WC 020: Mind Like Water

David Allen defines Mind Like Water as a mental and emotional state in which your head is clear, able to create and respond freely, unencumbered with distractions and split focus.

Creating a state of calm and peace as we go about our daily work, free of fear and resistance, is a goal worth pursuing.

It’s been something that’s been on my mind lately, as I often witness my mind to be anything but calm.

My desk is definitely NOT insta-worthy at the moment. It’s presently a reflection of how my mind can feel at times.

Scattered.

The noise in the world has been relentless these past few weeks, and much of it truly worthy of concern.

But there’s what we as individuals can do right now, and then there’s rumination.

One is useful, the other takes us further away from a desired state of peace.

I’ve found it difficult to stay focused this past week.

I even missed a scheduled connection on Wednesday which is not typical for me...it was simply missing from my calendar and I have no idea why.

(I’m going to blame all these google calendar task integrations I’ve been testing lately, but that’s besides the point).

I’m trying to go easy on myself.

Remembering that water has no limitations in it’s flow.

Here’s a few ways I’m practicing mind like water as we head into the weekend:

Flexibility

In all honesty, I didn’t check off quite as many boxes on my to-do list this past week as I had hoped to. I’m staying focused on the few things I can still to do before the weekend to move my goals forward, and spending less time thinking about what didn’t work.

Patience

I’m practicing patience with myself and others. I’m choosing to get curious about what in my experience caused me to stall out a bit this past week, and asking myself how can I further tune out the noise, without denying that there’s real challenges in the world right now.

Trust

I’m trusting that the pace I’m moving at is exactly what is needed in this moment. There’s always tomorrow for adding in a bit of hammock hustling :)

Resilience

I’m practicing fine-tuning my response to perceived challenges. I'm adapting to a changing environment and conditions outside of my control.

Avoidance of Multi-Tasking

I still struggle with this one. I spend way too much time on social media, and justify it because its “my work”.

As much as I build practical, air-tight routines for dealing with this, I still find myself dipping back in, as if theres something there to miss.

Today I’m beginning again, with a recommitment to getting better at this.

Emptying My Mind

I make sure that no matter where I am, I have a way to get things out of my head, so ideas can flow.
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I find that my best ideas often come to me while I’m on my morning walk, so I always make sure I have my Apple Watch charged up for dictating notes on the go (I like Drafts Pro for this).

There’s nothing less peaceful than thinking of something important and having to exercise mental force to remember it in your head.

I’ve found the more I can get stuff out of my head and into my task list, early and often, the easier the flow of the day becomes.

Here’s another relevant quote from Bruce Lee:

"Empty your mind, be formless. Shapeless, like water. If you put water into a cup, it becomes the cup. You put water into a bottle and it becomes the bottle. You put it in a teapot it becomes the teapot. Now, water can flow or it can crash. Be water my friend."

Formless

Shapeless

Fluid

Flexible

Take a second to imagine what this would feel like for you.

Maybe pull out a journal and put a few thoughts to paper.

I’d love to hear what you come up with, and any best practices you have for maintaining your creativity and flow.

What’s working for you right now?

Here's What I Want to Share This Week:

1. We've dropped a new course! Application Funnel Amplifiers is now live in CTC Circle.

In less than two hrs of watch time, you’ll have mastered:

• The 3M’s you’re coaching across an application funnel
• The 12-Step framework for powerful application q’s
• How to structure your app questions for max completion
• Why and when to drop a price range right on the application
• How to build magnetism on your application
• What to include on your app confirmation page to create pre-call momentum
• The most updated tools and software for a seamless booking flow
• What to include in your confirmation page video to encourage the “show up”
• Why we give access to our program’s FIRST module right on the confirmation page

We’ll be adding an extra AFA-specific live coaching call over the next few weeks. If you want to “play full” on that one and get direct coaching and feedback on your OWN application funnel, we invite you to go through the program sometime in the next 10 days.

⚡️ Skip the Waitlist and Join CTC Circle Today ⚡️ ​Explore CTC Circle, our monthly membership for copywriters, coaches, course creators, and entrepreneurs in the daily trenches of building high-performing launches.

2. Exclusive Interview: How Chris Stoikos grew Beard Club to 10m+ in less than a year.

Ry recently sat down with Chris where they went deep in uncovering:

🧔🏼 How Beard Club achieved extreme sales velocity in its first 3 months

🧔🏼 How Chris would go about starting a new ecom empire in 2022

🧔🏼 Christopher’s “1-2 Step” process for sharpening courage and taking bold action.

and much, much more.

It’s an extraordinary and unique journey recounted in an intimate, fireside-style convo between two soul brothers.

And because Chris has been far less public following his 2019 exit (and starting a family)…

For now, we’ll only be releasing this inside our closed CTC Circle community.

We don't have an exact date for the release yet, but due to my inability to contain my own excitement around this, you are hearing about it here first :)

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Who We Are Celebrating This Week: Janice Powis

I'm thrilled to celebrate my partner in all things adventure, as Janice has officially launched her newsletter this week, The Essential Meditator.

It's a deep exploration of the themes of meditation, essentialism, and fearless living.

I'm more than a bit biased, but I think everyone needs a bit more of these things in their life.

Subscribers can expect to receive thoughtful reflections for the ambitious creative and professional, as well as practical guidance in these areas.

​Connect with my lovely, Janice here.​

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This Week's Curiosities

Make tasks disappear like magic (link)

Slash through repetitive tasks in seconds by teleporting data between your tabs. Magical is a very cool tool.

It essentially does two things really well:

1. It's a ridiculously simple, yet powerful text expander.
2. One click automations to move data from tabs into spreadsheets and other workflows.

I'm investigating this as a a more effective enablement of Social Singularity playbooks.

Oh, did I mention it's 100% free?

The ConvertKit Sponsorship Network (link)

This is an interesting opportunity for creators with an email list of 10,000+

The service promises to connect you with brands who love your work and want to reach your audience to sponsor your newsletter. All the sales, reporting, payments, negotiations, and logistics are handled by the ConvertKit team so you can focus on doing what you do best: creating.

I've not personally been able to try it out yet, but I've set up a demo with their team for next week to dive in deeper.

If you happen to be ahead of the curve on this, I'd be curious to hear your thoughts.

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Liberation Unleashed (Link)

Founded in 2011, by Ilona Ciunate, Liberation Unleased is a global movement dedicated to helping you free your mind from the illusion of a separate self.

All the services are offered completely free of charge.

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A thought-provoking article on Retirement (Link)

Working at age 100?

Better make sure you are doing work you love :)

"The notion of retirement is gone. This was the 20th century innovation. It didn't exist in the 19th century and it's not going to exist in the 21st century. You’re going to work until you're 75, 85, 95, 105. And don't worry about it. It’s not as horrific as it sounds. Because you're going to want to do that"

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Memorable Quote:

"Fear and resistance come to show you through what is ready to be explored." - Ilona Ciunaite

With appreciation,
​
Phil

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How much gold was in today's Wizard's Chest?

(give it to me straight)

• 💲💲💲💲 💎 Full of gems
• 💲💲💲 🤷 Pretty average
• 💲 📉 Nothing to see here

🙌🏻 Sponsor The Chest: Would you like to sponsor the next newsletter issue and reach over 1,200+ highly engaged marketers, coaches, consultants, & course creators? Learn More.

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