Getting Things Done With Positive Self-Manipulation
If you want to go places in life, you should start by going to different places
When I was little, I watched a movie that had a scene etched in my mind. In the 007 movie Goldfinger, James Bond was caught by Goldfinger, who tied him to a metal table, and shot a powerful laser beam below Bond. The laser slowly moved it upward, intending to cut him in half. The beam worked its way through the area between his feet, calves, knees, and thighs, cutting through the metal table like a hot knife through butter. It was getting so close to touching Bond’s body—and not just any body parts—his family jewels. The 10-year-old me screamed watching that scene and covered my own crotch in horror. At that moment, I swear I felt something on my scrotum. It was either psychological pain or I peed my pants, but definitely something.
James Bond, of course, maneuvered his way out of the bind the only way 007 could. He calmly talked the bad guy into stopping the laser and escaped the danger. He later beat the villain, served his country, and got the girl at the end, like always.
But me? I still occasionally wake up in the middle of the night in a cold sweat holding my balls.
Which psycho wrote this script? How many young boys’ nightmares did he invade with a scene like that?
Anyway, that scene, though, is a recurrence in my life. I’m not just talking about dreams, but about impending deadlines for important tasks and missions.
I’m sure you can relate. Many times you have big projects with consequences, and you feel stuck and can’t make any progress. The deadline is looming not just on the horizon, but inching closer and closer like the laser beam toward your crotch. If you don’t complete the task and miss the deadline, painful, humiliating, and devastating things will happen to you.
Can you solve the problem? Can you get things done before the excruciating moment of failure?
I faced this episode a month ago. In a moment of desperation, ingenuity, and sacrifice, I solved it. And I’m here to share with you what I did and what I learned.
Writing Starts
Back in June, I signed a contract with Simon & Schuster to write and publish my second book—tentatively titled The Art of Achieving Ambitious Things. It’s about how to reach great heights and maximize potential for disorganized, undisciplined, and distracted people.
I could play it cool and tell you that getting this contract was no big deal, but I’d be lying through my teeth. It was a dream-come-true wrapped in euphoria on top of ecstasy.
The day I signed, I bought 50 physical copies of books that sold over 1 million copies and screamed into them one after another: “James Clear! I’m coming at you! Jen Sincero! Guess who’s the real badass? Me! Mark Manson! I am about to master the non-subtle art of giving a huge f*ck—about my own book!”
But it’s one thing to get a book deal and another to actually write it. That’s where the struggle came in. I wrote the intro, and it read like a manual to replace my furnace air filter. Then I wrote the first chapter, and it smelled like rotten fish blended with fermented tofu. I hated them! I pushed the delete button so hard Google Drive might have sent me a warning.
The irony couldn’t be more obvious. I’m writing a book on productivity while struggling to get it done myself.
Three months passed with no progress. I could see the vague sign of the deadline on the horizon… Wait, is it a metal-cutting laser? Somebody stop it! Now!
In a panic, I did the thing I’ve always done when I’m in a bind—talking to my wife Tracy, asking for ideas to get me out of the situation before my crotch gets cut in half. And Tracy, like always, delivered with a brilliant and selfless idea.
“Why don’t you go to Japan?” said Tracy.
Me: “Where? What?”
Tracy: “Remember the beautiful lake underneath Mt. Fuji? You should go there for a month by yourself to write the book. You’ll come back with the best draft.”
She was referring to Lake Kawaguchi, one of the most famous and well-visited spots in Japan. When we visited it on our vacation, we thought it was God’s way of revealing a corner of Heaven to motivate us to make the right choices in life.
So I bought a ticket, booked the hotel, bowed to Tracy Japanese-style to thank her for her love, idea, and sacrifice, and boarded the plane to Japan.
What happened next shocked me. I acted differently, wrote differently, and became almost a different person. Three things happened:
Stealing Creativity from Nature
A day later, I was sitting in Yaqizaki Park with my MacBook. Mt. Fuji was in front of me, and Lake Kawaguchi was behind me. My mind was taking in the natural beauty like the Avatar folks connecting their hair with the Mother Tree. My fingers were dancing on the computer keyboard like Beethoven in front of his piano.
What revealed itself on the computer screen was a very different book than I originally thought. When I started, my focus was autobiographical storytelling. The format was: “Hey, I was down in the dumps, and here is what I did to get myself out of difficult situations and achieve great things. Here’s how you can do it too.”
But watching the mountain, walking around the lake, and gorging on an unpalatable amount of sushi day after day for weeks changed something inside me—not just my cholesterol either. Nature started to talk to me, not in a God-to-Moses-burning-bush kind of way, but in a way that stirred my imagination.
I started recalling ancient stories I had read in the past, and the stories of people I had admired showed up one after another. They were telling me, “Hey, don’t just write your own story. How about our stories? It can illustrate your point too! We are here if you need us.”
When nature calls—and I don’t mean your bladder pressure, like when nature literally calls you—you take it and roll with it. So instead of writing all about me, I tapped into Greek mythology, ancient travelers, business thinkers, modern lifestyle movements, etc. It became a book of a collection of stories.
I could not have written this way without physically being in Japan. No way!
Whenever you feel creatively stuck, think about going to a place with completely different sensory stimulation. It might open up your brain to ideas you never knew were possible.
Focused Deep Work
Another benefit of traveling across the globe is that I knew no one there. And it’s a huge advantage. I didn’t need to talk to anyone, impress anyone, or have any extra agenda other than doing the work. Three weeks in, both my look and mental focus started to resemble those of a Japanese wise man. If Hollywood is casting the next Mr. Miyagi, I might give it a shot.
Without distractions from the internet and people, instant gratification lost its grip. In fact, the problem used to be that distractions served as temporary, addictive relief from hard work. But with them not present, the work itself becomes the addictive relief from boredom. You cannot not work.
As a result, my writing effort was consistent, relentless, and pure. With every stroke of the keyboard, my fingers felt like they were shooting lightning bolts into the ether, and the form of an art piece revealed itself letter by letter, piece by piece.
I wrote more in three weeks than I had in nine months.
If you have a big project and looming deadline, think about going away for the deep work. If you can’t get away, change your environment to one where distractions are not present. It pays to be single-minded.
Consequence of Not Getting It Done
The last reason I behaved so differently and wrote so effectively was the heightened cost of failure. That cost kept me writing like a maniac.
First of all, flying to Japan, living in a hotel, and dining out for three weeks was no financial walk in the park. No matter how modest I kept the trip, it still cost thousands of dollars.
But more important was the emotional cost.
To allow me to take on this writing retreat, Tracy took on a tremendous amount of sacrifice. She not only proposed the idea of me going to Japan but also took on the pain of separation and the burden of taking care of our kids by herself.
If I failed to focus and didn’t produce on this trip, I would have failed her and wasted her sacrifice. I could not bear the idea of going home without a script that made her proud. It was like an ancient hunter going out in the morning, goofing around all day, and coming home empty-handed, leaving his wife and children hungry. No way I was going to let that happen.
In a way, Tracy invoked my sense of honor, duty, and even manhood to write this book. Whether you are fighting a war, playing a sports match, or writing a book, heightened emotion can be what separates victory from failure. She didn’t need to give me a rousing speech before the battle or during halftime. All she did was say, “You go. I’ll take care of the kids.” That was enough to turn me into a keyboard-wielding Spartan.
If you’re having a tough time getting focused on your project, and doing the work to benefit yourself isn’t a strong enough motivation, try expanding your cause to more than just yourself. Maybe your team and colleagues are counting on you, your mentors are rooting for you, and your family is depending on you. Fight for them!
Conclusion
When people think about manipulation, they think about cunning and evil acts, like the witch tricking Snow White into eating a poisoned apple or a secondhand car salesperson selling us a lemon. But in reality, you can manipulate others into doing positive actions and producing positive results. They are just called different words, like motivation or inspiration.
What people often overlook is the art of self-manipulation. There are things you can do and habits you can form to make yourself a much more effective person. You can get things done and reach your potential when you couldn’t otherwise do it.
And one of the most direct and effective forms of self-manipulation is to physically change where you are.
If you want to go places in life, you should start by going to different places.
Nice writeup! Wish you the success with the coming book!
Love this! Just took 5 days away from London to spend time in the Welsh countryside which is giving me a tonne of energy, and I have been very productive with reading and self-learning. Definitely subscribe to your point of view here - thanks!