People start to believe what you believe (or not believe what you believe but that’s ok!)

👶 Meet my nephew, Carson:

With every imitated push-up and sit-up, and every squirming climb and topple on well, anything and everything, for Carson, relaxation isn’t the goal in life. 😆

Neither is it a goal of mine or of humanity’s as a whole. Because life just isn’t complete or satisfying without the essential adventure, play, challenge and inquisitiveness.

Since our struggle for survival doesn’t provide enough of those things anymore (since back in hunter-gatherer times) we now need to create it for ourselves through sports and games, dance and play, through storytelling, music, science, you name it…

We dive into the depths of the sea, climb mountains, run marathons, play football, trek across deserts…

Although these things don’t typically put food on the table, or a roof over your head, that’s not why we do them. We do them to be fully human and to be fully alive. ✨

And so does Carson, even if, for now he’s climbing sofa cushions instead of mountains, diving into a ballpit instead of the sea, running around the house instead of a marathon and mimicking pushups instead of calisthenics. 

So much of motivation stems from curiosity, exploration and self-actualization, not comfort and pleasure – even at a year and a half old. 👼

💬 What quote I’ve been thinking about:

“They always say time changes things, but you actually have to change them yourself.”
 
– Andy Warhol

✨ The 4% rule applied to willpower and goals:

After reading about the 4% Rule in financial planning, I think the same 4% Rule can be applied to willpower and goals. If you want to improve yourself and progress, and create change, you can create a 4% system. It’s a routine that only requires 4% of your willpower at any time, so it’s so incredibly easy that you can’t/won’t talk yourself out of it.

For example, this year I want to learn Arabic fluently. So I implemented a 4% Rule for studying: 30 minutes of studying Arabic every single morning. 

It’s been two weeks and I’ve been studying every morning since, and I’m starting to speak some Arabic to the locals too! Often the 4% naturally progresses – it’s like the “old 4%” becomes effortless, and my half hour naturally turns into an hour or sometimes two, which over time is turning into a complete language study routine.

Why does the 4% Rule work? Because it has you focus on the process, not on the goal itself. By taking 1 small step every day, you won’t quit. The reason why most people don’t achieve their goals is because they quit too early.  

Give it a try, pick an area that you want to improve, then set a daily goal that uses just 4% of your willpower, stick with it, focus on the progress and you won’t stop 3 feet from gold 🙃

It’s a pleasure and honor getting to spend some time with you, I hope you have a great weekend!

Renee