Welcome to EDITION 009 of the TRY HARDER Newsletter.
Today, it’s a painfully simple habit that will help you achieve anything you want, lessons I learned about myself training for an Ultramarathon, and a hat tip to Florence Nightingale.
Save it for later. Read it now. But don’t ignore this one!!
And if you like it, share it with a friend 🙏🏻.
Enjoy!
In this Edition:
Building the Business
2-Step Sticky Note Habit
Building the Human
Ultramarathon Lessons
Try Harder
Florence’s Mission
Building the Business:
The 2-Step Sticky Note Habit 🗒️
Charlie Munger said, “A majority of life errors are caused by forgetting what one is really trying to do.”
😲 Damn, that’s Charlie coming in hot and calling us all out! Freakin’ billionaires…
Have your efforts, and day-to-day activities made you forget the actual goal? 🤔
Why are you doing anything that you do!?!?
Preparation is awesome.
Goals are helpful.
But the only thing that matters? The reps you put in AFTER your preparation and goal-setting.
Here is the easiest way I keep on track regarding GOAL ACHIEVING (not goal setting). Maybe it can be of use to you.
Step 1:Write Your Goal on a Whiteboard
Step 2:At the end of EACH DAY, assess your work. If you COMPLETED a thing that will move you forward, write it on the sticky note and put it on the board. If not complete, no sticky note.
🛑 Don’t get creative.
🛑 Don’t pretend some tiny meaningless task is of any meaningful value.
🛑 Don’t BS yourself.
You either DID ✅, or you DID NOT ❌ complete a THING that day that led to achieving your goal.
And that’s it.
This habit has been transformational for me. I have to move some pretty damn big rocks 🪨 to move forward at this point. So most days, I don’t have a sticky note to put on the board. I may have worked on something, but I DID NOT COMPLETE IT.
You only get the sticky note once the thing is done.
I’ve been doing this since January of 2023. Last year, I only had 26 sticky notes on the board.
Do you see how this works? It can take me a week or a month to complete a THING that is moving us forward.
Sure I have a lot of work to do. But I need to distinguish the work that has to be done from the work that is moving us forward.
So enough with the prep and the goals…GET TO THE WORK!
Try harder,
JM
Takeaways:
Implement the sticky note habit
Be honest with what is moving you forward
Building the Human:
Ultramarathon: What I learned About Myself 🏃🏻♂️
Recently, I completed a 50K Ultramarathon. I’ve never considered myself a runner, so why not tackle and Ultra and see what I learn about myself in the process? 🏃🏻♂️🏃🏻♂️🏃🏻♂️
Well, here’s what I learned…
1.) I don’t like training for things. 🗓️
Don’t get me wrong. I love training. I workout 6-7 days per week. I train hard and I train hard for no real reason.
But what I learned about myself in doing Ultra Training for nearly a year…
I don’t like training for things…
Rather, I like training and then doing things.
Did you catch the difference?
I want to train hard and be beyond prepared for anything life can throw at me.
And if I want to randomly throw in a long endurance event or obstacle race, I can easily handle it.
But I don’t want to train with such a singular focus. For me, it wasn’t enjoyable and I feel it made me less capable; i.e. some strength loss, felt less athletic, etc.
It was nice to kill comfort and stick to a training plan I wasn’t psyched about, but in the long term I think it would back fire on me.
I talk about this in Chapter 17 of Killing Comfort…Sometimes you can kill the wrong comfort.
You have to understand the difference.
2.) My Grit > My Fitness. And that’s dangerous. ☠️
This is a lesson I have been getting a masterclass in the last few years.
My grit is more advanced than my fitness level.
I’m not special. A lot of people are like this. You may be just like me.
However, when your grit exceeds your capability, you can end up hurt.
That happened a lot in the training process. I would push beyond my capability and “tough it out” only to end up injured.
Again…I talk about this in Chapter 17 of Killing Comfort…Sometimes you can kill the wrong comfort.
You have to understand the difference.
Takeaways:
Be sure to kill the right comfort
The pursuit of enjoyment in fitness is not comfort
Don’t let your grit push you to injury
Try Harder:
Florence’s Mission
Did you know Florence Nightingale was rich 🤑?
You either know who Florence Nightingale was or you’ve AT LEAST heard the name.
But, yeah, she was rich. Well, her family was.
Do you think having a silver spoon 🥄 means you’ve got no reason to hustle? Let Florence Nightingale shatter that myth.
Born into a life of luxury, Nightingale could have easily settled into the comfortable rhythms of high society 👒. But comfort? That was for amateurs. Florence had bigger plans—a mission that would rewrite the rules of healthcare.
Florence wasn’t content to sit back and embroider pillows 🪡 while others suffered.
Armed with wealth and a relentless drive, she dove into the filth and fever 🤒 of wartime hospitals 🏥, determined to drag them out of the dark ages.
Why?
Because she saw a need—vast and urgent—and responded not with charity, but with action.
Her battlefield wasn’t just against disease; it was against complacency and tradition. Nightingale used her position to influence and innovate, transforming dusty old hospitals by introducing rigorous sanitation practices that dramatically cut death rates. Her efforts weren’t just about helping the immediate; they set the standards for modern nursing.
So, what’s your excuse?
Nightingale’s story isn’t just a call to try harder; it’s a challenge to leverage your success for something greater. She turned privilege into purpose, wealth into a weapon against widespread medical ignorance.
Take a leaf out of Florence’s book: Find your mission. Use whatever resources, advantages, or tools you have at your disposal—not for more comfort, but for a cause worth fighting for. If Nightingale could transform healthcare with a lamp and sheer will, what can you do with what you’ve got? Get going—history isn’t made by those who stand still.
