Welcome to Doug’s Newsletter. Every Thursday, I share one tip for reclaiming the freedom of your time.

Today’s Setlist:

🎩 One Tip → Starting before you’re ready

😄 Funny Business → How to ground your kids

📊 Community Poll → What weird things do we all do?

🎩 One Tip: Starting before you’re ready

There’s something you’ve been putting off.

Exploring a new area of interest. A piece of home maintenance that’s been bugging you.

It's easy to delay the start date, waiting for that one thing to arrive that will make you ready to begin.

This is how I felt writing the newsletter you’re reading right now.

I had a self-imposed deadline to launch this first edition of my newsletter today.

This deadline had been moved at least three times from its original date in October. Some delay excuses felt more legitimate than others, but the result was always the same - no newsletter.

As of this morning, here's how things looked:

• I had a picture of my beautiful face - and nothing else - on my personal website.

• I had a basic outline on the landing page for my new offering, The 4-Hour Retreat.

• I had no newsletter branding, formatting, or content.

  The good news is I’ve been visiting family for the past two weeks, so I have been able to make great progress…on my belt size. (Grandma makes some top-notch banana bread)

Put all this together, and it’s no surprise I’ve been feeling anxious about how to meet today’s publishing deadline.

Then, this morning, I made a sudden decision: 3 hours to get as ready as I can— then I’m launching.

No more deadline adjustments. My desire to stop feeling anxious finally outweighed my perfectionism. And this decision liberated me.

Prioritizing essentials, embracing the 80/20 rule, deferring minor details. My anxiety turned to joy with the knowledge I was never going to be “ready” in 3 hours anyway.

I had an absolute blast doing something well outside my comfort zone: getting to “good enough” and letting it be good enough.

The outcome? Minimum Viable Products for my personal site and 4-Hour Retreat. My first newsletter edition. All imperfect. All launched.

♟️How To Apply This: EECMBCJ

I did not hulk smash my keyboard.

Short on time (see above) in creating this acronym, this is what we've got.

I credit this list with putting me in position to take today’s big personal leap. As with all my advice, take what resonates and leave what doesn’t:

Early wake up - I know my energy is strongest in the morning, and waking up early makes me feel like I have more time in the day.

Exercise - Yoga, HIIT, gym, walking outside…anything to stimulate my body before I sink deep into my chair abyss for the day goes a long way.

Cold shower - The definition of starting before you’re ready. I don’t think anyone’s ever ready to cold plunge, but a 2-minute investment for hours of positive benefits is a deal I can’t pass up.

Microdose - I have a mushroom microdosing practice with Cordyceps, Lion’s Mane, and psilocybin that I’ll write more about in the future. It helps me throughout my day in a variety of ways.

Breathwork - I use the Othership app every morning to focus in on my priorities for the day.

Chat with a friend - A quick conversation always makes me feel better than I did before.

Journal - The last thing I do before starting my work day, I journal 3 things:

• I am grateful for…

• What would make today great?

• Affirmation: I am…

Which of these do you already do? What do you want to explore? Reply and let me know!

😄 Funny Business

📊 Community Poll

Starting next week, I’ll be asking a multiple choice question each week & sharing the results in the following edition of the newsletter.

My question this week is a request for juicy topics:

What strange thing do you do regularly that you’re pretty sure no other human does?

For example: nearly every time I brush my teeth my mouth starts to leak toothpaste before I reach the two minute mark. I have no idea why but I do know I need to brush my teeth before putting my shirt on.

Reply to this email and let me know about the other weird stuff we've got going on. I’m fascinated to hear.

How I Can Help

Whenever you’re ready, here are 2 ways for us to work together:

1. Grab time with me for a 1:1 session on community, consumer-driven research, or anything else.

2. Join me at a 4-hour retreat.

When you arise in the morning think of what a privilege it is to be alive, to think, to enjoy, to love…