Bouldering

A while ago I received a hangboard—a wooden training instrument with specific-sized holes to train yourself to hang on to small ledges with anywhere from all 5 to 2 fingers per hand—as a gift.

A great and useful tool to up my bouldering game.

For months now, it’s been above the door of my room where I work, read, sleep, relax, and more than occasionally waste a lot of time—long story short, I’m in there a lot.

I also enter and leave a lot, whether it’s to get something to drink, to eat, to go to the toilet, to go on a walk, to the gym, to talk to people, whatever it is.

The consequence?

Every time I leave my room I use the hangboard.

It’s the easiest thing ever. It takes all but 5 seconds and it’s always “on the way” to whatever I want to do.

The result?

I get tons of practice and training without thinking about it, let alone realizing I’m “training”.

Now, I don’t know how this might be useful in your life, but what I do know is that you could use this same strategy to force yourself to write a small opening line (or a subject line) to an email every time you think of an idea worthy to write down.

You want to write it down anyway, so why not practice creating more curiosity in your writing—and then send it to the world and see what happens?

Anyway.

Another way to learn how to create more curiosity in your writing and improve your persuasiveness is by checking out Email Valhalla here: https://alexvandromme.com/valhalla

But before I can share it with you, here’s some context you need:

See, if you’ve been on my list for any reasonable amount of time, you’ll probably know I’m big on bouldering. I try to go bouldering at least once a week… unless I’ve got injuries and my physical therapist forbids me to.

Anyway.

Last week I finally got myself a hangboard—a wooden training instrument with specific sized holes to train yourself to hang on to small ledges with anywhere from all 5 to 2 fingers per hand.

A great and useful tool.

In my case, I mounted it above the door of my room where I work, read, sleep, relax, and more than occasionally waste some time—I’m in there a lot.

I also enter and leave a lot, whether it’s to get something to drink, to eat, to go to the toilet, to go on a walk, to the gym, talk to people, whatever it is.

So my new lifehack?

Simple.

Every time I either enter or leave through my door I have to use the hangboard at least once.

It’s the easiest thing ever. It takes all but 5 seconds and it’s always “on the way” to whatever I want to do.

The result?

I get tons of practice and training in without even thinking about it, let alone even realizing I’m “training”.

Now I don’t know how this might be useful in your life, but what I do know is that you could use this same strategy to force yourself to write a small opening line (or a subject line) to an email everytime you think of an idea and want to write it down.

You want to write it down anyway, so why not practice creating more curiosity in your writing?

Anyway.

Another way to learn how to create more curiosity in your writing and improve your persuasiveness is by checking out Email Valhalla here: https://alexvandromme.com/valhalla

I’m going bouldering later today for the first time in months.

For the past however long it may have been, I couldn’t go because of an injury that had to recover.

But now, with lot’s of physical therapy behind my back, a lot of specific exercises, and a whole lot of patience, well now I’m finally going to get back at it on the wall for the first time.

Yet it’s still going to be a different session than I’d normally have.

See, I’ve been told to build it up from the bottom again. To go slow and see how it goes. My shoulder injury hasn’t yet healed completely so I can’t just go all out again, that could easily mess up my shoulder once again and send me back another few months.

There’s just one big problem.

Doing the easy stuff and taking it slow, as if I was a beginner (the advice my physical therapist gave me) is boring as hell.

So, logically I had to come up with a new game plan.

Instead of doing the usual bouldering stuff I’d do—only a lot easier—I’ll turn this first session into a technique session where I’ll spend the entirety of my time improving my movement and practicing the fundamentals.

I won’t just be going through the movements on easier climbs.

I’ll purposely turn the “easy” climbs (aka, not difficult on my shoulder) into real challenges of technical skill. The purpose won’t be to finish the climb. The purpose will be to finish the climb as flawlessly and as efficiently as possible.

This is called “forward intent”.

Aka, making something more difficult than it needs to be with the sole purpose of improving your craft.

Forward intent, as well as going back to the basics and practicing your fundamentals, is something you can (and should) do in business as well.

Add constraints to the things you do, really focus on practicing you otherwise wouldn’t, and don’t skip the “boring” parts.

And if you’d like to know a nice way to start improving your craft, especially your email writing ability, then check out my flagship course Email Valhalla, where I hone in on the fundamentals to get your email writing capabilities to the next level.

Check it out here: https://alexvandromme.com/valhalla