Psst…this is Harry.

Welcome to the Secret Sauce Sunday version of your favourite email, the perfect spice to sprinkle on your scrambled eggs.

Let’s go.

Be Like a Mario 🤌🏻 And Jump Over Your Obstacles 🤌🏻

Things are always in the way.

Things we don’t want to do. Like, really really don’t want to do.

And usually, these are the things that make you level up. They invite you into greatness. So, why is it to hard to overcome obstacles? Why are they obstacles in the first place?

Because whatever the task is.. going to the gym…learning how to market your product…having a hard conversation, whatever it is, it seems hard for some reason.

It’s not really that hard tho, right? It just seems hard to you. You perceive it as being a challenge, but you know (with your logic) that it’s not going to be that hard. In fact, you’ve probably slayed bigger dragons in the past.

Just like learning to walk. Playing chess for the first time. And even working with algebra - everything seems hard at first, until it’s easy.

So, want to know what it takes to change your perception?

Knowledge.

Things feel hard because we don’t understand them enough.

The uncertainty in the task triggers our survival instincts, which makes us want to keep our distance. So we do. Even if ‘logic’ says otherwise.

But as soon as the task starts becoming better understood it loses its bite. Like turning on the lights in a dark room you’ve never been in. You’re timid…you don’t know what’s in there. But if the lights turn on and see that you’re not going to be the ‘guy who dies first in a horror movie’ - you’re good. It’s easy.

So learn this - research your obstacle. Whatever’s been it the back of your mind that you’ve been putting off for ages. Research it more. Understand it as much as you can. Make it less unknown.

And as you learn more and more and more and more, it’ll stop being a threat. The invisible barrier pulling you away from it will drop like a rock revealing a hidden passageway to…wait for it…action.

NOW, you can take action. NOW, you can go to the next level.

So before you finish reading this, think of the one thing you’ve been avoiding for ages. The ‘big’ challenge. The task, the email, the conversation you’ve been putting off, the call you need to make…and schedule time in your calendar to research it. Prepare yourself.

And there’s no shortage of info online - whatever your challenge is, someone has faced it before and recorded themselves solving it.

Do it now before you move on, put times in your calendar to dedicate to research for the coming week.

Then next week, take the action. Do the thing. Eat that frog. Slay the dragon.

Next Sunday, when you’re thinking back on the week that was - this is what you want to be able to say.

Open tabs

• A friend and reader made it into the Australian Financial Review this week

• Writing to clarify your thinking

• Something that made me laugh: “Work hack: if you delete all your emails, you will reach inbox zero.”

• 37Signals is teasing their new software product and it sounds siiiickkkk. Let’s just say I wouldn’t be buying shares in Salesforce right now.

Have a strong week 💪🏻

Harry

P.S. Science tells us that it’ll take you 18 seconds to forward this to a friend. Try it out.