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šŸ’„ Thriving Under Olympic Pressure and Avoiding Burnout Like Michael Dell

Welcome to the Action Digest, where we connect the dots like constellations in a clear night sky.

A glimpse at the action weā€™re bringing you this week:

  • šŸ„‡ One of Americaā€™s greatest Olympians teaches us how she deals with intense pressure.

  • šŸ–„ļø Michael Dell reveals his shocking strategy for avoiding burnout and overwhelm despite running a huge company.

  • šŸ„ Jerry Seinfeld has some advice for achieving success without sacrificing your mental health in the process.

P.s., you can check out editions 1-25 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 youā€™ll appreciate in these earlier editions ;-)

1. Fun is not a life raft, itā€™s a speedboat

Simone Biles discovered a secret weapon early on in her quest for Olympic gold: having fun. Itā€™s the thing that initially drew her to the sport, ā€œI was pretty young and I just knew that it was a lot of fun and I wanted to do it,ā€ says Biles, and it was reinforced by one of her early coaches who ā€œalways emphasized the importance of having fun while competing.ā€ 

So when Biles was introduced to MĆ”rta KĆ”rolyi, coordinator for USA Gymnastics, there was a natural clash. KĆ”rolyi warned Biles to show zero emotion. No cheering for other gymnasts during competitions. No frowning during training. No laughter or anything that implied Biles was enjoying herself. 

But Biles pushed back, ā€œI started to realize that whenever I was having fun, I was performing betterā€”so why stand there with a blank face?ā€ KĆ”rolyi eventually backed off after Biles asserted that ā€œsome people prefer not to talk during a competition, but weā€™re old enough to know what each of us needs.ā€ 

After dropping out of Tokyo in 2020 and being subjected to ferocious criticism, Biles experienced a dark period. It was unclear whether she would compete again. But in 2022, she was using fun as a gateway to get back into the game again. ā€œI owe that to my teammates,ā€ Biles revealed back in January of this year, ā€œI didnā€™t think Iā€™d be having fun like this at my age in the gym, but they keep it fun. Theyā€™ve been bigger rocks to me than they know.ā€

Biles used that word, fun, eight times in the victory press conference after she helped the US gymnastics team secure their recent Parisian Gold Medal. 

Donā€™t fall for the misconception that seriousness goes hand in hand with high-pressure situations. Not only can fun survive in pressurized environments, it can help you thrive amidst them.

Fun is not a life raft, itā€™s a speedboat.

2. Breeze through the toll booths of success

In 1995, Michael Dell was 30 years old and his company was making over a billion dollars in revenue each quarter. This performance was an impressive recovery after a nightmarish period in 1993 where the stock plummeted 70%.

Fascinated by Dellā€™s resilience, one interviewer asked him how he dealt with the overwhelm and burnout that he must invariably experience. 

He wasnā€™t expecting Dellā€™s response. 

ā€œI would separate overwhelmed and burned out as two different things. Burned out is when you donā€™t enjoy doing what youā€™re doing anymore. Overwhelmed is when you have no idea what to do next because youā€™re totally confused. This is a very challenging business that continues to present me and everyone thatā€™s involved in it with opportunities to learn and grow. Weā€™re always doing something thatā€™s very exciting and new, whether itā€™s expanding in Asia or launching into a new product segment. Thereā€™s always plenty to keep me sort of intellectually stimulated and challenged, so Iā€™m not really too worried about being burnt out. Overwhelmed? Well, letā€™s see. Iā€™d like to think Iā€™ve never been overwhelmed. Weā€™ve certainly had situations where weā€™ve had a number of challenges in the business, but my approach to that has always been to work that much harder to solve the problems. One key strategy that Iā€™ve used is to make sure that we have the necessary help and assistance inside the business because, clearly, you can have the opportunity in a business like this to sort of take on too many things yourself. You have to regulate, and you have to make sure you have a strong team in place, and you have to lead a balanced life. Thereā€™s a limit to the number of productive hours a person can actually work and thereā€™s also only so much fun you can have before it starts to not be, not be as much fun.ā€ 

It seems so reasonable that overwhelm and burnout are inevitable taxes that we must pay on our journey to achieve great things. But this notion is false. If we can find a way to do work that we enjoy, and then resist biting off more than we can chew, we can breeze through the toll booths of success free of charge.

3. Stop rushing to what you perceive as some valuable endpoint 

When Jerry Seinfeld addressed students of Duke University at their graduation ceremony in May earlier this year, he took Dellā€™s idea one step further. 

ā€œYou know how they always say, ā€˜Nobody ever looks back on their life and wishes they spent more time at the office?ā€™ Well, why? Why donā€™t they? Guess what? Depends on the job. If you took a stupid job that you find out you hate and you donā€™t leave, thatā€™s your fault. Donā€™t blame work; work is wonderful. I definitely will not be looking back on my life wishing I worked less. If thatā€™s not how you feel at work, quit. On your lunch break, disappear. Make people go, ā€˜What happened to that guy?ā€™ ā€˜I donā€™t know. Said he was getting something to eat and never came back.ā€™ā€

In addition to trying to move toward work that you enjoy for its own sake, Jerry warns about being ā€œā€‹ā€‹so obsessed with getting to the answer, completing the project, producing a result.ā€ They are ā€œall valid things,ā€ he continues, ā€œbut not where the richness of the human experience lies. The only two things you ever need to pay attention to in life are work and love. Things that are self-justified in the experience, and who cares about the result. Stop rushing to what you perceive as some valuable endpoint. Learn to enjoy the expenditure of energy that may or may not be on the correct path.ā€

Joy can be an excellent compass for work and life, even (and sometimes especially) when you donā€™t know where itā€™s leading you. 

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

When you study the worldā€™s most prolific creatives, athletes, business leaders, etc, you see the same 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 product line, designed by a research team devoted to optimizing productivity, 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

ā€œGone are the days where I walk out of a meeting with long notes and no clear understanding what I need to do. These notebooks keep me on track.ā€

Tina Roth Eisenberg, founder and designer

5. Only the unprotected self can experience joy

Sometime in 2011, Hollywood and a sizable portion of the internet turned their backs on Anne Hathaway. 

Articles declared that she was the worst person in existence and people began self-identifying as ā€œHathahaters.ā€ 

Some chalked the hate up to Anneā€™s hosting of the Oscars, others said she just seemed too perfect, and one professor even said her face reminds us of a bad economy. 

While no one could quite pin down the reason for the hate, ā€œa lot of people wouldn't give me roles because they were so concerned about how toxic my identity had become online.ā€ Hathaway reveals. 

Now she had the pressure of performing on large film sets for movies that would be shown to millions of people while dealing with the background anxiety of mass hatred. 

So what did Hathaway do in response to the pressure?

ā€¦


šŸ”This insight, that reveals how Anne Hathaway learned to rediscover joy amidst heavy criticism, is for premium subscribers (yep, this weekly digest is reader supported). For the price of one fancy coffee per month our research team will agonize over the lessons learned from world class creative leaders and teams who make ideas happen, and send their tightly summarized conclusions directly to your inbox on a weekly basis. What a proposition, huh?!

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Weā€™ll leave you with thisā€¦

ā€œYou will not always be strong, but you can always be brave.ā€ 

Simone Biles

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