Are you getting things done?
Sunday Ideas — Edition #6
Happy Sunday, and welcome to your weekly dose of Sunday Ideas.
Each week, I share three practical, actionable insights designed to help you work smarter, become healthier, and cultivate meaningful relationships while navigating your career in tech.
Here’s what you'll explore today:
Why you should avoid seeking external validation as the motivation to get things done.
How a slight change in concepts can improve your overall health.
Why most people fail because they give up too soon.
Ready to level up? Let’s dive in! 🚀
1) If you want to get things done, don’t seek external validation
Most people try to do things to impress others:
They go to the gym.
They start a newsletter.
They become scientists or engineers.
A few months down the road they give up on their pursuits.
Have you been there?
I sure have.
Whenever I embark on an adventure that doesn’t come from my intrinsic interests and motivations, I lose interest and stop.
And I’ve realized that whenever I’m pursuing something aligned with who I am, I can always find the time to make progress on it:
I do it for myself.
I forget about any future reward.
I find meaning in just getting the work done.
So, next time you find yourself losing your motivation to make progress on any endeavor, ask yourself: are you doing this for yourself or for others?
And steer the ship back on course based on your answer.
If you want help with getting things done, I’m thinking of starting an accountability community on my Substack chat.
We will set goals every Monday and check on each other on Fridays.
Shoot me a DM or reply to this email if this seems enticing to you, just so I can get a feeling on how many are interested.
2) Changing the words you use will improve your overall health
I ditched the word diet and changed it for nutrition.
This mindset shift made the whole difference in how I approached my fitness.
Diets are, by definition, temporary. Something unfeasible. Something that you won’t sustain for a long time.
In contrast, when you talk about nutrition, you are referring to the set of guidelines that define the overall way in which you eat.
You shouldn’t be thinking about keto or carnivore before focusing on:
Hydration.
Protein intake.
Fermented foods.
Minerals and vitamins.
Calories in, calories out.
I went from not knowing what diet to follow to understanding the fundamental pillars of nutrition and coming up with my own diet.
One that works for me and that I can sustain until the day I die.
Not something based on restriction but on balance and self-control.
When you approach your nutrition (and anything for that matter) from the point of view of knowledge, it becomes hard to follow random advice from mister-magic-diet-to-make-you-lose-10-pounds-in-a-day on YouTube.
Master the fundamentals of anything you want to improve on and watch yourself become unstoppable.
I went from being highly untrained and having massive back pains to being in the best shape of my life in two years.
Consistency and a training plan made by my wonderful wife turned my fitness back on track and allowed me to have the energy and health to pursue other projects.
If you would like us to expand on this training program, tailored for tech professionals who spend 8+ hours in front of a computer, leave us a comment below.
We would love to see you become your best self.
3) Don’t get discouraged if you don’t see results right away
Progress takes time.
It takes effort.
It takes intentionality.
But most of all, it takes consistency in doing the right things.
From your side hustle to overhauling your fitness, having systems in place will take you further than any hack out there.
You should have a system to drive you to take action, reflect on your progress, and adjust on demand.
It consists of four steps that you should execute sequentially:
Create
Ship
Collect feedback
Iterate
The terminology applies better for entrepreneurial endeavors like:
Creating an app
Shipping it to the internet
Collecting feedback from customers
Iterating to improve the app based on the feedback.
But with some creativity, you can apply it to other aspects of your life.
I mentioned overhauling your fitness before:
Design a training plan (create)
Execute it for a month (shipping)
Assess how you feel overall (collect feedback)
Adjust the plan accordingly (iterate)
I would love to know if you implement a similar system or something totally different that still makes you move forward at your desired pace.
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