Four practical systems to improve your life today by Sahil Bloom

A few months back, I had the opportunity to learn from Sahil Bloom in an offline setting, thanks to Leap Club. He is one of my favorite people online. I love his ideas and how he structures them in his online content.

He taught us about four important systems to achieve our goals, declutter, be grateful for the present, and avoid burnout.

System #1: The ABC Goals System (To achieve our goals)

1. A-goals are our ambitious targets; the best-case scenarios
2. B-goals are mediocre targets; the average-case scenarios
3. C-goals are the worst-case scenarios or the minimum-viable version of our daily targets. These should be the kind of targets you can achieve even if you are feeling your worst. This target should be so simple and conservative that there is no way you miss it

10% of the days in our lives would be absolutely perfect, and 10% of the days in our lives would be miserable (C-goals are reserved only for these miserable days).

Thus, 80% of our days would be average. This is where successful people will push themselves a bit more.

Every single day, you start at 0. Every single day, you get another shot at being your best self and hitting your A-goals. :)

The ABC goals should be input-oriented and could be tweaked on a monthly basis.

System #2: The Anti To-Do List (To declutter and make space for important things)

The Anti To-do list is a list of 3-10 things to avoid daily. Do it for a month to make it a habit. :)

Sahil thinks of the things that "give" him energy and the things that "deplete" his energy on a weekly basis.

P.S: Time and energy are different. 5 minutes with someone in an immersed conversation could be worth hours of time. 1 hour with someone where one person is distracted means nothing.

Each time you say "Yes" to something, you say "No" to something else. A useful exercise in this case is asking,

1. Is this a HELL YES!?
2. If doing this will take 2X as much time and be half as profitable, will I still be excited?

System #3: Mental Time Travel (To ground yourself and feel grateful)

1. Go back in time to your 5-year-old or 10-year-old self. How much would they be in awe?
2. Go into the future, to your 60-year-old self. How much would they long to have what you have now?

Appreciate the present and be thankful for it.

On a personal note, gratitude journalling has worked wonderfully for me. This is an amazing system as well.

System #4: Power Down Ritual (To prevent burnout)

Create a 15-minute ritual to end your professional day and switch to your personal life (or chill mode).

It could be a walk without technology or spending some time doing "nothing" (A wonderful creativity booster, by the way).

Sahil follows a 1-1-1 journalling ritual at the end of every day:

1. One win for the day
2. One thing he is grateful for
3. One thing he is anxious about

Read more about the 1-1-1 journalling method here.

What have I implemented?

Theoretical knowledge is nothing if you don't implement it. I got a dopamine boost, but more importantly, I implemented some of it.

I used the ABC goal system for my workouts in April:

1. A-goal: 1 Cult group class + complete 8K steps
2. B-goal: 1 Cult group class/Complete 8K steps
3. C-goal: Some sort of movement

I realized it was a bit too ambitious for me, so I tweaked my goals accordingly. :)

The other system I implemented (without knowing I was implementing it) was the Power Down ritual. Switching off my laptop, taking a break from work, and then moving to my personal life - talking to my friends and family, watching YouTube videos, etc.

TL;DR

The four systems that Sahil taught us during his session:

1. The ABC Goals System
2. The Anti To-Do List
3. Mental Time Travel
4. Power Down Ritual

I'm excited to know which of the systems you are planning to implement! ??