Q2 reflection:
I'm one month late with my quarterly report. Whoops.
In Q2, I had all these plans for the podcast and for going out to meet women.
But this summer has been a summer of commitment, elimination, and not thinking I'm smarter than I am.
Let me explain.
I quit the YouTuber's Guide to the Galaxy. It was a podcast where I interviewed professional YouTubers. Here's why:
It felt like I was getting stale: asking the same questions and sharing the same philosophies.
Editing and delegating took time and money I felt guilty spending. None of it had to do with coaching which is my main business and income.
Switching from "Coach Dillan" to "Podcaster Dillan" was draining and made me worse at everything I did.
So I'm following Uncle Alex's advice and sticking with one thing and becoming the best in the world at it.
On top of podcasting, I also cut out jiujitsu.
It's just not a priority for me right now and I spent months being inconsistent with it. I figured I could either feel constant shame for not going or own it and make the decision to temporarily let it go.
I chose the latter. Plus, I replaced it with rock climbing—a chiller and easier sport.
Finally, I made a promise to myself at the start of Q2 about dating: I will never do a long-distance relationship.
So this summer I got into a long-distance relationship.
I met a woman in Argentina. I went back to the States and she continued her travels to Europe. So naturally I thought we were just dating with a deadline.
But here we are.
She would've been the plus-one at my friends' wedding last month but her bag got stolen at the Swiss airport. I visited her in London a few weeks ago. And we'll be reuniting in October when I fly to Brazil to live with her and meet her friends.
In summary, Q2 was about being willing to change my mind.
The older and wiser I get, the more I realize how impossible it is to predict the future. I think the only option is to stick with our non-negotiables and be ready to pivot in everything else.
Now for what's ahead...
Q3 commitments:
Amidst all this talk of removing things from my plate, there are two projects I will see to the end.
My book and my card game.
The book's timeline is set:
rough draft done by September 8th
all editing done by December
self-publish in December
market the hell out of it in December & January
I'm ecstatic to get the book into the hands of aspiring creators. I'm proud of the interviews, stories, and insights it shares.
The card game (which I'll reveal more about soon) will launch within a month. My goal will be to automate as much as I can while living in South America.
Besides those two, I aim to keep my focus as narrow as possible.
No new projects. No new book ideas. No divvying from the plan.
There's an exercise I give clients sometimes. It's designed to help with prioritization.
Label a sheet of paper 1-20. Then set a timer for five minutes.
Before the timer runs out, write 20 priorities in your life right now: goals, projects, and focuses.
When step 2 is done, set a timer for 30 seconds. Before time runs out, circle your top five priorities.
Cut out everything else. Pour all your focus into your top five.
I did this this morning. Here are my top five:
physical health
my relationship
being an amazing coach
finishing the book
launching the game
Everything else comes second.
Finally, here are a few of the tasks I commit to completing before October 1st:
set up a Couple’s Review: a biweekly session with my girlfriend to check in on our relationship, express gratitude, and communicate feedback
complete the rough draft of Do The Thing!
launch the card game
lift weights 3x / week
rock climb 2x / week
give mom control of my screen time to limit YouTube holes
give way more than I ask
get to 50 Google Reviews
I feel focused and fiery.
Letting things go like the podcast and jiujitsu really hurt the ego. I had people from those worlds waiting for me to show up. I felt embarrassed for looking like a quitter.
But that's how you thrive: by spending a shocking amount of time doing one thing. That plus time, makes it unreasonable to suck.
I can always return to content creation and Brazilian jiu-jitsu. And I will.
But for now, I have my assignments.
My friend said something helpful recently:
"Success is really just doing what you set out to do...without convincing yourself to do something else."
I get new ideas all the time. Since they're new, each one of them is perfect and exciting. There are zero problems to solve yet. No boring tasks to check off. There's no difficulty.
It's always the thing we're doing that we least want to do. Every other thing looks like a golden opportunity.
But it's just a distraction.
The goal this quarter is to do what I set out to do...without convincing myself I can do more than I can.
See you in Q4.