Welcome to “The Looking Glass”, a weekly newsletter journey of personal growth into mindset, meaning and mastery in work.

#29 – 11 Nov 2022

Hello friend,

Thanks again for being here!

Here’s an insight, a question, and a quote I reflected on over the last week.

💡 Productivity hacks may be a sign of a deeper problem 

This statement from Dickie Bush caught my attention during the week:

If you’re looking for productivity hacks, you are working on the wrong project.

Great insight!

When we don’t enjoy our work or a project is dragging, our motivation dips, and our performance slips.

This cycle of procrastination becomes a negative loop—a spiral to the bottom.

In a last-ditch effort to turn things around, we reach to the productivity gurus for advice – we seek “productivity hacks”.

We pray for a holy grail solution that will answer all our problems.

Instead, we get told:

• Get up a 5 am
• Have a cold shower
• Meticulously break your day town into scheduled blocks and action
• And so on…

Yeah, right.

There’s a funny line from Derek Sivers which comes to mind:

If [more] information was the answer, then we’d all be billionaires with perfect abs.

These “hacks” might work for some people who are that way inclined (not me – I actually thrive on more unstructured days where I follow my creative flow, and I seem to do my best work in the afternoon/evening). Still, it doesn’t address the root problem where the real issue isn’t productivity, but rather the person is 100% disengaged from their work.

Rather than hacking our way to more misery, why don’t we design more fulfilling work?

This adjustment could be tailoring our current role or moving on to the next chapter. 

So the next time you find yourself craving a productivity hack, consider if there is a deeper issue you might be better off resolving. 

❔Who are your strength helpers? 

We all have them.

Sometimes they are hidden in plain sight.

Those special people who see that spark of potential inside us and lift us to what we are capable of.

I am talking about strength helpers – people who recognise a strength in us and encourage us to develop it further.

Often we deny our unrealised strengths. We actively avoid stepping into the arena.

For example, a mentor told me I had potential in my writing ability. Lol, I thought! Yeah, right. I was an accountant who sucked at writing and hated English as a subject.

But this got me thinking. Maybe there was some unexpressed creativity there.

I actually chose English as a subject in my final year of school. I completed a professional English elective at University. I read a lot of books. And many of my heroes are authors. So did I really “hate” English and suck at writing? If I did, why do I keep gravitating back to it? Or was I running an outdated belief system from a time in my life when it “wasn’t cool” to study English?

In fact, having writing skills is one of the most extraordinary and powerful skills you can have in the digital world. We live in this spectacular time where anyone can simply write online and create opportunities for themselves. There are almost zero barriers to entry. You just have to exercise some courage. 

The “writing” was on the wall. I could do this.

But somewhere, I had inherited this limiting belief that I could not write. 

Maybe it was from my early days growing up on a farm, where writing was considered a complete and utter waste of time.

I am glad I put that mentor’s wisdom to the test and started writing. 

Even though I am nowhere near the best writer in the world, I have grown to love it and look forward to it. I’m only comparing myself to who I was yesterday, and I’ve progressed in leaps and bounds.

So I encourage you to stop playing it safe. Stop keeping things comfortable.

I’m sure you have encountered strength helpers in your life.

• A teacher who encouraged you to take something up
• A friend who believed you could bring out your best
• A coach who pushed you to new performance heights

They knew you could do it, even when you couldn’t. 

They took a chance on you when you thought you weren’t worthy.

They saw the light in you that you didn’t yet see yourself.

Don’t let this potential go to waste.

What is an unrealised strength you have?

Where have you convinced yourself that you are not capable?

What are the self-imposed barriers you’ve built around what’s possible?

It’s time for you to fly.

💬 A quote to ponder
 – On not letting others tell you what you can or can’t do – and proving them wrong

People were telling me: “Hey, you can’t play Patrick Bateman (American Psycho). It’s career suicide”.

I was like: “Bring it on. I definitely want to do that”. 

Other people also said: “Hey, you know if you play Batman, that’s it. You will never play anything else again. You will always be Batman”.
 
And I went: “Bring it on. Let’s see if that happens”.

Christian Bale

📣 What happened this week 

FYI on this section

In this newsletter section, I am experimenting with things I learnt or implemented in the last week. 

I hope to provide some practical actions you can implement in your work or business. 

As I figure things out, I also want to help you save some time for when these things become relevant to you.

From last week’s mention of the one-person business philosophy, I believe you have a massive opportunity to create a personal brand online by exploring your interests and creating valuable content from your unique perspective. 

All you have to do is start! Over time you will build a tribe, giving you leverage for further business and community opportunities. 

Getting the bio right

Do you find yourself tinkering with things that probably don’t matter that much overall?

Well, I keep tinkering with my social media bio.

It’s hard when we are starting online as we often don’t know exactly what we stand for.

If you search, you will find a million different pieces of conflicting advice on what you should or shouldn’t do.

For example, some will say, “I help X do Y”, whereas others say that style is boring and you should instead focus on highlighting what is interesting about you.

My advice is just to follow what you like. 

Who are your favourite creator profiles online?

Study them.

What exactly do you like about those profiles? 

And then, take all that research onboard and tinker with your bio to make it more appealing.

You want to entice people to want to follow and learn more from you.

Here’s my current bio from Twitter*:

Exploring mindset, self-mastery & meaning in work for creative entrepreneurs.

Strengths-based coach – feel happier, more confident & achieve your goals.

I’ve used a combination of the following:

1. “Exploring…” showing people the topics I am interested in and will be sharing insights on, so people into that will follow to learn more.
2. “Strengths-based coach…” shares what I do and the transformations I can help people with, so people seeking those goals will follow for more content.

Unfortunately, the character count is only 160, so I have run out of space to promote signups for this newsletter, but I figured the #1 priority is to get people to follow. I can attract more newsletter signups over time through my content. 

Remember, a new follower is usually “cold”, and they aren’t going to jump straight into one of your offerings. First, you have to build trust and earn that right. 

*Why Twitter, that seems like a stange choice?

I’ve recently started being active on Twitter as I have found it is:

1. A great place to learn and build community – if you follow the right people in your niche. 
   
2. It’s a low-friction way to get started posting content and finding your voice – all you have to do is write text and post – no video editing TikToks, or photoshopping IG carousels. Just you and your ideas laid bare.
   
3. It’s an excellent foundation for your content. You can quickly get feedback on ideas and then repurpose the best ones to other platforms – e.g. a Twitter thread becomes an IG or Linkedin carousel, or a Tweet can be read out and expanded on video as a Reel.
   
4. Finally, I’m intrigued to see where things go now with Elon Musk at the helm (He recently bought Twitter). Is this the start of something beautiful and revolutionary? (if so, a great time to get established) Or is it the beginning of the end? (If so, risk is mitigated through repurposing strategy at point 3)

If you enjoyed this newsletter, please share it with a friend, and if you haven’t already, sign up here.

It would be great to have you on board!

Cheers!

Matt K. Head