Two Red Stripes and one life philosophy

I was always bright and full of ideas but I couldn’t deliver anything. I lacked the self-discipline to execute. This inability to deliver decimated my confidence and, by extension, my self-esteem. I made many personal and professional mistakes. Missed opportunities plagued me. I realized that I was simply not reliable. I needed to do something about this.

Sound familiar?

I bet it does. Our brains are built to have great ideas, to have sparks of creativity, to feel emotions. Our brains are most definitely not built to be a giant calendar and to-do list of all the stuff that has to happen to make our big dreams come true.

I’m an engineer by trade so, of course, I decided to work the problem by science-ing the f*@k out of it. I now practice a system I’ve been honing and running for over ten years but only recently have I seen how it fits into a philosophy: having a strong core.

Of course, a strong core conjures up images of the gym or pilates classes. Feel free to sweat it out with the sit ups all day long but also remember that you’ve got a mental core and it needs strengthening too.

Finding your core

It was a balmy Monday evening and I was sitting on Facebook Live, being interviewed by my good friend Geoffrey Fullerton. He’s pivoted his business to provide content and support for hotel groups during the pandemic by establishing the Facebook Group Hotels Sales Institute. Jamaica, where we’re both based, has effectively shut down it’s borders thereby decimating it’s tourism industry, leaving many people wondering what’s next.

Geoffrey wanted me to “tell all” about my productivity system in the hope it may help those feeling overwhelmed by the pandemic. My system is effectively a lifeline in difficult times. It’s no joke when I say that this system has saved me millions: in preventable mistakes, missed opportunities or plain old f*@king up the execution of a great idea.

When I first committed to becoming a more reliable person for myself and my family, a coincidence (which is, let’s face it, a fancy word for luck) led me to a book named GTD. Getting Things Done by David Allen was a complete and utter game changer for me. I discovered that self-discipline can be attained by employing a set of very simple systems. In short, you manage life through these systems instead of in your head. This now leaves your brain uncluttered and now able to focus on innovation.

Innovation is that process of converting challenges into opportunities — of becoming proactive instead of reactive — of converting acquaintances into friends — of converting love the noun into love the verb — it ultimately allows your mind the time to grow and reflect.

So here I am, on Facebook Live with two Red Stripes to calm my nerves.

Whether it was prompted by the beer or my good friend, I found that we weren’t only discussing the productivity system that I run my life by, we were discussing my philosophy. I couldn’t help but pick up a pen and piece of paper and start drawing (I thank Dan Roam’s Back of the Napkin) this:

The Three Pack

So, here it is: my life philosophy, aka the 3-Pack.

Your 3-Pack is your mental core. Why 3-Pack? Personal trainers call our physical core our 6-Pack — named for the appearance of physically strong abdominal muscles. A physically strong person has a strong core: it provides stability, precision, balance, confidence.

Most of the strong and reliable people I have met also have a strong mental core or, in my language, 3-Pack: self-discipline, personality, and wisdom, all built on top of each other and from the ground up.

[Note: most self-help books will make you approach things from the top down. While you need a north star, it’s only one component and doesn’t always deal with the day to day reality we all face. If you’re feeling overwhelmed or lost, try starting from the bottom up.]

Self-discipline into Personality:

I have become strong and reliable by building from the bottom up — creating a solid foundation of self discipline, maintained and supported by GTD. [Not for the first time in my life, I want to pay homage to David Allen whose work has empowered and supported me to be reliable.]

My self-discipline fed into my personality, making me who I am today. Your personality is your:

1. Strength — both mentally and physically, including resilience and solid body language
2. True north meaning your principles and mental balance — knowing what is right from wrong
3. Sense of humor — this is really one’s emotional intelligence — being able to read and understand yourself and those around you.

Personality to Wisdom:

Anchored into personality are the three pillars that fuel wisdom, captured here as:

1. Life Experiences — what happens to and around you on a day-to-day basis
2. Education — formal and informal learning, school, continuous education
3. Relationships — nurturing those in your life, honoring and maintaining your commitments to them

So, there it is. Two Red Stripes gave me my life philosophy: the 3-Pack. Although I didn’t know it at the time, my 3-Pack has made me successful. I am more reliable, more effective and more empowered, both for myself and the people who matter to me.

Strengthen your 3-Pack now. RIGHT NOW.

I run a luxury jewelry retail business in Jamaica to tourists on cruise ships or visiting the island… so, as you can imagine, I don’t really have much of a business anymore. My grown up daughters are in the UK and Australia respectively, my partner has mostly been overseas and pretty much all of my friends are working out how to make their business survive. And yet, this is exactly the right time to be focussing on my mental strength, doubling down on my 3-Pack. In the last six months, I have:

1. Honed my social media to continue my education: following the best and brightest minds who are sharing great content, including Tomas Pueyo @scottgottlieb @astro_seal Chris Saad
2. Made space for more quality time with my key relationships: friends, family, professional network, community (one of the great joys of lockdown in Jamaica for me was getting to spend more time with my elderly neighbors, taking them to the supermarket and dinner every week)
3. Maintained discipline around exercise to build my strength: like everyone though, I could have done better on this one :-)
4. Kept being kind to myself to preserve my sense of humor: ensuring I gave myself time to wind down after stressful events (like the entire last six months!)

Your world has likely irrevocably changed too: possibly a bit for the better but potentially a lot for the worse. Identifying and strengthening your 3-Pack will help you weather the storm ahead, help you spot opportunities in all this chaos and come out the other side with purpose. There could not be a better time to find your 3-Pack than now. Right now.

One Love,

Prem

PS. I read this incredible tweet recently from Julian Shapiro (Julian Shapiro)

“The smartest people I’ve met: They retrain their minds to enjoy being wrong. They get a dopamine hit when proven wrong because they’re excited to be closer to the truth. The truth is addictive. In contrast, if you refuse to lose a debate, your brain keeps running old firmware.”

I look forward to everyone’s comments, to the enjoyment of being wrong and the excitement of running new firmware.

PPS. Another great tweet from Julian Shapiro -> “The best editor for your writing is you in one month. Let enough time pass that you forget what you wrote.”. Thanks Julian Shapiro, I made those edits.