Welcome to the Action Digest, a lighthouse of hacks and insights to guide you safely through the fog of the creative process.

P.s., you can check out editions 1-21 here in case you missed them, including insights such as the mindset that helped an entrepreneur build seven different billion-dollar companies, how Steve Jobs cultivated great creative taste, and why success might be much closer than we thought possible.

Seriously, there are some gems you’ll appreciate in these earlier editions ;-)

1. Call your shot

In 1993, an 8 year old from Baltimore sat down to write out his goals. 

Michael’s Goals

I would like to make the Olympics.

I would like to make Jr. in at least one event.

FF

• 100 Fly 55.5

• 100 Breast 1:10

• 500 Free 5:05

All Star

• 54.0

• 1:08

• 5:00

Xmas

• 52.9

• 1:06

• 4:58

I will accomplish those goals by concentrating hard, working hard, and coming to every practice.
 

Fast forward 23 years to 2016 and Michael Phelps retired from swimming as the most decorated Olympic athlete of all time with 2 bronze medals, 3 silvers, and 23 gold. 

Today’s edition is dedicated to bold ambitions backed by even bolder action. If you’ve been waiting for a sign from the Universe to make your next big move, consider this your green light.

2. We must knock upon the door of opportunity multiple times before it swings open

Two years before The Hunger Games, Jennifer Lawrence auditioned for a role in an indie film called Winter’s Bone in Los Angeles. 

“Well, they turned me down,” Jennifer recalls, “and said I didn’t look right for the part.” The character needed to look rough and the casting team said Jennifer was too pretty. 

But she didn’t take no for an answer. 

“They moved casting to New York. And I put myself on a redeye [flight] to just show up to casting the next day in New York. So that always helps - redeye, not showering, no makeup.” 

She even walked around 13 blocks in the snow before heading into the casting room to look closer to the part. 

“I was exhausted - it did the trick,” Jennifer laughs, “eventually, they went, oh, she's right. She's not cute.” 

Not only did Jennifer get the role, she was nominated for an Academy Award for best actress which put her squarely on the map in time for The Hunger Games.

It is almost always the case that we must knock upon the door of opportunity multiple times before it swings open.

_{Sources: NPR, VanityFair, WalesOnline}

3. Just do it

Nike began with one of the most audacious shot calls of all time. 

“Mr. Knight—what company are you with?”

“Blue Ribbon,” Phil Knight replied. 

He had just made the name up on the spot.

Because at 24, in 1962, Phil had a “crazy idea” that Japanese shoes could dominate the U.S. market. 

So with no experience, no plan, and no funding, Phil boarded a plane to Tokyo. 

When he landed, he figured the next step was to meet with potential partners. 

He liked the look of a company called Onitsuka that sold Tiger shoes, so he decided to start there. 

But how? 

Phone them…? 

Phil made the call and Onitsuka agreed to meet. Before he knew it, Phil was sitting in a boardroom with the executive team. 

“Mr. Knight—what company are you with?”

After successfully pulling an imaginary company name out of thin air, “they barraged me with questions about the United States,” Phil recalls, “about American culture and consumer trends, about different kinds of athletic shoes available in American sporting goods stores. They asked me how big I thought the American shoe market was, how big it could be, and I told them that ultimately it could be $1 billion. To this day I’m not sure where that number came from. They leaned back, gazed at each other, astonished. Now, to my astonishment, they began pitching me. ‘Would Blue Ribbon . . . be interested . . . in representing Tiger shoes? In the United States?’ ‘Yes,’ I said. ‘Yes, it would.’” 

Phil returned to America with a promise that Tiger shoe samples would soon follow. His partnership with Onitsuka would last for 7 years until Blue Ribbon started manufacturing their own shoes under a new brand name, Nike. 

What we can accomplish is often constrained only by the extent of our audacity.

4. Working with a bias towards action is the ultimate competitive advantage 

Michael Phelps didn’t just set a goal.

He outlined exactly what he was going to do in order to achieve that goal.

“I will accomplish those goals by concentrating hard, working hard, and coming to every practice.”

When you study the world’s most prolific creatives, athletes, businessfolk, etc, you see this pattern over and over again.

Working with a bias towards action is the ultimate competitive advantage.

That means always knowing your next move.

And it means building a habit of turning your ideas and notes into action steps.

The Action Method journaling system makes it easy to do exactly that.

Each page includes a dedicated Action Zone that encourages you to stay action-oriented.

That means getting more done, seeing more results, and feeling more satisfaction.

You can pick up or replenish your supply here. 

5. Organize and measure the best of your energies and skills

“We choose to go to the moon. We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard.” 

That familiar line is from one of the most famous speeches of all time. But most aren’t familiar with why President JFK decided to announce this absurd goal to the world. 

Because in 1961, just before Phil Knight visited Tokyo, the Soviet Union was trumping America in the space race. The Soviets had beat the US to the punch by launching the first artificial satellite into orbit and sending the first human into space. 

So JFK asked his Vice President, Lyndon B. Johnson, to figure out what space project America would most certainly beat the Soviets at. 

Could they be the first to put a laboratory in space? 

Unlikely. 

Could they be the first to orbit around the moon?

Probably not. 

Could they be the first to land a person on the moon and bring them home? 

Huh. 

Sending humans to the moon and back was so difficult that America actually had a shot of doing it first if they were willing to marshal the effort and money necessary.

So JFK called his moonshot. 

As many as 1 in 10 Americans believe the landing was faked, but it is undeniable that the project inspired a generation of scientists, accelerated technological advancement here on Earth, and instilled humanity with a fierce sense of possibility. Or, as JFK put it, “because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills.”

The advantage of hard goals is that there is less competition to achieve them. And, even if you fail, it’s likely that you will unlock crucial skills and knowledge along the way that you would otherwise never possess.

We’ll leave you with this…

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