The newsletter which curates & delivers the best mind hacks, mental health tips & high performance strategies to you every single week.

🧠 MIND HACK

‘Immersion’ (Or… A Faster Way To Learn New Skills, Enhance Creativity & Get Exponentially More Done In Less Time!)

In today's fast-paced, technology-driven world, where distractions (& especially digital distractions like the news, social media & our smartphones/screen time in general) are constantly pulling our attention in multiple directions...

It's becoming increasingly challenging to stay focused on our tasks, goals, priorities & to make progress on them…

However, amidst the strange, weird & wonderful chaos of (modern) life, there exists a powerful concept that may just be the key to helping us combat these distractions & propelling ourselves towards achieving success...

The concept is known as 'immersion' & it's actually simple to understand (although requiring a little bit more to apply it...)

In this week's newsletter, we’re going to discuss what is 'immersion' & how you can make use of the power of this to learn, develop skills & achieve things faster with greater efficiency... (including some hopefully-inspiring examples of different ways to implement this.)

Let's dive in...

To start, consider a time when you were completely absorbed ('immersed') in a particular task, activity, or pursuing a goal...

This might not be our primary state anymore unfortunately but you'll definitely be able to come up with some times when you have already experienced this in your life...

Cast your mind back to this time for a moment…

When the outside world seemed to fade away & you were solely & intensely focused on what you were doing at the time...

Totally present & in the moment...

Complete focus on what you were doing & no focus left over for anything else!

This is what we mean when we're talking about 'immersion'… except it generally also requires sustaining such a state for extended period of time (not just minutes or even hours, but days or weeks or more at a time.)

This state of 'immersion' is truly where the magic happens...

It's where your productivity soars, creativity flourishes & progress accelerates greatly…

Take learning & skill acquisition as one example...

A lot of people go to learn a new skill but make the common mistake of never diving into it fully/immersively enough to learn it quickly & effectively...

In fact, it takes them much longer to learn because they don't do this...

But through the powerful concept of 'immersion', they can accelerate their learning & achieve the same desired result much faster (& even skip years of study).

One of the most profound examples of the power of immersion is seen in learning a new language...

Compare the difference between those who immerse themselves in a language — for instance by living in a country where it's spoken — & how much more quickly they attain fluency compared to those who just attempt to learn from textbooks or classes...

If you want to learn a language, immerse yourself in it…

In this example, greater immersion in that language forces you to adapt, to think & to communicate in the target language constantly...

It becomes a part of your daily life, ingrained in your thoughts & actions…

But it doesn't stop here as immersion isn't limited to languages or learning...

Greater immersion can significantly accelerate the process of achieving any goal…

Study the stories of those who have achieved great mastery & success in life & you'll inevitably find examples of times ('phases') of their life when they lived in this way completely immersed/obsessed with a particular goal, topic, subject, skill, or work...

Michelangelo didn't 'dabble' in the painting of the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel…

He immerses himself in this project living & breathing it for not just months but years, ultimately creating a masterpiece...

Bill Gates, The Beatles, Kobe Bryant — there were periods/phases of their life where they seemed to completely disappear from everything else & solely focus on one particular thing, entirely immersed in it before coming back out & presenting it to the world…

One not-as-extreme way to apply this is to simply take a day or 2 (a weekend perhaps) & devote it fully to 1 particular thing/goal...

In this implementation, do not slice up that particular day into a million different tasks & activities all getting a small sliver of your attention but rather mark the entire day as 'Goal: X' or 'Learn Y'…

As you do this you leave no room for distractions…

(one great strategy is to use airplane mode or do a 'digital detox' where you don't use your phone/technology for the day as we covered in a previous newsletter)...

…as you use this particular time to live in this world/skill/project you're immersed in at that time.

And if you'd like to learn more about how to eradicate distraction from your life & tune into deeper states of focus/flow... be sure to check out the Potencia course on the topic, called:

"Laser-Like Focus: How To Eradicate Distraction & Create Laser-Like Focus On Demand"

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💭 QUOTE OF THE WEEK

Which of the 2 options one would you prefer to 'suffer' with?

‎‍🔋 ENERGY HACK

The Energy-Boosting, Productivity-Enhancing Benefits Of Fasting!

The morning is generally the time when you're naturally going to be the most focused, mentally sharp, productive & effective in what you do...

Based on this, a good approach is to schedule your most difficult & demanding tasks, activities & projects first/earlier in the day (vs hoping that you still have the energy & willpower to complete them later in the day)

But what else can you do to double down on human nature, boost energy levels in the morning & maximize overall productivity/effectiveness?

Well, here's a tip you may not have considered (or at least not in this context)...

And that's... not eating (a.k.a. fasting.)

The health benefits of fasting are well known, documented & endorsed (as we covered in our companion health & fitness newsletter.)

But there are other benefits too including energetic/cognitive ones...

This may come as a surprise because we've been told that the way to have energy is to eat...

"Eat to keep your energy up"

"Breakfast is the most important meal of the day"

But this is a half-truth at best...

Sure, food does eventually give you energy (that's assuming it's the right food of course)...

But that's only after it's been metabolized & converted into energy.

Before that point, eating actually greatly reduces your energy levels as I'm sure you've felt intuitively after finishing a big meal...

How energetic do you feel after over-eating?

After Christmas dinner for example?

Probably not energetic or sharp at all… (hence the term 'food coma')

And even if you eat smaller portions (as you should) the effects are still the same & your body requires some time to digest the food during which time your energy levels drop a bit...

Based on this, not eating/fasting (or specifically here 'Intermittent Fasting') can be a great hack for increasing your energy in the morning, enhancing productivity & completing more of the important work & life projects key to your success in life...

By waking up & not eating right away your body doesn't have to spend its energy on digestion & instead, you can use that energy for other things...

(test it & let us know the effects it has on you!)

What you can also do (another tip here) is to anticipate the post-lunch/post-dinner slump & schedule easier tasks around that (you probably don't want your most important meeting right after a big lunch/dinner)...

Or, you can do things to minimize this slump like taking a post-lunch walk, ideally with sunlight, so you have more energy (& overcome the 'afternoon crash'...)

Or the other energy-boosting tips that we cover in our full newly-released training series on the topic (available for free for Potencia subscribers) called:

‘Energetic Advantage’

Inside you’ll learn 6 energy-boosting, focus-enhancing, motivation-activating & productivity-multiplying habits you can use to transform your work & life…

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