Manifesting Mark Manson - Your Pocket Psychologist
I welcome you, any struggling entrepreneur, to meet your journaling savior. The Knight in Shiny Armor: Mark Manson.
There's this one email that arrives every Monday. The only email newsletter I always read right away. It's relatively short. Usually no longer than a toilet break, and it leaves me with lots of food for thought.
Mark Manson's newsletter, The Breakthrough, gives me:
Something to think about
Something to ask yourself
Something to try
The following week he shares how many of his readers had a breakthrough and includes some of their infectious stories.
The breakthroughs give me energy and encouragement—especially those from journaling—as I practice clarifying my thinking through writing.
Through journaling, I've experienced huge positive effects on my productivity, mental health, and ability to help others through my words. Thanks to Mark, journaling has become my "pocket psychologist." It lets me process my destructive thoughts and feelings productively and gives me a fresh perspective on my challenges.
Given my breakthroughs from journaling, I recommend all the entrepreneurs I advise start journaling. Unfortunately, I often hear back that it feels odd or weird. They stare at a blank page, not knowing what key to press first or what words to type.
To help you get started, I've curated my favorite five topics from The Breakthrough newsletter. I've also emphasized why I found those important.
1. Stop Wasting Time on Things that Don't Matter
It's so hard not to want to do everything. I often procrastinated on things that seemed essential in the moment because I had committed to it but failed to ask myself if it was actually what I should be focusing my time and attention on right now. Would it move the needle meaningfully to become a billion dollar company?
Being thoughtful about your most valuable asset: your time, should be your number one priority! For me, this ranged from social media use to attending networking events to sending timely investor updates and doing work that I wasn't the best suited for. I wish I had stopped and reflected on these journaling prompts much earlier in my entrepreneurial journey.
Now that I'm a parent, these prompts from Mark helped me recently to limit social media to max 15 min per day and to become more present with my family by plugging my phone in the charger when we are together.
Journaling prompts:
What are you spending your time on that doesn't matter, and why? How can you stop?
What are you not spending time on that does matter, and why? How can you start?
2. Act on Something You Feel Only 60-70% Ready For
Perfect is the enemy of the good. In entrepreneurship, speed and progress triumph over perfection. I saw this play out positively time and time again during my four years with Medal.tv. As a die-hard perfectionist, I realized how much this had held me back when I became an entrepreneur. It's been a long road. But now, I embrace velocity and train this muscle. Every. Day.
In fact, your eyes are glancing at the result of hitting publish before my perfectionist has given me its stamp of approval! I'm working to accept that it will never feel perfect and ready. And hit publish anyways… 😈
Journaling prompts:
What have I been avoiding through over-planning or telling myself that I'm not ready yet?
What would I lose by simply starting anyway?
3. The Simplest Fix Is the One Everyone Ignores
It's tempting to drown ourselves in books, videos, and newsletters in an effort to become happier and more productive when the most noticeable adjustments are often the most simple and straightforward. If you don't sleep enough, it doesn't matter what else you do: your mood will suck, and you will struggle with controlling your negative emotions. If you don't eat healthy or exercise, you will lack energy and motivation. This was precisely what I realized when my body had entered power save mode, and I had only three months to turn around and successfully get my company acquired. I stopped believing that I could sleep when I'm dead, poured my thoughts out on paper, and started sweating consistently.
Journaling prompt:
What's the simplest thing I can improve about my life right now?
4. Finding Meaning in the Struggle
Most days as an entrepreneur, I felt like Sisyphus pushing a boulder up the mountain. The ups of the roller coaster were rare. And it sucked. Some days I wanted to quit. It challenged my belief in what I was doing.
Reflecting on these struggles and ensuring they are still vital to me when burning the midnight oil was extremely useful. It reminded me of why I was on the roller coaster. I learned that I recharged my battery when speaking and working with our customers but drained them when working on the pitch deck for the round.
Journaling prompts:
What are the meaningful struggles in my life?
What are the meaningless struggles in my life?
What can I do to convert meaningless struggles into meaningful ones?
5. Managing Relationships
You mirror the people you spend the most time with. I've started taking inventory of the voices and relationships that influence me. This has been the most challenging of all of Mark's prompts.
I've had an internal fight: My value of integrity wants to give feedback to help the one I'm "breaking up" with. I've reconnected with old energy bombs. And I've stopped feeling guilty about avoiding and not staying in touch with the energy drainers. Too often did I feel in my gut the disconnect with someone I allowed too much space. Now it's time to listen to my gut!
Journaling prompts:
Which relationships in my life are helping me?
Which relationships in my life are hurting me?
In the case of a relationship that is hurting me, what can I do to distance myself from that person?
Take one theme a day and let your words flow onto the page. Open your notes app, notebook, or pen and paper. Don't worry about perfection.
Small changes lead to lasting breakthroughs. – Mark Manson
Write what comes to you and see where it takes you. Don't beat yourself up if you don't write more than a few sentences. Or even one word!
One.
Strive for progress over perfection. You only need to write. Not complete book 6 of Game of Thrones!
In my experience, some prompts, like managing my relationships, must sit with me for a while before I have a breakthrough. Sometimes I come back to them with a fresh perspective, and that is totally fine.
As Mark Manson encourages you to respond to how it went for you, let me know if any of these gave you new insights. Connect with me on Twitter, in the comments below, or respond to this newsletter.
The healthiest identity is a flexible identity. The best answer to the question, "Who am I?" is always "I don't know; let's find out." – Mark Manson on Twitter
I highly recommend joining The Breakthrough for weekly things to think about, ask yourself, and try.
This was such a great piece Aurora! Saved on my substack. I need to read this often. So many great actionable items.
I used to journal (morning pages) but stopped. I will try some of these prompts. I started my business last year and relate a lot with many points you shared. I see you write about your experience as an entrepreneur. I will check those posts out.