Did you hear about the constipated mathematician?
He worked it out with a pencil.
If you’re feeling stuck, the best thing to do is to be like that constipated mathematician.
Work it out with a pencil.
Feeling stuck is usually the result of being dissatisfied with one or more of these 3 key areas of your life:
- Health/fitness
- Wealth/career
- Love/relationships
To figure out how to get unstuck, you need to get your thoughts down on paper.
Block out some time (e.g. a couple of hours on a Sunday afternoon) and sit down with a pen and paper. No distractions. No TV. No other people bugging you. Just silence. And your thoughts.
Where do you want to be in 5 years in each of those realms?
Put it down in writing.
For health, maybe you want to be lean, muscular, and flexible at a weight of 200 lb.
For love, maybe you want to be married, have kids, or amass a respectable harem.
For wealth, maybe you want to write a book that sells 20,000 copies.
Once you’ve figured out where you want to be in 5 years, you can use these goals to structure your life and day-to-day habits.
- What do you need to accomplish within 1 year to be on track for your 5-year goals?
- What do you need to accomplish this month?
- What do you need to accomplish this week?
- What habits do you need to do on a day-to-day basis?
Just say you want to write a book that sells 20,000 copies…
You might need to write 1–2 books this year.
To do that, you’ll need to write 1,000–2,000 words a day.
Just say you’re fed up of being single and you want to meet someone. Well, how many dates have you been on this week? Have you signed up to a dating site and sent some messages? Have you said “hello” to 10 new people this week?
You can measure this stuff.
Just say you want to be able to run a mile without getting winded. Or you want a six-pack. Well, have you exercised each day this week? Even if it’s just a 30-minute walk? Have you fuelled your body with the right nutrition 80% of the time this week?
Once you’ve got your love, health, and wealth goals down, you can move on to fun stuff.
Even if your love life, health, and wealth are all in good order, you might be feeling stuck because you’re bored.
So, let’s figure out how to have some fun.
- What skill have you always wanted to learn?
- What fun things have you always wanted to do?
For me, I love learning languages. That’s the skill I’m building up. As for fun things, I love being in nature, visiting new restaurants, and travelling. So I make sure that I do at least one of those things each week.
Once you’ve got all that stuff written down, you have your blueprint to getting unstuck.