What do you think of when you hear “lock in” and “grind?”

My friends and I use these words a lot when talking about our businesses.

Recently, I realized we weren’t talking about the same thing.

They thought it was about pushing through challenging ordeals and being disciplined.

But I thought it was something completely different.

Locking in should be fun

Here’s something I observed:

My default state is scattered.

I have so much to do but no clue where to start. Each goal felt impossible, so I had to set aside 2-3 hours on a weekend to plan for it.

But I never made time because planning isn’t really that fun, so I’d just keep procrastinating and feeling guilty.

It was the same for one of my students, who shared this with me:

But I noticed as soon as I “locked in” and made something fun, I became a lot more consistent with it.

It starts with having clear intentions.

Example: 75 Hard challenge

Every day for 75 days, I:

• Exercise at least 45 min outside

• Exercise at least 45 min (can be outside or inside)

• Drink 2.3 L of water (just over half a gallon)

• Read 10 pages of a self development book (can’t be audiobook)

I thought it was impossible. Who has the time to exercise that much??

But as soon as I set the intention and made it fun, I noticed I started to look forward to these habits.

I’ve been consistent with them for 3 weeks now. (Also because if I miss a day I have to start again from day 1, and I was NOT gonna do that.)

How I made it more fun (and easy):

• Called with a friend when I went on my daily 45 min outdoor walk - so the time went by so fast

• Played pickleball or badminton at socials in my community (usually takes 2 hours but it’s SO FUN)

• Read a book on a topic I’m interested in (a physical book so I wouldn’t get distracted by checking notifs)

• Created a cute habit tracker for my water intake

Example: my student’s course launch

One of my students had a goal for years - to create sustainable, recurring income from her content creation business.

And one way to do that was to launch a course.

But she didn’t know where to start. It felt overwhelming - there was a lot to do, from promo posts to emails to website to making course content.

What she thought “locking in” meant:

• Grinding on her course to get everything done

• Nonstop work days to design the website

What we did instead:

• Yapped about her fun ideas together and got super excited

• She stayed up til 5am building her beautiful website bc she was in flow state

She was doing the same habits: working on her course, spending hours on her website, etc…

But it felt so much easier.

All because we turned it fun.

(Her course ended up helping her student secure a $2k deal - which changed her life 🥺)

So if you’re procrastinating…

I challenge you to ask yourself these questions:

1. Why is this action so important to you? (Reconnect with your values)

2. How can you make it easier? (ex. set alarms to remind you)

3. Can you make it more fun (i.e. turn chores into a game)?

4. What systems can you build to have more accountability?

And most importantly…

5. Should you even be stressed/guilty about this?

(Because I procrastinate writing these emails every time but that’s just how I roll now lol. I don’t need to be writing these weeks ahead of time tbh.)

If you need help building a system that’s actually fun…

There’s where my course comes in.

It’s been a year of running cohorts and 200+ students have already enrolled:

Course enrollments officially open next Monday for Black Friday week - so keep an eye on your email for details 🫶

Til next time,

Jennifer

P.S. this is the last cohort of the course 🥺 I’m rebranding it to be more business-focused!