• Claudia's Digest
  • Posts
  • Emailing Inspiring People, The Simplest Decision Making Framework & How Your Beliefs Affect Your Success

Emailing Inspiring People, The Simplest Decision Making Framework & How Your Beliefs Affect Your Success

đź“‹ Claudia's Digest #004

Author

Claudia Stellner
September 17, 2023

Happy Sunday to 1,808 curious individuals reading Claudia’s Digest.

Before we dive into this week’s juice, a quick update:

Over the past few weeks, I’ve been doing a lot of reflecting & re-thinking on the career path(s) I want to pursue, and because of that…

I became OBSESSED with consuming content on career advice for young people from the world’s greatest thinkers.

Result?

I’ve learned many lessons I just can’t stop thinking about, and I distilled the most important ones in a value-dense deep dive.

I’ll post the link soon.

Anyway, now onto this week’s digest:

This week, I emailed one of my favorite entrepreneurs & thinkers at the moment - Derek Sivers.

Several times, I head Derek mentioning he loves when someone emails him & introduces himself, plus on his website he claims he replies to every email.

So I took the leap and used all of my persuasion & communication skills to write a “perfect” email.

Two days later…

This reply landed into my inbox:

It felt surreal.

And as you can guess…it made my day.

The lesson:

1) A Simple Decision Making Framework

“When you’re faced between a hard thing and a easy thing, and you’re not sure what to do, do the hard thing. If the easy thing were the right thing to do, you’d have already done it.”

Alex Hormozi

Taking the harder route will always provide you with more luck further down the line.

Hesitating to post? Post.

Hesitating to join random strangers playing volleybal? Join.

Hesitating to send that email? Hit send. (see what I did here?)

The best outcomes occur on the other side of resistance.

2) When > If

One trait I’ve noticed in a lot of succesful people of any kind:

They see their success as a question of when, not if.

The success is already rooted in their identity.

Whereas people who always speak in “if’s” like:

  • If I ever build a business

  • If I ever win that tournament

  • If I ever get jacked

They’re not fully in.

They’re sitting on a fence.

They still haven’t adopted the mentality of a winner.

Remember:

It all starts with the identity.

“True behavior change is identity change. When your behavior and your identity are fully aligned, you are no longer pursuing behavior change. You are simply acting like the type of person you already believe yourself to be.”

James Clear

3) On One-Second Decisions

The idea is simple: When you are doing something hard in life, you are making a second by second decision to keep going. If you lose one of those seconds, you've lost. Each second is an opportunity to keep going or to quit.

If you can win that 1-Second Decision, over and over and over again, you'll be unstoppable.

Sahil Bloom quoting David Goggins (you can read more here)

As an athlete, I know very well that what makes a difference in between a good practice and a bad practice is how you talk to yourself throughout the entire session.

If you go just one second with poor focus & let the pain you’re experiencing overcome you, you’ve lost.

So stay focused.

Keep reminding yourself that your mission & purpose is greater than the pain.

Don’t concern yourself with thoughts about the future.

Realize that all it takes to win is to decide you want to win this very second.

"When I was 16, I believed the same things I believed now. But now I have millions in my bank account to support those beliefs."

Oliver Brocato

Your success follows your action.

Your actions follow your beliefs.

Your beliefs follow your identity.

(See idea #2 “When > If”)

Alright my friend, that’s it for this week.

Let me know what you thought of this edition by replying to this email.

Similarly as Derek Sivers - I reply to every email.

It might take days or weeks, but I will reply.

Have a great week ahead,

Claudia

P.S.: If you have any articles career advice you enjoyed, feel free to share them with me & I’ll give you a shout-out in the next email.

Things I Liked This Week

  • Anything You Want by Derek Sivers (I read this book in one sitting. It’s not the lessons that make it exceptional. It’s the storytelling).

  • How to get the first 5 customers for your business → Click here

  • How to decide what to build → Click here

  • Oliver Brocato on The Danny Miranda Podcast → Click here