| When I came to, I was standing in my kitchen… … wearing only my boxer shorts… … with my finger hovering over the “GO” button. “What the hell?”, I thought. … and then I remembered. – – – A few months ago, I decided to give “Insanity: MAX 30” a try again. I’d done it a few years ago, during one of my quadrennial* “I should start getting in shape” moments of weakness. * Yes, I had to Google that too. If you don’t know what Insanity: MAX 30 is, let me define it for you: “the action or practice of inflicting severe pain or suffering on someone as a punishment or in order to force them to do or say something.” Yep, that’s right. It’s torture. Don’t let anyone tell you that, because something ONLY lasts 30 minutes, that it’s easy. If you want the power to make half an hour seem like days, fire up an Insanity DVD. Despite this, and my appalling willpower, I managed to stick at it for a few weeks. I even made it to month 2, but then something hit me like a sharp, stabbing pain in the knee. It was a sharp, stabbing pain in my knees. Turns out, my body objects to me spending 44 years of my life ruthlessly abusing it and then asking it to devote 3600 seconds every day to jumping, leaping, and burpeeing. So, I’ve dialed it back a bit – 10 minutes of bodyweight exercises a day. Not only is that easier on my body (YAY! I can walk downstairs again!)… … it’s easier on my mind too. So much so that, after a few weeks, it’s become part of my morning routine. (along with a nice coffee, reading two chapters of a book, and sacrificing a bag of kittens to appease “Umvar”, the Mesopotamian god of Subbuteo) Here’s how it usually plays out: Umvar soothed, I head off into the kitchen, strip down to my underwear, and fire up the workout app. And that’s where this email started. Last week, I found myself, ⅞ naked, standing in my kitchen, ready to go. (Unrelated: this is also the basis of that TV cooking show I pitched to Channel 5 – “The Naked Chafe”, but I digress…) I don’t remember thinking, “I should do my workout now”. It just happened. It’s funny how quickly and easily things can become an automatic habit. Sending an email to your list is another one. “I don’t have time to sit down and write…” “It’s too hard. I never know what to write about…” “Won’t everyone unsubscribe if I start emailing?” If you try to go full-on – Insanity: MAX 30 – with email then, yeah, you might struggle. But what about setting aside ten minutes today to sit down and write? Can you do that? You don’t even have to hit send. Can you sit down and spend ten minutes writing to your customer? Here’s another thing that helps makes habits easy: Not focusing on results. My morning 10-minute workout is pathetic compared to most, but I’m able to stick at it because I’m not counting how many push-ups I’m doing, nor am I logging the number of times I cry and ask for mummy… … I only ask one thing: ‘Did I strip down to my pants and press “go”?’ That’s it. So don’t worry about writing the “perfect” email, or having to write one every single day. Make the commitment to set aside ten minutes every single day to sit down and write and who knows… … you might find yourself sitting at your computer, typing away and suddenly thinking… … “Hang on, how the hell did I get here?”. John P.S. Want me to help you write more emails like these? How about a welcome sequence that turns freebie seekers into buyers… and puts a smile on their face? Maybe you fancy a few e-commerce automation that’ll generate more revenue without you having to do any work for it? I’ve got a few spaces for projects in December, so if you wanna capitalise on the Christmas rush, move fast by hitting reply, and let’s make it happen. P.P.S. I realise that I’ve teased you a couple of times in this email about me exercising in my pants, so it’s only fair that I give you the visual too. It’s the least I can do for you, my loyal and devoted subscriber. |
