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Planning your MVD

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Quick Spin:

• When life gets crazy, try this
• Completion Bias
• Creating your MVD

🧩 Thanks for keeping Life's a Game Free!

A few months ago I decided to switch all my courses and community from Kajabi to Mighty Networks and someone recently said to me "I had no clue you had all of this!".

Most people don't know what a digital community could even look like so I created this loom video to show you around my Office Hours community.

If you're ready to start a community - definitely check out Mighty Networks!

♟️ MY TURN:

I’m not going to lie.

Life is getting crazy.

My book tour is starting to get planned out.

We are planning a wedding.

I’m a mom of 3 wanting to soak in the summer.

I have a weekly newsletter to write.

And I still need to work with clients and sponsors to pay the bills.

When life gets busy, people tend to throw the baby out with the bath water. (who TF actually created that phrase BTW!)

*too busy to workout

*too busy to have a date night or see friends

*too stressed to play with the kids

But then days, weeks or months go by and you realize that bath water + baby combo would have made you feel a lot better.

This is the paradox of ambitious people.

If you are tired → workouts give energy → make time for them

If you are stressed → play and fun increase serotonin → make time for it

If you are too busy → time with friends can help think from new angles → make time for them

The Completion Bias

Here's the thing....Humans often gain pleasure from finishing tasks due to dopamine release in the brain.

This can cause people to prioritize completing easy tasks over more important ones, even if it's not the best approach.

The need for closure can outweigh the potential benefits of partial progress.

Too many people keep an all or nothing approach to success.

But compounding actions matter.

If the day is too crazy, then I’ve done the minimally viable things that keep compounding over time.

If you can’t do 100%, try 75%.

If you can’t do 75%, try 50%.

If you can’t do 50%, try 20%!

I’d rather give 5% every day than 0% most days and a few 100% days.

And just 1% better every day = 37.78% improvement in a year!!

Introducing....The MVD

I’ve recently adopted a strategy that I think is a powerful one.

This strategy is called the Minimally Viable Day.

Simply put it’s about identifying the least amount of the following 5 things that I need to feel like a whole human and not consumed with work and tasks.

Feel free to steal my 5 categories:

• Movement → I normally want 1 hour of training + sauna and cold shower.

MVD is a 20 min uphill walk on the treadmill + 10 mins of stretching.

• Health → I normally want to eat 3 healthy meals a day. But sometimes Uber eats takes over.....

MVD is at least drinking a protein shake + taking 1 vitamin.

• Connection with kids → I normally want 4-9pm dedicated to phone-free conversations with the kids, cooking dinner, and cuddling on couch.

An MVD day will be dedicated tuck-ins for each kid so I feel connected to them before they go to sleep.

• Connection with self → I normally want a full walk + commute bath in the afternoon to transition out of work mode before I move to mom mode. If that’s not possible....

My MVD includes a 10 min bath when we get home from school pick up so I can “turn into a mommy”.

• Connection with others → I normally want a full hour of 1:1 time with Dan every night before bed. Looking at each other and talking about our days, feelings, etc.

MVD is cuddling while watching one show before bed.

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♟️ YOUR TURN:

Ask yourself the following 2 questions:

1. What do I need to feel like I’m living a full life every day and not sacrificing it all to tasks and work?
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2. What is the minimally viable version of that?

When life gets busy and you feel like balls are being dropped right next to the babies and the bathwater…..pull out an MVD.

Minimally Viable Days for the win.

PS The baby with the bathwater idiom derives from a German proverb, das Kind mit dem Bade ausschütten. The earliest record of this phrase is in 1512, in Narrenbeschwörung (Appeal to Fools) by Thomas Murner, which includes a woodcut illustration showing a woman tossing a baby out with waste water. German humor, I guess.

I will give a free copy of my book to anyone who comes up with a new expression to replace the baby + bathwater!

Ok....I digress...

Reply with one version of an MVD in your life!!!

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