Welcome to the 7th edition of North Star Blueprints! In this weekly newsletter, we embark on a journey of personal and professional growth, offering observations, strategies, and inspiration to help you navigate life’s challenges and reach new heights of success. This edition will provide a summary of the daily insights I posted throughout the week, packed with valuable tips, thought-provoking ideas, and actionable advice designed to provide you with mental tools and techniques to help you unleash your better self.
April 1: What is Your Success Metric?
Do you find yourself chasing an elusive goal? Constantly reviewing where you stand compared to others, or perhaps comparing to where you thought you would be at this point of your life? We constantly burn ourselves out, we keep shifting our targets, and we tend to remain unsatisfied with what we’ve already achieved. The problem might be that we simply haven’t defined what success looks like to us.
In 1983, Dave Mustaine got kicked out of Metallica and then went on to form Megadeth. Today, Mustaine is considered one of the most influential musicians in heavy-metal music while Metallica is often considered to be one of the greatest rock bands of all time. Megadeth sold over 25 million albums whereas Metallica sold over 180 million albums. Yet, Mustaine admitted that he still considered himself a failure. His metric was being more popular and successful than Metallica, and in his mind, he is a failure.
As we start this new week, I encourage everyone to take a moment and truly reflect on the end goal and how do you define success for yourself. That success metric should be based on what brings you fulfillment today and in the long run, as opposed to some external arbitrary value or an undefined finish line.
April 2: The Road to Mastery is Rarely Linear
How many times did you try to pick up a new skill or an activity only to drop it shortly after? It’s so exciting at the beginning! Everything is new and progress is quick, until you stall and start thinking that maybe it’s not for you – you hit a plateau.
We tend to imagine that mastery of a new skill will be linear – the more we practice, the harder we work, the larger the effort, the more progress we’ll make. In reality, rather than a steady incline, the mastery curve is incremental. It’s a series of peaks and valleys, each representing periods of rapid growth and moments of stagnation. And while the path may not always be straightforward, every step forward brings us closer to proficiency.
Therefore, embracing the incremental nature of mastery is key. It’s about recognizing that progress isn’t always visible in the short term but accumulates over time. So, make sure you stay committed to consistent practice in your chosen field, learn from setbacks, and be open for feedback. At the end of the day, resilience and determination is how we navigate the curves of mastery.
April 3: Remember Anything with Ease
A few years ago, I was studying for an exam that required me to memorize 2,000 pages of financial concepts… “How am I supposed to remember this much?” – that’s when I discovered a technique called the Memory Palace. Have you ever wished you could store a large amount of information in your mind and then quickly pull it up on demand? That’s exactly what this technique is meant to help you with:
1. Choose Your Palace: start by selecting a familiar place, like your home, a childhood neighborhood, or a favorite vacation spot. This will serve as your mental palace, a canvas for the new information you’re trying to store.
2. Visualize and Associate: as you mentally wander through your palace, assign each piece of information you want to remember to a specific location or object. Get creative! Picture vivid scenes, engage your senses, and create strong associations between the information and the features of your palace.
3. Take a Stroll Down Memory Lane: when it’s time to recall the information, mentally stroll through your palace, visiting each location to retrieve the associated details. With practice, you’ll find that your memory palace becomes a familiar path to effortlessly recall anything you want.
This technique has been used for thousands of years, harnessing the power of visualization and spatial memory. People have used it to remember speeches, languages, study materials, names, and even memorizing 65k digits of Pi. Make sure you give it a try a well!
Learn more about building your memory palace here
April 4: Visualize Success
The mind is a powerful tool, use it well and you will be rewarded across all arenas of your life, and one of the most important techniques to keep in your arsenal is Visualization. It involves creating a mental image or picture of a desired outcome or goal, and has been consistently used by many successful individuals to reach the peak of their domains.
Visualization taps into the power of the mind and its ability to influence our thoughts, emotions, and actions. When we visualize our goals, we activate the same neural pathways in our brain as when we actually experience them. This can lead to increased motivation, focus, and belief in our abilities.
Athletes imagine themselves executing their routines flawlessly, business owners visualize running a successful company and everything it requires, public speaker see themselves confidently delivering a speech in front of a large audience, and students picture themselves ace exams to boost their confidence. Arnold Schwarzenegger is well known for his success through visualization and has a great quote that stuck with me “it’s not a fantasy, just a memory that hasn’t happened yet”.
Visualization is not used to trick your mind or instill false confidence, quite the opposite – it allows you to anticipate the future, visualize the required actions, and find the best way to tackle them. It allows you to see create a “simulation” to practice in, the more vividly you can see it, the better the results.
I recommend you check out this video, showing a live example of visualization by Formula 1 driver, Alexander Rossi, who is driving a lap in his mind.
April 5: Turn Red Lights Into Green Lights
As we close a week of insights about learning and exploring ways to better ourselves, I want to touch on the topic of resilience. We all encounter obstacles, failures, and unexpected detours, but it’s how we respond to them that defines our journey. To truly grow and develop we must first learn how to take ownership of our lives – I found the book “Greenlights” by Matthew McConaughey to be a great read on this topic.
In his autobiography, Matthew shares lessons he learnt on how to navigate life’s challenges and transform setbacks into opportunities for growth (i.e., turn the red light into a green light). One part that especially stuck with me, was to not dwell on our mistakes or be afraid to make them, but rather see them as valuable lessons, reminding us that they are not roadblocks but rather opportunities for growth – “You are the author of the book of your life. Turn the page.”
I highly recommend you check out the book, or even better, try to get the audiobook narrated by him, makes for a very entertaining listening experience!
Thank you for joining me on this journey of growth and discovery. I hope these insights illuminate your path forward as you pursue your aspirations with purpose and determination. See you in next week’s edition!
