Daily Thought for Change

And how you feel changes what you do.

Are you using this intentionally?

I’m rewatching a training on offers by Alex Hormozi, and something small caught my attention this time.

Not the content.
The layout was different. I'd probably wouldn't notice, if I wasn't going through a behavioral science course as well.

Instead of showing how much of the video I’d already watched (like YouTube does), the player showed how much was left, and that number kept shrinking.

At first glance, who cares, right?

Except it matters a lot.

Because the moment you feel tempted to stop learning, the interface reminds you how close you are to the finish line. And your brain goes:

“Well… I might as well finish. Finishing feels good.”

Instead of:

“I’ve probably got enough value already. Time to switch.”

That tiny shift, from progress made to gap remaining, changes behavior.

Same effort.
Same content.
Different focus.

And different focus changes motivation to get results.

You can use this anywhere.

Stuck halfway through a project?
Highlight how little is left. Or, how much effort you've put in already!

Dragging your feet on admin, training, workouts, writing?
Shrink the distance to done. Break down your path into small chunks.

Businesses use this all the time.

I remember going to a coffee shop where they punched 2 holes on my loyalty card on the first visit.
Ten punches = one free coffee.

I felt like I’d won the lottery.
I wanted to fill that card.

Later I learned why they do it: starting people closer to the reward makes them far more likely to finish the journey by about 79% as research shows.

It works because humans are wired to complete things, to get things.

Focusing on how much you’ve done or how much is left - both can be useful.
The power is knowing which one to use, when.

End of the year rolls around and you tell yourself:
“It’s the last day, I deserve to let it go.”

Maybe that helps.
Or maybe thinking:

“I’m finishing strong, setting myself up to win 2026”

works better for you.

That’s the beauty, and responsibility, of being a human.

The ability to shift your focus deliberately, to activate the kind of motivation you need right now.

Most people don’t manage this skill themselves.
Their focus is shaped by apps, systems, incentives, and other people’s agendas.

Which is why so many end up working hard, just not on their own dreams.

Over to you, dear reader,

How strong is your focus control?
And is it currently taking you where you actually want to go?

Whenever I cook my eggs, brew my coffee, or need to remember doing something at a specific time - I set a timer.

A simple kitchen timer.
It tells me exactly when I need to get off my ass from my computer and do something.

And then I forget about it. It works like magic. I'm often surprised by the sound of my timer because I completely forgot I set it. It's like somebody else took care of things while I was working or learning.

It allows me to completely drop the task from my mind and sink into the zone with all of my mental resources focused on what I’m doing now.

This matters because of how working memory works.

“Working memory is the brain’s temporary workspace, holding and actively manipulating a limited amount of information for immediate use in complex tasks like reasoning, learning, and problem-solving.”

In simple terms: it’s your brain's capacity to work with things now. Like your computer's RAM. And it's tiny. You can only hold so many things in your mind.

I do the same thing with calls.
If I have meetings later in the day and want to do deep or creative work beforehand, I set an alarm for when it’s time to prepare.

No mental background noise.
No low-grade vigilance and agitation.
No “don’t forget, don’t forget, don’t forget.”

One of the reasons this works so well to reduce cognitive fatigue by the end of the day is simple:

Your brain can do its actual job with ALL the resources, instead of having to keep the rest of your life in mind.

Imagine holding a dumbbell in one hand while trying to cook.
You could do it.
But you’d be slower, clumsier, and a lot more tired by the end of the day.

That’s what holding reminders in your head does. Keeping your brain loaded with unessential stuff. Whilr trying to "cook something up"

There’s fascinating research from the University of Chicago showing that just having your phone visible, even silent, even on airplane mode, measurably worsens cognitive performance compared to leaving it in another room. (Brain Drain Study)

Out of sight.
And quite literally, out of mind.

The same principle explains why one of the most effective, research-backed tools for better sleep works so well:

Write down your to-do list for tomorrow.
Everything that’s on your mind.
The more detailed, the faster you'll sleep.

Why does it help you fall asleep?

Because it gets things out of your head.

This is also why the world-known productivity system Getting Things Done works so reliably well.

It teaches you how to keep things out of mind, while working on what comes first.

As David Allen famously put it (and trademarked it):

“Your mind is for having ideas, not holding them.”

I could go on and on with the evidence.

But here’s what not carrying everything in your head actually gives you:

• Clearer thinking and deeper focus

• More creativity and better problem-solving

• Faster execution with less end-of-day fatigue

• Less overwhelm and easier prioritization

• Sharper learning and better decisions

Do any of these matter to you, dear reader?

One of my own very practical habits, especially helpful for my very human (and very ADHD-leaning) tendencies, is what I call a "Thought Note"

When I’m working on something important and want to stay focused, I keep a notes app open.

Every time an idea pops up, I write it down.
And then I go straight back to the task.

It stops my brain from chasing rabbit holes out of fear of “losing” an idea.

The curiosity gets honored, just not right now.

I schedule my rabbit-hole time for less productive afternoons.

Curiosity stays alive.
Essential work gets finished.

Over to you, dear reader,

What’s one thing you could take out of your head today?

The best way to get to a destination is to know where you want to go.
Sounds obvious. I know.

And yet, when it comes to some of the biggest life decisions:
what business to build or what job to take,
who to spend our life with,
where to live -
we often keep ourselves in the fog.

Then we get frustrated that we didn’t end up where and with what/who we wanted.

A client of mine was frustrated with yet another business idea that didn’t work out for her, that didn't meet her expectations.

I asked, “What didn’t work exactly?”

She gave me the full list.

So I asked, “Did you know you’d need these things in advance?”

She did.

“Did you check for them when you decided to go for it?”

Silence.

She realized she hoped it would become that.
But logically, it didn’t make sense.
There were no signs it ever would.

She just liked the idea of it. In the best-case scenario.

We do the same thing in relationships.

We like something about a person, and completely forget to check the list of things that drove us crazy in the last one.
We hope it’ll be different.
We don’t look for the signs.
We just like the idea of that person becoming who we want.

I once was offered a reeeeeally great apartment.
Perfect on paper.
Except it was in an area where I couldn’t comfortably walk. And I'm a BIG walker!
Middle of the city. Traffic. Noise. It would kill my mojo every day!

I said no.

Not because it was “bad.”
But because I knew it would quietly drain the quality of my days.

Even though I didn’t have a better option at the time.
Even though for someone else it would’ve been a dream. I wouldn't take it unless I absolutely had to.

Getting to know YOU takes time. And it's the most important investment.

What actually makes you happy?
The place you live.
The people around you.
The way you work.

What do you absolutely hate?

What values and principles can you not compromise on, without slowly betraying yourself?

What makes a day good even when everything is flying all over the place?

What does your best self need to grow? When/where/with who are you at your best?

…

If you don’t take the time to learn this, you can end up with a “pretty good” life.
One that makes you numb at best.
Miserable at worst.

And you’ll keep waiting to stumble into what you really want.
Some day.

Over to you, dear reader,

If you have a track record of choices that didn’t make you happy, or you’re unsure where to go next, pause and ask this:

What do you still need to learn about yourself to start aligning your choices with what your best self actually needs?

Who you become.
What you choose.
What you end up doing.

All of it is shaped by incentives.

After finishing Mixed Signals: how incentives really work, I’m even more convinced of one thing: nothing changes sustainably until incentives change, both the obvious ones, and especially the hidden ones.

Do you see all of them?

There’s a story in the book about the Maasai tribes in Kenya killing lions. Bad news for conservation, but completely rational from their perspective. 

They had 1 obvious and 1 hidden reason.

So what did researchers do?

They didn’t lecture.
They didn’t shame.
They didn’t rely on “awareness.”

They redesigned incentives.

They paid compensation for cows killed by lions (the economic incentive, why Maasai were killing lions for hundreds of years in the first place).
AND they created alternative ways for young warriors to prove their worth and status (the hidden incentive that really mattered).

Lion populations recovered. After hundreds of years of "habit", Maasai just quit it.

The lesson for me was obvious, once again, it’s never just one incentive, and it's all about the incentives, not people.

There’s always a stack of reasons - status, belonging, identity, pride, tradition - quietly running the system underneath. Miss those, and the system resists you. Align them, and change happens without force.

THE BUSINESS OF MAKING YOU

When I was a little girl, the way I got the most time, attention, and closeness with my parents was through learning, not playing.

So what do you think I enjoy more today?

Reading and studying.

On every assessment I’ve ever taken, learning shows up as a superpower. And it didn’t stop there. That same incentive structure gave me respect, better pay, better opportunities later in life, often despite a complete lack of marketing skill.

Sports worked the same way.

Time with my dad came through training and discipline. That’s how we bonded. And now, decades later, movement still feels like connection, not obligation.

None of this is accidental. As one might think. I was programmed to prioritize certain things.

This is exactly what I help clients uncover when they say,
“I don’t have time.”
“I can’t stay consistent.”
“I know what to do, I just don’t do it.”

We don’t start with discipline.
I start with incentives.

Not money.
Not rewards charts.
But the incentives that signal status, love, competence, contribution, connection.

Who do you become when you change?
Who benefits from the better version of you?
What example do you set without saying a word?
How does your energy ripple into the people you care about?

Who will respect you, love you, admire and cherish you more because of this?

Those are the incentives that truly move behavior. Even money is valued because of status and freedom, not more stuff.

Over to you dear reader,

What incentives have been shaping your life so far?
What do you “have time for” and what quietly gets deprioritized?
And are those incentives actually taking you where you want to go?

Because just like the Maasai changed a centuries-old tradition, you can change the story you've been living so far.

No willpower.
No persuasion. No change of self.

Just better incentives.

What might shift for you if you redesigned yours on purpose?

It is not a strategy unless it forces you to say no.

A friend asked me today, “So what are you working on?”

“Many things” isn’t a good answer. It’s confusion. And I realized I'm still in the confusing stage.

I keep hearing Alex Hormozi in my head: “Confused customer always says no.”

Over the weekend, I had a chat with another friend. She has a blog. I asked, what’s it about? Her answer was, “Many things.” How motivated or curious do you think I was to check it out?
I know this works.

You can offer many things. You can write about many things. You can create many projects.

But you have to lead with one thing.

Today I’m revising “StoryBrand” methodology. It talks about how successful brands and products own a problem in the head of the customer. Even if your blog “sells nothing,” if you want people to read, it still has to earn attention fast. It has to start with a hook: “Why would I care to read it? Because it's about everything?”

Even Tim Ferriss, the most popular jack of all trades out there, has a leading hook: deconstruct how high performers do what they do, extract the “secrets,” and share them with the world.

Yesterday, I shared my strategy with ChatGPT (for context, so it can give me better advice on content and messaging).

It told me, it’s great, but there’s one problem: one too many offers. You can work on both of them, just not at the same time if you want to win.

If you look at almost any business early on, they were not different things to different people.

They owned one problem. They led with one hook.

So, over to you, dear reader, think with me:

What question/problem do you want to own in your “customer’s” head this year?

Deciding takes guts. That’s why so few people do it.

What will you say no to, so your yes is actually clear?

What would have to be true for me to receive one of the Thinkers50 awards when I’m 50?

That’s how my morning started today, on December 26th, 2025.
I’m 38 now.

Bill Gates has this beautiful line:

“Most people overestimate what they can do in one year and underestimate what they can do in ten years.”

Not long ago, I heard Alex Hormozi telling a story:

“In 2016, I had $1,000 in my bank account and was sleeping on my gym’s floor. This August, we made more than $100,000 in a weekend from my book launch, $100M Money Models.”

Most goals are possible.
Just not on the timeline you wish for.

Back to the question.

I’d just finished reading Playing to Win: how strategy really works. One question from the book stood out for me:

What would have to be true for this strategy to succeed?

That was one of the key questions there to help you figure out which strategy to pursue.

You’d ask this question. Come up with a set of criteria. And then you start testing what you can to see whether this is even a winnable game for you. And if it is, what strategy can actually work. For YOU.

I happen to be in direct communication with 2 Thinkers50 recipients. I’m also connected to the founder of the award. I can pressure-test this thinking with some people who’ve already walked the path.

But the power of this question goes way beyond awards.

If you want to get in shape and you’re choosing a strategy - nutrition, training, recovery, quitting bad habits - what would have to be true for that strategy to work?

For YOU.

What skills do you need?
What routines must exist?
What systems need to run even when motivation disappears?

If you want a different career path,
What would have to be true for that path to succeed?

If you want more fulfilling relationships, more meaning, more freedom - what would have to be true for it to enter your life?

And...

You don’t just ask what would have to be true.
You ask whether your current skills, systems, energy, and environment are a match, or could realistically become one.

Sometimes the answer isn’t “try harder.”
Sometimes it’s “choose a better-fitting strategy.”

I've coached clients for 18 years and here's one major thing I learned: people fail a lot mroe when the strategy isn't a match for their life.

One of my strongest skills is learning principles and seeing how they apply across domains. Strategy, behavior, health, work, leadership, life.

So now that I’ve added another strategic lens to my toolkit, and the question becomes:

How do I apply this way of thinking, not to one area like my business, but to my entire life?

Including something as long-horizon and identity-shaping as earning a Thinkers50 award in a decade.

As I set goals for 2026, I’m not trying to get somewhere, or get something this year.
I’m trying to make daily, strategic choices that over a decade add up to someone who fully deserves that recognition.

Over to you dear reader,

What choices, behaviors, and decisions would need to happen consistently for your strategy of success to be true? And do you need some skills to build and say no to some projects and people?

A 360 view on you

Somebody asked me the other day: what’s your favorite snack?

I paused.
Biltong and an apple?
Protein shake and a banana?

Sounds boring, right?

And yet, it’s a delight 360.

It keeps me full.
It hits sweet and savory.
It travels well.
It supports long-term health and immediate satisfaction.

Is it a wow experience I can’t stop thinking about?
No.

And that’s the beauty.

Most things in life have a 360 view we rarely stop to consider.

Staying up late to watch your favorite show feels great in the moment.
Over time? Unproductive mornings. No energy to move. Worse food choices. A slow erosion of health.

Taking on more at work than you can realistically handle feels like being a team player, like a hero.
Over time? Rushed execution. Less remarkable output. The quiet frustration of working hard while someone else’s focused work gets noticed.

Having more - more things, more commitments - can feel like adding to life.
Until managing it all leaves no space for silence.
For reflection.
For creative, purposeless exploration.
For discovering what actually brings fulfillment.

For saying YES! to things you really want to create.

Someone wise once said, you can’t pour more into a full cup.
(Even if that full cup feels good.)

I’m not saying this balance is easy.
Or that we should have a perfect 360 view of every decision, every day - that would be overwhelming.

But once in a while, it’s worth stopping.
Zooming out.
Getting perspective 👀

Is what I have, what I love, what I’m used to doing…
working for me?

Not just now.
360

PS It’s that time of the year - to take a 360 view and choose what to keep, what to explore, what to leave behind. I made this reflection sheet for you to work through in this last week of the year. (Copy to edit)

In business, in life, in weight loss, it’s often very hard to draw a straight line between the goal you want and the actions you take every day.

That’s how people end up exercising daily and still never getting the body they want.
That’s how you can work hard every single day and still not get the career you want.
That’s how you can learn constantly and still not create better products, services, or outcomes for your clients.

The problem isn’t effort.
It’s that the relationship between leading actions and lagging outcomes is rarely obvious in complex systems.

It’s not always clear which daily behaviors actually move the needle.

But with enough observation and reflection, you can almost always identify actions that may not directly cause the result, yet quietly pull you closer to it.

A good night’s sleep isn’t some cutting-edge nutrition hack.
And yet, the more consistently I sleep well, the better I strategize about my health, and the easier it becomes to stay exactly where I want to be fitness-wise.

Regular reflection doesn’t directly bring in more sales.
And yet, the more consistently I do it, the more sales tend to increase anyway.

Asking “why?” every time I decide to learn something doesn’t look like a super-learner technique.
And yet, it keeps improving the quality of my work, and the feedback I get on what I deliver.

This is what I kept thinking about while listening to a new podcast episode with Tim Herbig on Change Wired podcast.

We talk about product strategy, metrics, discovery, and how to avoid progress theater in favor of moving the right needle forward.

And it reminded me of something important:

Even AI won’t help you make more meaningful progress unless you’re willing to slow down and reflect on a few hard questions:

What is ultimately important to you?
(Your winning aspiration.)

What will you do, and NOT do, to get there?
(Your strategic choices.)

How will you know you’re getting closer?
(A mix of leading actions and lagging outcomes.)

And when things don’t work, what’s your strategy for discovering what might?

One line from our conversation resonate with me especially a lot:

“AI will help you get to the hard part faster.”

Yes.
But if you’re not ready to deal with the hard parts, clarity, trade-offs, reflection and taking strategic risks, it won’t deliver anything fundamentally different. Just faster noise.

Over to you, dear reader, enjoy the podcast - Real Progress VS Busy Work with Tim Herbig: how to connect strategy, the right metrics and discovery to build what you want - Impactful Products, Beach Body or Meaningful Life.

And note for the day: which quiet, non-obvious actions are actually moving you closer, even if the results haven’t shown up yet?

At almost every Christmas dinner, most people have a strategy for dessert.

You might be full.
You might not have space for more turkey.
But somehow… there’s always room for panettone.
(Insert your favorite dessert here🧁)

That same strategy shows up everywhere else in life.

Researchers call it mental accounting, a concept from behavioral economics popularized by Richard Thaler.

Mental accounting is when we put things into invisible buckets and then treat them differently depending on the label.
“Vacation money.”
“Emergency savings.”
“Fun money.”

Same money.
Different rules.

Same time. Different rules.

We might not have time for reading but somehow scrolling and Netflix get into our schedule just fine.

"Mental accounting is a behavioral economics concept where people mentally categorize money into different "accounts" (e.g., savings, fun money, bills) based on its source or intended use, rather than seeing all money as interchangeable (fungible). This leads to irrational financial decisions, like spending a tax refund freely as "found money" while being strict with earned income, even though the money's value is the same."

That labeling matters more than we like to admit.

What this keeps reminding me, again and again:
How you frame things determines what you end up doing.

You can make something feel heavy, restrictive, and draining.
Or you can make the exact same behavior feel meaningful, energizing, even exciting.

You can even trick yourself into building the future you want🧠

Today's example.

Someone asked me at the gym,
“No days off, huh?”

I smiled.
“No days off from investing in myself.”

I’m taking these 2 slower work weeks to invest heavily into my future:
– learning the AI tools I need to work smarter
– building strategy muscles I know I’ve neglected
– training for a personal breakthrough

Same actions.
Totally different frame.

“No days off” sounds like pressure.
Like force. Like a have-to.
Like pushing through exhaustion and missing out.

“Investing in myself” feels like a privilege.
Something I get to do.
Something I can’t wait to start each morning.

That distinction matters more than any motivation hacks ever will.

When clients struggle with consistency - health habits, focus, priorities, scrolling instead of learning - it’s rarely about discipline.
It’s almost always about the story they’re telling themselves. About that mental accounting, when we find money on another gadget but not on the course, or coaching that'll build our future.

And I don’t know about you (do you), but I won’t remember the cake I “deserved.”
I will remember how I feel in my body, my mind, and my work for the whole next year.

Over to you dear reader,

Are you in a season of investing in yourself, or in a season of eating all the cake?

And more importantly, does your mental accounting build the future you want?

Mixed signals are what keep us stuck choosing today’s easy road over tomorrow’s future we say we want.

I’m reading a book "Mixed Signals: how incentives really work" - about how different kinds of rewards send very clear signals about what’s valued and rewarded around here.
And those signals shape behavior far more than intentions ever do.

If you say you want innovation but reward consistent performance,
you’ll get safe bets, not experiments that fail most of the time and occasionally pay off 10x.

If you say you want great team performance but reward individual wins the most,
you’ll get a bunch of stars pulling the cart toward whatever benefits them.

If you say you want a beach body but only get joy from pizza nights and late evenings,
guess what you’ll get more of?

You don’t get what you say you want.
You get what you incentivize.
What you reward.
What you make pleasurable.

This is why my clients who truly shift into fitter, healthier, more intentional lives don’t just “do the right things.”
They become people who enjoy the work.

They enjoy waking up fresh more than late nights.
They enjoy the sweat, not just the mirror.
They enjoy recovery, sleep, and nourishment, not just "busy days".
They enjoy seeing friends and family adopt their habits, not just planning another movie night.

For the human brain, the strongest reward is joy and pleasure in the here and now, not some distant payoff a year from now.

The real long-term switch of habits happens when you stop enjoying the dreamer on the couch and start enjoying the person who shows up for work.

Over to you dear reader, where in your pursuit of your best self are you still running on “have to”?
And where could you redesign the work so the reward is built into the doing itself?