Volume 052

“The days can be easy if the years are consistent. You can write a book or get in shape or code a piece of software in 30 minutes per day. But the key is you can’t miss a bunch of days.” - James Clear

The Beginning

The Middle

I kept writing and researching for the Superset with a newfound enthusiasm for weeks on end. I have always been one who consumes a ton of personal development content. Always have been that way. I listen to podcasts every day - I read some pages of a book every day - my social media follows are fitness and business influencers - the gambit.

Now I had a place to share what I was consuming. On this note, here is one key revelation that I knew/know about myself pre and post-starting the Superset that I think is valuable to share at this point of the letter:

• Some people will tell you that you can overconsume personal development content. I agree with some people. At some point in time, you have to take that content and inject it into this formula - “Transformation = Information + Implementation.” Meaning - it’s great to ingest all of this positive content, but you must ask yourself - what are you doing with this new information? When you listen / read / see something good, what is the action you are taking on the backside of this to justify consuming the content in the first place?

  • Part 2 - The devil’s advocate for this is one I provide myself - I am confident I take action on a sizeable amount of the content I consume. I am also transparent enough to admit that there’s plenty that I don’t. What I do know is this - when I am consuming positive, personal development content, I find myself in a better headspace, more likely to take positive action or not. So regardless, if the choice is to consume or to not consume, I will likely choose to consume, knowing that the chances are increasingly higher that I will take positive action

• My overall message from this might be contradictory, but it’s simple. You can’t implement everything at once. Life-altering habits, as small as they may appear on the surface, require an incredible amount of focus and discipline. 85% of the content that hits your inbox in the form of this newsletter likely needs to be acknowledged, then quickly stowed on the shelf. You have to pick and choose the ideas and actions that align with what you feel are the most pressing areas of your life and current situation, and then you need to ignore the rest. No one can make that determination but you.

  • My only side piece of advice is to make sure as you make these determinations, that you consider the foundation of this newsletter - understand that an all in push on a fitness goal could come at the sacrifice of one of our other development buckets - consider an action or series of actions that could sprinkle into our other baskets as well.

As I have continued to write this newsletter weekly, I have had a few pearls reinforced on the value and the struggle of consistency.

“Getting an audience is hard. Sustaining an audience is hard. It demands a consistency of thought, of purpose and of action over a long period of time.” – Bruce Springsteen

Much like fitness and other personal goals, I felt a tremendous amount of motivation at the beginning. And like all other human pursuits, I would be lying if I sat here and said that there haven’t been weeks over the last year where I simply didn’t want to put the work in to get this newsletter out. And in another act of honest reflection, there were weeks where this newsletter wasn’t my proudest work because of simply not taking ownership of putting in the work required to consume the content that could lay a foundation for a great week of the newsletter. Period. Those weeks are on me, just as much as the weeks I have felt my best when hitting send.

My singular biggest takeaway through this past year has been structure. Defining the structure and systems I need in my weeks to ensure I have success come Monday morning at 8 AM when this letter is scheduled to be sent.

When I first started, I was just filling my notes app on my phone with ideas and content pieces that I had or consumed throughout the week. Most weeks, this structure was enough. I listen to plenty of podcasts, ready plenty of books, and am always consuming content on the gym. But still, this practice was far from “structure”, so when life inevitably got in the way, my systems faltered.

Halfway through 2024 I decided to try and take control of these systems. The result was simple. My old process was consuming content through the week and sitting down one day, most of the time Fridays, to write through the entire first draft of the letter. This worked for the most part, but on those challenging weeks, sitting down and putting together a quality letter in one sitting was a daunting task, and challenging enough that there was no way the quality could keep up.

So I leaned back on the content I had been consuming and the advice I had been seemingly ignoring, and determined the following: “What system could I put in place to make this newsletter not only easy to produce, but consistent in quality?”

The result was the following: I needed to break up the content. Writing everything in one day not only was a large task, but it was difficult to dedicate proper focus to each section. Now, my calendar has a slot at 10 AM on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, just for the Superset. I get my big work tasks done from 7:30-10 AM, and then for just one hour, three days a week, I finish and focus on one section of the letter. If work intervenes with this time, I simply slide the hour around to ensure I remain on task and focused on producing a quality piece of content.

This has eliminated a massive amount of stress in producing the letter, and has also I feel increased the quality. The main takeaway though, and one I believe we can all run within our own individual pursuits, is that it became my safety net for consistency and not missing a week. I am not sure we would have made 52 weeks in a row without this structure. When the weeks get hard, and the days get busy, I know that I am NEVER too busy to dedicate an hour, three days a week. That is a minimal commitment for a maximum result. Whatever version of that there is for your current goal, I strongly recommend you take the time to identify the system you could put in place to help solidify those goals.

As I look back on the year and the 51 previous editions of the Superset, I feel a stable amount of pride. I said I was going to do something, and I followed through. More than that, I feel energized by the consistent feedback I get from you reading it. I know people who have started running because they started reading The Superset. I have heard from people who picked up their first book since college from reading The Superset. I know people who have found a new favorite podcast they listen to weekly because of reading The Superset.

I always felt a source of individual pride from the success I felt I was having in the Corporate America world, but I also always felt a lingering feeling that something was missing. I am passionate about success and achieving my potential in my professional pursuits, but I now know that I am equally passionate about encouraging others to find their own versions of success and happiness. These messages above have easily left me more fulfilled than any President’s Club award ever has to date.

Moving Forward

My favorite, selfish aspect of this newsletter is that it forces me to practice what I preach. How can I share content around stress management, diet, lifting, running, if I myself am not out there logging the miles, fighting the hunger battles of a diet phase, or taking action from the podcasts I share? That additional level of accountability has been fantastic.

Taking up writing has been an incredibly challenging pursuit. I have always enjoyed writing, and people have given me positive feedback on content I have produced in the past, but I largely knew it was simply a hobby. I could definitely improve my vocabulary, my ability to consolidate my thoughts, and the ability to translate intricate topics into consumable bites. I have made improvements in all of these buckets, but certainly have work to do still. The Superset provides that avenue.

As we move into year 2, I have some reflections on what I felt worked well in the past, along with some structure and systems for the future to improve. I am happy with the stable growth of this letter, but my goal in 2025 is ambitious, and centers around growing the reach and impact it can have.

I want to balance the content I share from other sources with an increasing amount of personal anecdotes and reflections where I have actually seen and felt the requested actions in my own life. I want to take some of these pieces and share more of them on my social pages. I want to break down the internal resistance I feel in doing so, due to self-perceived notions of how other people will take the increase in posting.

I want to provide even more structure to the reading section of the letter, and be better about incorporating my current reads in a fashion that others can order the book for themselves and track along. A pseudo-virtual book club.

I want to increase the focus and content around running. I feel a personal conviction around running, one that is being validated in the increased interest around the sport. I think everyone could benefit from running more than they are now. I understand the mental hoops one must jump through to begin that journey. I am personally taking on the onus this year to consume and create content that will encourage people to get their first pair of running shoes and simply get started. Run a 13-minute mile this week. Walk every other minute if you have to. Just get started.

Ultimately, I want to provide more structure and thought to the newsletter. I want the reader to be able to find one or two things they really resonate on a monthly basis, and I want to provide additional content that supports said action items on a more recurring basis.

I wasn’t being facetious above when I said you should likely ignore 85% of the content of this newsletter. Pick the 15% that connects with your current situation, and take action on it.

In Closing

My biggest lesson from a year of writing this newsletter is simply how glad I am I got started. We all have at least one lingering idea or thought that we know we need to take action on, but we face some internal resistance for one reason or another. My encouragement to you is to stop waiting and just take the first step. My logo design request as a first step could be you scheduling a time to get fitted for some running shoes, or searching for a nutrition coach, or getting your own logo designed for that side hustle you’ve been dreaming about.

We only have a finite time on this earth to do all of the things we aspire to do. Every day that passes by only makes it harder. Life will never get easier than it is now. You will have kids, or more kids. You will get promoted. You will age. Your health will eventually start to decline. Now is the best it is ever going to be to get started. So what are you waiting for?

Thanks for reading over this past year. My commitment to you is that these first 52 editions of the Superset will be the worst 52 we produce. I will continually look for ways and feedback to make this space better, and to continually become a reliable source for you to find action items to improve your relationships with fitness, health, reading, running, and all things personal development, packaged together in one space - The Superset.

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