Welcome to issue No. 063 of the Lever

I've written about how greatness happens in the shadows, through the thousands of hours spent practicing while nobody is watching.

That time is important.

But it is also important to preach what you’ve been practicing once the spotlight turns on.

If you value a skill high enough to spend hours working on it in private, then you should also jump on every chance you get to make it public. Because these are the times that the greatest lessons are learned.

Time blocking is a proven strategy to manage your time and get things done.

I've created a short course to help you learn this valuable skill.

It includes the Daily Dashboard - a template that automatically imports your Google Calendar data and visualizes it for amazing insights.

​Find it here

Don’t Wait Until You Are Ready

You’ll never be ready.

I spent the past week preparing a presentation for a group of ~30 decision makers. I gave that presentation yesterday.

Was I nervous going in? Sure. But having a great presentation (prepared in the shadows!) kept the nerves to a minimum.

Fear of the spotlight is the number one reason that people don’t succeed. And that fear is entirely in your head.

The fact of the matter is that:

1. People don’t think about you as much as you think they do
2. People respect those who push against their current limits

The worst that can happen is mild embarrassment, while the best is a groundbreaking insight or flash of inspiration that will catapult your progress miles beyond your current level.

Huge upside. Minimum risk.

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You’ve Got to Ship

The circle is not complete until you have delivered.

What good is a piece of work if it never sees the light of day? What is the point of those thousands of hours sacrificed if the result is never released into the world to be judged? What if you no longer had to ask “what if”?

Doing the work is only the start. You’ve got to complete the work. And you’ve got to put it out there, under the spotlight of public scrutiny. Only then can you wipe down the chalkboard and start something new, having learned something from the experience.

Feedback is wildly important to improvement. It teaches lessons that you can never learn in the shadows and accelerates your progress 10x. It builds confidence and it highlights weakness to be focused on.

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Skill Level Be Damned

One last point: you need to put your work out into the world during every stage of your development.

If you wait until you are “good enough” you’ll have waited too long, and missed countless opportunities to speed up your improvement along the way.

The bulk of work will be done in the shadows, but don't stay in the shadows too long because you are afraid. You'll find that people are incredibly supportive of those that are willing to stick their necks out.

There will always be somebody who is better at the thing you do than you are. Don’t compare your progress with theirs; model them, or be inspired. Apply this to your own learning.

Do the hard work every day in the shadows. Then step into the spotlight every chance you can.

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