paulr

Find Something That Works and Push It

When I went to Japan I was impressed at all the great clothes on every guy walking by. But when I went to buy my own, only-in-Japan, blue jeans, I had a lot of trouble finding anything in my size. I’m not a big guy, just an average North American, but a Medium size here is a Large or Xtra Large in Japan and a lot of stuff simply would not fit.

Finally I discovered UNIQLO which is the biggest and most profitable clothing shop in Japan. UNIQLO (the name is a mash up of ‘Unique Clothing’) had clothes in my size and most of it was reasonably cheap too. I was in heaven. There were a lot of UNIQLO locations all over Japan and I bought a few pieces in each one. As I was leaving Japan, I checked out the UNIQLO in Narita Airport. There I found some simple shirts that fit me perfectly, made me look 20 lbs lighter, and came in all kinds of great colors.

I tried on a couple (trying on clothes in UNIQLO was a bit of a hassle on account of having to remove my shoes each time) and that little voice told me, “Hey, Paul, you should buy one of each color. These are cheap and fit great.” Of course I ignored the voice, bought two shirts, and ran to board my plane.

Listen To That Voice

One Life Hack that pays big dividends is training yourself to be just self-aware enough to notice when something is working.

You know that little voice, faintly honking in your mental suburbs, when you notice you’ve done something right? If you don’t listen for it, it’s easy to miss, but it’s the one telling you, “Hey, dude. This is a good thing. You are so smart. Good choice!”

It could be a new tool that makes your work easier, or an author that lights up your brain, or even a new way of interacting with your spouse or co-worker. Maybe you sought out this new thing or maybe you just stumbled into it by accident. Either way, when it happens there is a part of your brain that will alert you that you’ve just scored +100 Bonus Points.

Do. Not. Ignore. That. Sound.

Instead make sure you do this thing again. Put it into OmniFocus or write it on your hand or, hell, just go do it again right now, but for the love of God don’t forget about it. Because you, sir, have just figured it out. There are a gazillion other things you need to figure out too, and chances are you are not going to get to all of them, but you go this one. You won’t have time to do again so work it.

And lest you think I’m talking about big things, like the secret of life or what’s the meaning of Twitter, I’m not. Japanese shirts that fit, for example, qualify.

Closet Hack

Back home I got lots of compliments for my new shirt and wore it all the time. I remembered that I had ignored my, “This works” voice and set out to rectify my mistake. Fortunately my good friend, Joe Montage, travels to Hong Kong all the time and UNIQLO has a location there. I stuffed his hands with cash (ok I promised to pay him when he returned) and asked him to please get me one of each color.

Early this morning I got this picture by email:

Soon my closet will be filled with cheap, yet attractive, Unique Clothing. Yatta!

(There is a UNIQLO in NYC too, but what would be the fun in that?)