Tag: intentional scarcity

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Our Willpower Is Limited, Best To Not Push It (Thoughts on Feb. 2016)

Intentional Scarcity is Difficult

The biggest thing I realized this month is that saying no, even when you want to, is hard. Saying no when you don’t want to is almost impossible, unless there are the right conditions. We have limited willpower and we often underestimate the limit we have.  Also, each option and decision we have saps the supply of willpower. So, it is incredibly important to pick your spots because unless you don’t have a choice, you will fail if you try to change too much at once.  If you do fail, its important to manage the failure, understand what happened, and move forward.

I also learned that starting with nothing is best. The more tools you buy, the more monumental the task becomes. Even buying something like running shoes adds expectations to the task. That expectation adds pressure, and unless you are directing that pressure (accountability practices) you want to avoid as much of it as possible.  So, keep things simple, especially when you want to start something drastically different.   If you want to write, just start a Tumblr or WordPress. If you want to do videos, just shoot them on your camera and upload them to YouTube. Start working out with just one push-up.  By being intentionally scarce you remove pressure and increase the chance that you will follow through.

Biggest Lesson – Saying no is extremely difficult when your willpower is low, so pick your targets and take away options when you can.

My Correct Assumptions

  • There is a cap on Willpower

My Incorrect Assumptions

  • Defaulting to abundance with free time, I default to nothing, and that is helpful.
  • I should start a new habit by buying things first.

Important Posts

Videos

Books

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Life As Usual Video Blog #15 – Intentional Scarcity

Every week I do a video blog (or VLOG).

 

When I started this,  I was very scared of putting myself on video, so I got the courage and put myself in the arena, killing a lot of bad self talk.This gives me the chance to work on my communication skills, start a new medium, and experiment!

Once a week, after I have thought about them, I will give them a day here on the blog.

These aren’t just promotion posts (although they are, please watch and share :-) ) I want to take the time to break them down and try to clarify what I want to communicate and the tactical things I learned through doing.

This week I talked about intentional scarcity.

If you enjoyed the video, and if you want to get on the ride, please,subscribe to my YouTube channel, and join my Facebook page where I post them every Sunday night.

What I Wanted To Communicate About Intentional Scarcity

When you take away things purposefully, you train your mind to get stronger. The stronger your mind, the more you get to do. Intentional scarcity is a great way to do that. It makes you tougher so the tough things don’t break you.

  • Get used to less – We don’t use that much, and getting used to the idea that you have less and deal with less helps.
  • We have limited focus – nothing is boundless, especially our focus. With less to focus on, you spend more focus on the things that matter.
  • Improve your willpower –  Seeing you can do it  will improve your confidence that you can do other things. It levels up your willpower.

What I Learned Doing This Video

  • Centering the shot looks better.
  • I am going to need a LAV mic to pick up sound better.
  • I need a preproduction checklist.

If you enjoyed the video, and if you want to get on the ride, please,subscribe to my YouTube channel, and join my Facebook page where I post them every Sunday night.

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So, Lets Hold Off – February Is About Intentional Scarcity

 

I noticed my website was slow

The site got tremendously slow. It was getting difficult to update. I appreciate speed when it comes to “surfing the web.” So, I decided to strip everything down to its basic form today. I removed all the plug-ins, and voilà, the site got fast once again. It was a great introduction to this months theme, intentional scarcity, or the idea that I am creating constraints to improve. I ran across this idea when I read the book Scarcity: Why Having Too Little Means So Much, (on the reread list this month) and have used it in an ad-hoc fashion to improve certain aspects of my life. This month I want to take advantage of the 29 days (leap year!) and try to see, with focus, how I use intentional scarcity to make things better in a systemic way.

This month’s theme ties into abstinence

At the end of last year I wrote a post that resulted in me picking 5 themes for 2016. They are the guiding light (strategic)  for my ideas. Each month on this blog, I break things down into the practical (tactical). This year I want to tie them together, so each month, I have to write the reason they connect.

Intentional scarcity ties into abstinence because I am abstaining from the thrills and frills that most people assume they need. It forces me to say ‘no’ to comfort and ultimately, make me more productive.

Reread candidate

Scarcity: Why Having Too Little Means So Much by Sendhil Mullainathan & Eldar Shafir – This is a textbook for intentional scarcity, as it provides both research and case studies on why it works.

Other candidates

Don’t Make Me Think 

Questions

What questions will I ask this month when it comes to Intentional Scarcity. I think it’s important to think about the month’s theme, and the best weapon to generate thought comes from questions.

  • Why do I need this?
  • How does it work without it?
  • What made me think I needed this in the first place?
  • Is it because someone else said I needed to do it? Why do they think that?

Subthemes

What are some of the subjects that come to mind when it comes to Intentional Scarcity that need some extra leg work.

  • Bare bones – How do things work at the root of it?
  • Pavlok – I bought a Pavlok device. How does this factor into my intentional scarcity?
  • Free time – I have a lot of free time.  I default to abundance, how it this going to work?
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