I Started a Weekly Mindset Podcast
At TKS, we learn new mindset each week dubbed the Mindset of the Week (MOTW). A few that I wouldn’t mind written on every door:
- Figure it out: Getting access to any information you want is a breeze. Take action into your own hands to try to solve problems you encounter. If changing my DNS records to Cloudflare made my website inaccessible, then I go to Google and figure it out. I don’t know how to use time remapping on Premiere? Figure it out ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
- Boss mentality: How would you act if you were a CEO of a billion dollar company? Would you sit with slouched shoulders? Would you feel scared to meet someone new? If not, then don’t act like that now either. Act like the person you want to become.
- Curiosity: Curiosity might’ve killed the cat but lack of curiosity kills your brain cells. Also has the benefit of improved independent thinking
The idea behind this is that we’ll actively implement this mindset in our next week.
I like this idea. I like external forces giving me something undisputable to focus on each week — weeks are short enough that it doesn’t feel like I’m being forced to do something I don’t want to do. If you be intentional about one new thing each week, I’m sure lots of growth will take place. However, the problem is that I didn’t really implement these mindsets. There was no system in place to “push” me to: we just got told the MOTW each Saturday and that’s it — it was up to us to implement. September and October flew by and it wasn’t until I joined Velocity in November that I realized I haven’t been implementing these mindsets at all.
2 months of mindsets that I didn’t make the most out of. 2 months of mindsets that I barely made anything out of.
What gave me this realization? Velocity gives us a separate Mindset of the Week from the regular TKS one. This mindset, however, was different: we had to fill out a weekly tracker and write a reflection on the MOTW every week. This reflection would take 10 minutes to write, but this small change made a huge difference. This small change meant I had to be proactive about implementing the mindsets.
Around the same time, I started Daily Updates, which are basically where you write what you want to do each day and send to your accountability squad. I wrote the Mindset of the Week at the top of every daily update page, which meant I saw the mindset 3–5 times a day, which naturally lead to being more intentional about the mindset.
Come late November, I get kicked out of Velocity. Uh oh. No more weekly tracker to reflect on mindsets. I found myself slipping back to my old patterns of not implementing them.
No. I won’t let this happen. You’re the only person in control of your own growth. I’m the only person in charge of my growth. If I don’t implement these mindsets, no one will make me. I’m the one who loses out.
I still kept putting the mindsets on my daily updates, which worked great, but… I felt like it wasn’t enough.
When I’m working on a mindset, my implementation is clouded by my perception of what the mindset means, accumulated from all the experiences and biases I have. I remember how talking about the Mindset of the Week with my accountability squad in Velocity was great — getting to hear what others think, sometimes hearing about completely different takeaways from the same two words.
So let’s do this again. I want to talk about people every week about the mindset. This will help me actively implement it in my life, and possibly help others as well.
That’s why I started this podcast.
Tell me about a mindset you wouldn’t mind having taped to every door (doesn’t have to be a TKS mindset) and you can be on my next episode!
What does it take to produce a podcast episode? Check out the Release Notes for a breakdown of what goes on behind the scenes.
Bonus: Appreciation
Taking 2 minutes out of every day to write down one thing you’re grateful for is “frustratingly effective.” — CGP Grey
Quick action items you can do now to make the most out of your holidays by showing some appreciation:
Check out the First Principles podcast :)
Daily wisdom — @laurgao on Twitter
