First - sry for the late email, didn’t have time to write to you on Monday bc I did an ultramarathon: 100km 🤩

You might be thinking “HOW?? She’s built diff”

Tbh I didn’t think it was possible either…

But I designed systems (and changed my mindset) to turn my goals into reality.

And that’s what I’ll be sharing in today’s email.

(Plus a story of why I ran around my house in PJs 😂)

“My shiny object syndrome is so bad, I have too many hobbies”

I get it…if you look at my Duolingo, I have like 14+ languages on there 💀 

But tbh I don’t think this is a bad thing.

It just requires a bit more intention.

Let me know if this sounds familiar:

1. You want to learn a new skill (like sewing clothes)

2. You get overwhelmed and want your first project to be perfect

3. You watch a few tutorials, but get bored

4. You feel like a failure for abandoning your projects

5. You think “if I just stayed consistent, I’d be so good by now”

6. You move onto a new hobby

7. Repeat

I do the same thing, but I think about it differently…

1. I want to learn a new skill

2. I hyperfixate on it for a few days or weeks before getting bored

3. I feel satisfied with my level, knowing it’s easier to go back to now that I’m no longer a beginner

4. I move on to a new skill

The difference in mindset is how I build better systems

Instead of feeling bad about myself,

I reframe failure as learning.

For example, I was talking to someone who sounded defeated.

“I was learning German, but had no one to practice with. So I swapped to Spanish, but the people I practiced with went on vacation. So I swapped to Mandarin, but the exchange student I practiced with went back home.”

When I heard this, I didn’t see it as a failure.

“Aren’t you better off now than before?” I asked.

From my perspective, this person not only learned the basics of several languages

(Making it easier to pick up the language again),

He also learned something else:

Which systems worked for him.

So in the future, he knows to build a system that involves practicing consistently with other people.

Set a timeline and get curious

This mindset shift is how I turned my scattered hobbies into a more intentional experiment.

I gave myself 12 months to learn 12 new skills.

I’d set an intention each week,

Then increase the level of difficulty until I got a result I was happy with.

If I didn’t reach my goals, I could try again next week

(And learn from my failures the week before.)

The key here is to start super simple.

I call it my minimum viable action.

For example, when I was marathon training, I had to do a run almost every day.

“I don’t have time to run for an hour…” I’d think.

“What are my objections? And what’s the minimum action I can take to address those?”

For me, it looked like this:

• Too dark out → run indoors

• Weather’s bad → run indoors

• No treadmill → run around my house

• DIdn’t wanna change → run in PJs

So that’s how I ended up running in circles around my house in my PJs 😅

When that got too easy, I progressed to the next level, so I wouldn’t get bored.

Soon, my daily 1 hour outdoor runs felt natural and fun.

What about you?

What goal do you have, and what’s the minimum thing you can do for it?

Til next Monday,

Jennifer