Lessons from the week (17 Sep 2023)

The 5 buckets of life, questions vs statements, Law 7 & fasting

‘Is building a business, and enriching myself, a more noble pursuit than going back to Africa to try and save lives?’

The guru stared at me as if he could see into the depths of my soul, and after a long, blinkless pause he proclaimed: ‘You cannot pour from empty buckets.’

He was telling me to focus on filling my own buckets, because someone with full buckets can positively bend the world in any way he or she desires.

I now possess the knowledge, skills, network, resources and reputation to help millions of people all over the world.

Steven then goes on to describe the five buckets and how we should fill them in this order:

These five buckets are interconnected – filling one helps to fill another – and they are generally filled in order from left to right.

We usually start our professional life acquiring knowledge (school, university, etc.), and when this knowledge is applied, we call it a skill. When you have knowledge and skills you become professionally valuable to others and your network grows. Consequently, when you have knowledge, skills and a network, your access to resources expands, and once you have knowledge, skills, a valuable network and resources, you will undoubtedly earn a reputation.

With these five buckets and their interconnected relationship in mind, it’s clear that an investment in the first bucket (knowledge) is the highest-yielding investment you can make. Because when that knowledge is applied (skill), it inevitably cascades to fill your remaining buckets. These first two buckets are your longevity, your foundation and the clearest predictor of your future.

One of the reasons I love reading books is that it makes you see the world from a different lens. Just that shift in perspective can change your life or offer you solutions to dilemmas that you have been battling with in your mind. First learn how to swim on your own before you even think about saving someone else from drowning. You will be a lot more effective when you can look after yourself before you start looking after your family, your community, your country and the world.

*From the book The Diary of a CEO from Steven Bartlett

"I WILL EAT HEALTHY TODAY" vs "WILL I EAT HEALTHY TODAY?"

Questions prompt a psychological reaction that is different from the reaction to statements.

This means, for instance, that a sign that says, PLEASE RECYCLE is much less likely to increase its viewers’ chance of recycling than a sign that says, WILL YOU RECYCLE? Telling yourself ‘I will eat vegetables today’ is less likely to increase your chances of eating vegetables than asking yourself the question, ‘Will I eat vegetables today?’

Starting the question with ‘will’ implies ownership and action, and causes the question/behaviour effect to be even stronger than starting your question with a word like ‘can’ or ‘could’, which imply the question is about ability rather than action.

The great thing about a ‘yes’ or ‘no’ question is it doesn’t give you any wiggle room to deceive yourself. It forces you to commit one way or the other.

Use the question/behaviour effect to help others: ask a friend or loved one, ‘Will you eat more healthily?’ or ‘Will you go for that promotion?’ This gentle confrontation has been repeatedly proven to lead to reliable, meaningful change and encourages people to be their best selves.

If you’re a waiter in a restaurant serving a table of happy customers, instead of telling them ‘I hope you enjoyed your food’ when you’re collecting their plates, instead ask ‘Did you like the food?’ just as you’re handing over the bill, right before it’s time for them to decide on the tip.

As President Reagan taught us, when the facts are clearly on your side, questions become extremely powerful tools for encouraging the behaviour you want.

This Question/Behavior Effect made me change all my prompts on my phone. For example:
- "Healthy Body. Healthy Mind" (7am reminder to exercise) became "Will I be strong today?"
- "It's a perennial game. Pursue Progress." (10am reminder to focus on the right work) became "Will I have fun in this perennial game today?" (to remind myself to enjoy what I am doing).
- "Continue whatever you're doing in bed" (10pm reminder so that I sleep on time) became "Will I read myself to sleep?" (to prompt myself to read more).

*From the book The Diary of a CEO from Steven Bartlett

LAW 7 - NEVER COMPROMISE YOUR SELF-STORY

This is the third insight from The Diary of a CEO and the one which really hit home because I am talking to myself all day, every day. Who isn't? You have a non-stop mental dialogue that is going on every waking hour of your life, consciously or subconsciously. So it is essential that you make this aspect of yourself extremely positive. You need to be your own best friend. When you look at yourself in the mirror, you need to be proud of what you see. When you don't feel good, you need to journal to make sense of the clutter in your mind. When you feel good, you need to stop and enjoy the moment because it will pass. Gather evidence through your actions so that you can build your self story to be the man or woman you are proud to be.

‘I hated every minute of training, but I said, “Don’t quit. Suffer now and live the rest of your life as a champion.”’ Muhammad Ali

Your self-story creates ‘mental toughness’.

Research continues to reveal that your self-story and the ‘mental toughness’, ‘grit’ or ‘resilience’ that you have is more important than anything else for achieving your goals in business and in life. That’s very good to know because while you can’t do much about your physicality or the innate abilities you are born with, you can do a lot to develop your self-story.

Your self-story develops most rapidly during early childhood and adolescence, but it continues to form and change as we collect more evidence about ourselves throughout our adult life.

Psychology professor Fatwa Tentama states that individual ‘resilience’ is influenced by having a positive self-story. Individuals with a positive self-story will be more optimistic, persevere for longer in the face of adversity, handle stress better and achieve their goals more easily.

John Wooden: ‘The true test of a man’s character is what he does when no one is watching.’ This is true, but according to science, it’s also true that a person’s character is created, built or destroyed when no one is watching.

Everything you do - with or without an audience - provides evidence to you about who you are and what you’re capable of.

What we believe about ourselves creates our thoughts and feelings, our thoughts and feelings determine our actions, and our actions create our evidence. To create new evidence you must change your actions.

Prove to yourself – in a thousand tiny ways, at every opportunity you get – that you have what it takes to overcome the challenges of life.

*From the book The Diary of a CEO from Steven Bartlett

Lessons from my 51.5 hour long fast

I try to do a long three day fast every three months. The reason I do such long fasts is because I try to get my body to a state of Autophagy. Depriving yourself of food for a limited controlled period of time given all the excesses that we have become accustomed to is healthy. I have been doing these since 2017. This was the 21st fast for me. 

I started these fasts with 72 hours (3 days) but these timings have trended downwards over the years. The last few ones have been 60 hours (2.5 days), which was my goal for this one too but I fell short. I ended up waking up at 3.30am to eat because I could not sleep. I really don't know why this one was much harder because I did all the same things I did the last time around. I had electrolytes (salt and water and magnesium) to avoid any headaches as my body switched from burning glucose to burning fat (ketosis). All was well till hour 44 but then it got tough. I can only hypothesize that this was because I just came off a very intense weekend of exercising, I have put on muscle and perhaps going straight into fasting after just recovering needed up-regulation of my electrolyte content.

I will learn from this experience so that the next one is better. Still proud of myself for doing it. Something like fasting builds physical and mental resilience.

Harsh Batra
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