Welcome to the Diary of Davis: a monthly chronicle of curated content for self-improvement – written for aspiring freelancers, soon-to-be business owners, early-stage entrepreneurs, and anybody ready to make change and lead a fulfilled life. 

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Entry #3: 03.01.21

Happy March, people; I hope all is well. 

How was your February? Did you progress towards your goals as planned? Were you kind to yourself? Did you take care of your mental health? 

Regardless, give yourself a pat on the back for getting through another month of madness. We’re living in trying times, and none of us were given the blueprint on how to deal with this shit. 

But you know what they say: third time’s a charm. 

With the first day of spring a few weeks away, March is a month for new beginnings – making it the perfect time to refocus and start anew. 

Brighter days are on the horizon, and with the rising sun comes energy. So, for me, this month’s all about putting it into practice and taking action. Remember: 

• Don’t get stuck in strategy—just do the dang thang! 
•  Imposter syndrome is part of the process—nobody ever starts out as an expert
• The key to personal growth is self-management—and saying no to what no longer serves you

Let’s get to this month’s resources.

The Month’s Mind Material

🧠 March’s brain matter is a mix of productivity tips, wellness advice, and insight into how to get yourself to think differently. Featuring: 

• One newsletter to help you find more meaning in your daily work;
• Two digital deliverables to stretch your wellness and flip your perspective; and
• Three blog posts (one by yours truly) to help boost your productivity and progress.

FYI: productivity and progress are not the default – you have the put in the work to get the results.

One newsletter

🗞 Last month, I mentioned James Clear and his book Atomic Habits. Now, I’d like to point out his newsletter, 3-2-1. In it, James delivers remarkable ideas, actionable insights, and weekly wisdom you can read in 5 minutes.

The newsletter is easily consumed, offering 3 short ideas from James himself, 2 quotes from others, and 1 question for you to ponder throughout the week – there’s always a great tidbit in every email. 

Like this juicy nugget in last week’s edition on taking action: 

“Rome wasn’t built in a day, but they were laying bricks every hour. You don’t have to do it all today – just lay a brick.”

A video + a podcast

🎥 AmyTV with Amy Landino is jammed packed with advice about productivity and motivation, including inspiration to help you achieve full-time freedom and go after the life you want. 

In this 9-minute episode, Amy talks about how to get motivated and points out that until we feel the benefit from taking an action, motivation doesn’t exist.

But what if we aren’t motivated to take that action in the first place?

Luckily, Amy unpacks the answer to that question in the video. 😉

🎙 The Tim Ferriss Show is a fantastic podcast. Tim interviews world-class performers to extract the tactics, tools, and practices you can use to improve your life. This includes morning routines, exercise habits, time-management tricks, and much more.

In episode #496, Tim hosts Marc Randolph, the co-founder of Netflix, and the knowledge dropped during the chat is profound, to say the least.

I particularly enjoyed the part when Marc gives his thoughts on ideas. 

He believes that all ideas are bad ideas – arguing the only way to create a good idea is to experiment with all the bad ones, fail, and then refine.

And three blog posts

📝 Put it into Practice: Published is Better than Perfect is a gentle reminder to put your plans into action and to keep moving forward. 

“Big or small, making a positive change in your life isn’t easy; don’t make it harder on yourself trying to come up with the perfect solution to your problems.”

📝 If you don’t know you have it… by Seth Godin has a simple message with deep meaning: if you don’t know to look for it, or you don’t believe it’s there, it might as well not exist. 

“It’s worth putting in regular effort to remind ourselves of what we’ve already got and how it has served us in the past.”

📝 Practice Failure from the Farnam Street blog points out that failure is a byproduct of trying to succeed – it reminds us that learning is just failing our way towards mastery. 

“If we don’t practice failing, we can only safely fly on sunny days.”

The random-hop-rabbit-thought

🐇 Here’s a small, three-foot-rabbit-hole-of-a-thought to finish off this month’s entry in the Diary of Davis. 

1. Three is the Magic Number was originally written by Bob Dorough and aired on School House Rock! in 1973—Blind Melon later covered the song on a tribute album to the TV show, which was released in 1996 just months after the death of Shannon Hoon. 😢
   
   
2. As it relates to sports, the term ‘hat trick’ has an interesting origin story, with its first appearance coming in 1858 during a cricket match—after taking three consecutive wickets, bowler H.H. Stephenson was awarded a new hat in recognition of the feat.
   
   Of course, the term is more commonly associated with hockey and the tale of a salesman who offered a free hat to any NHL player who scored three goals during a game in Toronto.
   
   
3. The number three is featured in the Fibonacci Sequence, it’s a prime number as well as a triangular number, and finally, it’s also a Lucas number—and if you know what any of that means, you’re a whole lot smarter than I am.  

That’s it for me, I hope you found something that resonated.

Thanks for reading.

PS. Three is one of my favourite numbers. I have two. Can you guess what the other one is? 

Cory B. Davis

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