Mastery: The Golden Hour

Issue No. 37 | September 11th, 2023 | Read Time: 3 Minutes

Happy Monday Everyone!

Right next to my desk I have a corkboard with various notes I've put up over the years.

They vary from business ideas, goals, quotes, and snippets of motivation that I can look to whenever I'm feeling stuck.

But there's one index card that stands out in particular.

It's a quote that stood out to me so much, I just had to put it somewhere I could see it 24/7.

It came from the book

Put Your Ass Where Your Heart Wants To Be

by Steven Pressfield. A guide on overcoming procrastination and succeeding in what you love. 

It goes like this. . .

"One hour a day is seven hours a week, thirty hours a month, 365 hours a year. Three hundred and sixty hours is nine 40-hour workweeks. . .You can be a full-time writer, one hour a day."

As an aspiring writer, this hit home. But I have to be honest with you. I didn't implement it into my life right away.Some days I'd write for a few hours. And other days I wouldn't write at all. And even though I was putting in the time, I didn't find myself making any significant progress.That was until I looked back at this quote and realized what I was missing was consistency.One hour of consistent practice every day is better than a couple of hours scattered throughout the week. And so I've decided to schedule my Golden Hour.Your Golden Hour is one hour every day where you solely focus on yourself and your craft.No phones. No social media. No emails or phone calls. Just you and your craft.I personally use that time to write one long-form piece of content. Whether it's a Medium article, a Twitter thread, or a LinkedIn post, I only work on enhancing my writing skills. It took some moving around, but I set my Golden Hour from 6:45am - 7:45am every morning.It's a little odd, but it works for me.And that's my next point. Make sure your Golden Hour is for the same time every day. Weekdays. Weekends. Holidays. Vacations. There should be nothing that ever disrupts your Golden Hour. If you're trying to build a dropshipping business, then use that hour to solely work on your Shopify store.If you're trying to become a video editor, use that time to learn video editing skills through courses and videos. As long as it relates to your craft, do it.And if it doesn't, throw it away.There are 24 hours in every day. So don't tell me you don't have a single hour that you can dedicate to your craft. It's about making time, not finding it.And if you can do more, great.But one hour every day should be the minimum.You owe it to yourself to take your goals seriously. No one is coming to rescue you.As Steven Pressfield would say, put your ass where your heart wants to be.All it takes it one hour a day.So, when is your Golden Hour?

Until next time,

Isaiah Taylor

Dive Deeper

What I'm Currently Reading -

I'm now reading

$100M Leads

by Alex Hormozi, his newest book on how to get strangers to want to buy your stuff. 

• If you'd like to see my notes on any other book I have previously read, then check out my websiteisaiahctaylor.comto view my entire library of notes and summaries.

Quote Of The Week

• “The successful person has the habit of doing the things failures don’t like to do. They don’t like doing them either necessarily, but their disliking is subordinated to the strength of their purpose.” — Stephen R. Covey