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Recipes

How you sit is how you work

It seems so simple but it really works. I can’t get the best out of myself when I’m hunched over a laptop in a dark room.

When I sit up, my brain does too. And so does my work.

I can’t focus when my eyes dart around from thing to thing.

When I focus my gaze in one direction, my work hones in as well.

I love paying attention to the ingredients of effective performance. When you have ingredients and cook books, you have delicious meals when ever you want them.

You just have to follow the recipe.

Pre-sleep list

My schedule has been quite different lately. Lot’s of travel and my day to day varies quite a lot. Sometimes I have the morning to myself, other times I have an engagement first thing.

One thing that has helped me is to mentally list the order and sequence of things I will do in the morning.

If your day looks the same every day, I’m trying to mimic that.

Wake up. Straight out for a walk. Journal. Breakfast. Voice warm up. Day begins.

It seems simple, but when I go to bed with a jumbled list of things I could do in any order, by morning ends up taking twice as long.

And worse still, I’ll add unnecessary things before the actual list (check phone…!)

If the order doesn’t matter, choose AN order and go with that.

And choose it before you sleep.

The right form

To kick a rugby ball you need the right form.

You approach the ball at the correct angle. You run up on the correct leg. Your breathing is a certain way. Your foot meets the ball at a precise point and follows through as the ball glides up.

Kicking the ball, holding the golf club or making the high jump requires your body to be in the right form.

This isn’t magic; it’s form.

And form isn’t limited to sports.

Take a second to imagine these…

What is the ‘form’ of an excellent writer?

A fast reader?

Or a highly engaging speaker?

What does an effective teacher look like?

What is the form of an efficient artist?

What does an entertaining host look like?

You may be able to conjure these pictures in your head. (If you can’t, now’s a great time to find some models.)

If we can imagine their form, we can adopt it.

If we can adopt it, we can get similar results.

Some people are magnets

They make you smile, they make you feel heard and they make you want to shout “Heck yes!” when they share their vision for the world.

They aren’t magnetic because of any communication tricks or hacks- sure, they may have honed their craft, but theirs is an elementally magnetic core.

Where does it come from? Like most delicious meals, it’s a balance of all the good stuff.

Here are some of the raw materials:

A listener.

This person has the ability to deeply listen to people with both brain and heart.

A purpose.

This person has a burning purpose that will cut through anything. This might be a grand vision for change or something that leads them to hold down their corner of the world and enact the purpose daily.

Values

This person has a strong set of values. Values that make decisions for them.

We not me.

This person is not out for themselves. They understand that a win for you is a win for me. They know that there is no feeling greater than lifting up others.

Leverage.

This person makes big things happen with short conversations.

Abundance.

This person knows there is more than enough.

We need magnets in the world.

We need you to be one and we need you to create them.

Take responsibility for your remarkable results

What’s a remarkable result you created recently?

Sometimes lighting strikes in the classroom- for whatever reason you were absolutely on fire. You were off book, speaking from the heart and the kids were completely connecting to the learning material effortlessly.

When I have days like this I remember why I do what I do.

And then there’s the part of my brain that says it was a fluke and there was some special set of circumstances outside of my control that made the lesson happen like that…

I have to fight this part of my brain.

It says that remarkable results are outside of my control. That it all depends on what the kids ate, whether they got enough sleep or if it’s a cosy rainy day out there.

Sure, these things contribute. But the minute I start yielding responsibility to things like this, I stop myself.

What was awesome about that day in the classroom? How did I contribute to it being that way?

We can treat it a bit like a recipe. What did I do first? How exactly did I do it? And then what happened?

When I break it down like this I always find the patterns that worked. And the great thing about recipes is they can be replicated or experimented with.

If you’ve don’t it once before, then you can do it again. And I’ll do you one better; if someone else has done it once before then you can do it too.

Or how about the ultimate: If you can picture and imagine it, then you can create it.

Take responsibility for your remarkable results- then make more of them.

We don’t need your nerves

I’m really just reminding myself.

Despite over a decade of performing for audiences around the world and teaching hundreds of kids at a time, I still get that wobbly feeling in my stomach in the lead up to being in front of people.

They say the adrenaline is good but sometimes the feeling can take over a bit and make you hyper focussed on yourself.

This is exactly the wrong direction for your focus.

When this happens to me, I remind myself: they don’t need your nerves.

Instead I realign with what I’m there to do.

How can I give more?

How can I get out of my own way to serve these people I’m about to be in front of?

It’s easier said than done, but focus shift does a lot for me.

Eat while you feel happy

Don’t wait till you’re tired and hungry.

Is this a helpful productivity hack to ride the highs of the day? Sure.

Is this also pretty much a note to self?

You bet it is.

Just do the next thing

I wonder where the phrase ‘jump the gun’ came from? This is kind of about that.

When I was editing my film today, I caught myself wanting to create the background for this particular part I had in my head. The reason I caught the impulse was I was already low energy and knew that working out of order might be harder.

Instead, I simply started from the beginning; Choose the take I’ll use. Pick the length. Choose the next take. Trim it. Repeat.

There’s magic in simply doing the thing in order (or indeed the best order you can make) and then the next thing. And then the next thing.

You can’t build a pyramid by starting with the middle brick.

(Though the jury’s still out for me on how they did… maybe this is the way they did it).

But I’m not an ancient Egyptian so I’ll start from the bottom.

The hour of power

An hour of power is a sequence of actions you can take in the morning to start your day right. If the name sounds corny GOOD, that means you’ll remember it!

Here’s an hour of power sequence you can try:

30 minute walk

10 Minute yoga

10 Meditation

10 Minute Journalling

Change and rearrange as needed- but it’s quite a fun prompt for oneself: what can I do for an hour in the morning that would make the rest of my day awesome?

Plant Based Nachos

No story, just great plant based nachos:

-Dice 2x carrots and 2x Onions- Fry in a pan.

-Add this plant based mince alternative

-Rinse and add 1x can of black beans, 1x can of red beans (add more cans for more people)

-Once cooked, add this seasoning (two packets/ to taste, for more people)

-Add 1x can chopped tomatoes and cook on low for 5-7 mins

Serve with quac and your favorite corn chips- here’s mine.

EASY! Enjoy

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