During his 2013 year, he went on a downward spiral for about three months including:
- Cried while watching Rudy. (lol. Sorry – had to laugh)
- Repeatedly hit snooze for 1 to 3 HOURS past his planned wake time, because he simply didn’t want to face the day.
- Considered giving everything away and moving to Montreal, Seville, or Iceland. Location varies based on what he imagined escaping to.
- Saw a therapist for the first time, as he was convinced that he was doomed to lifelong pessimism.
- Took his daily caffeine intake (read: self-medication) so high that his “resting” pulse was 120+ beats per minute. 8 to 10 cups of coffee per day at minimum.
- Wore the same pair of jeans for a week straight.
We all go through this. Three months is almost the breaking point which someone begins having suicidal thoughts. I had this point for about 1 day just a couple days ago and I tried identifying what was the root – nothing. Thoughts were simply wandering.
In that same time frame of about two months, he changed it all around.
- Increased his passive income 20%+.
- Bought his dream house.
- Meditated twice per day for 20 minutes per session, without fail. That marked the first time he’d been able to meditate consistently.
- Ended up cutting his caffeine intake to next-to-nothing (in the last 4 weeks).
- With the help of his blog readers, raised $100,000+ for charity: water for his birthday.
- Raised $250,000 in 53 minutes for a startup called Shyp.
- Signed one of the most exciting business deals of his last 10 years—his TV show, The Tim Ferriss Experiment.
- Added roughly 20 pounds of muscle.
Realized—once again—that manic-depressive symptoms are just part of entrepreneurship. Came to feel closer to all my immediate family members.
I guess that’s probably what swallowed me just a few days ago. Not having any schedule blog posts, podcast plays being low, YouTube becoming ineffective….during those ensuing hours, I was pulling what little hair I have left around my head OUT and couldn’t even focus during my gym hour.
Resolution?
- Wake up at least 1 hour before you have to be at a computer screen.
- Make a cup of tea (or I take my vitamins after priming) and sit down with a pen/pencil and paper.
- Write down the 3 to 5 things—and no more—that are making you the most anxious or uncomfortable. They’re often things that have been punted from one day’s to-do list to the next, to the next, to the next, and so on. Most important usually equals most uncomfortable, with some chance of rejection or conflict.
- For each item, ask yourself: “If this were the only thing I accomplished today, would I be satisfied with my day?” “Will moving this forward make all the other to-dos unimportant or easier to knock off later?” Put another way: “What, if done, will make all of the rest easier or irrelevant?”
- Look only at the items you’ve answered “yes” to for at least one of these questions.
- Block out at 2 to 3 hours to focus on ONE of them for today. Let the rest of the urgent but less important stuff slide. It will still be there tomorrow.
“It doesn’t take much to seem superhuman and appear “successful” to nearly everyone around you. In fact, you just need one rule: What you do is more important than how you do everything else, and doing something well does not make it important.
If you consistently feel the counterproductive need for volume and doing lots of stuff, put these on a Post-it note:
Being busy is a form of laziness—lazy thinking and indiscriminate action.
Being busy is most often used as a guise for avoiding the few critically important but uncomfortable actions.” – Tim Ferris
Arsenio's ESL Podcast 
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