Overlap by Sean McCabe

Part One: Find Your Passion

1 - Get the Life You Want

2 - Find Your Passion

The future you envision will never come to pass on its own. You must choose to pursue it actively every day.

How can you see the future?

• The actions you take now are shaping your future.
• Look at the past six months of your life.
• If you repeat those last six months, are you happy with where you’ll be?
• If not, something needs to change.
• What’s going to change?
• How are you going to become that disciplined, driven version of yourself if you don’t make a commitment today?
• What action are you going to take today to become the person you want to be?

The only person who can truly stop you is you.

To be determined is to be single-minded.

Clarity must come first before discipline.

• Discipline is critical but effective only when applied to a single pursuit in service of a well-defined goal.
• First, get clarity about what you want. Then use discipline to pursue it.

Where is your greatness hiding?

• What is something you do when, after what feels like a few minutes, you look at the clock and find four hours have passed?
• What are you most passionate about?
• What makes you come alive?
• What fulfills you?

We’re all good at many things. But successful people chose to dedicate themselves to greatness in one area.

If you want greatness, your automatic response must be “No.”

• Dedication means saying “No” to pursuing all other things.
• You can do it all, but you cannot do it all well.
• There are a few things in life you can do—a few choices you can make—that will lead to the life you want to have, and then there’s everything else.

REVIEW QUESTIONS

• Why do you need to actively pursue your dream every day?
• How can you see the future?
• Who is the only person who can stop you?
• Why should you focus on just one thing?
• Why should clarity come first before discipline?
• Why is it important to learn how to say “No”?
• Why is it important to see the words “Yes” and “No” as directional and not emotional?

3 - Audit Your Passion

If you want to find your passion, find what you love doing, not what you love thinking about doing.

There’s a great difference between being passionate about the act of doing something and being passionate about the idea of doing something.

You cannot know whether or not you’re passionate about something until you’ve faced and overcome resistance.

If you have not done it, if you have not encountered resistance, if you have not continued until you’ve overcome resistance, you are not passionate about that “passion.”

You have to narrow down the over-inflated list of passions in your mind. Examine that list and systematically remove the imposters.

Give yourself permission to enter into an exploratory phase. If you haven’t spent time doing something that you think you might be passionate about, permit yourself to try it. Allocate time to the act of doing it.

How to try out a passion

• Pick one thing.
• For the next several weeks, set aside time each day to practice, learn, and do.
• Make mistakes.
• As much as possible, immerse yourself in that world.
• Take the idea of the thing you had in your mind and audit it. Try it and see if you like the act of doing it. Put yourself in the position of experiencing what it’s like to do that thing. Get a good idea of the process and what your day would look like if that thing became your full-time pursuit.
• Persist until the novelty wears off.
• If you’re truly passionate, you’ll press on. If not, you’ll quit.

The way you respond when things aren’t easy is the determining factor.

Strategies to look for your passion.

• What are two categories of interest to you? Look for what falls into both categories. The common area between your two general interests may be a sweet spot.
• What have you enjoyed doing in the past? What have you done that you’re really fond of? What did you enjoy as a kid? What was it about that thing that enticed you? Why did you like it? What parts of it did you enjoy most?
• What would you do even if you weren’t paid to do it? This can be a great indicator of passion. Removing the money aspect can provide clarity as to what you might be passionate about.

The things you’re good at might be where your passion is.

• Start with skill.
• Ask people you know to tell you what they think you’re good at.

Start with something that makes money and become passionate about it is easier than starting with passion and figuring out a way to make money from it.

The greatest indicator of a sustainable passion is something you’re good at.

You may not always see this ability in yourself though. That’s why it’s important to ask your friends or family about what they think you’re good at.

If you’re not good at something, it will be hard to enjoy the act of doing it. It’s hard to enjoy doing something poorly. This is the reason why it’s great to start with what you’re already good at now. You can start with something you’re not yet good at, but know that it will require significant discipline and patience to apply yourself until your skill develops.

What you choose to pursue now doesn’t have to be what you do for the rest of your life. In fact, it almost certainly won’t be. It’s a stepping stone.

It doesn’t matter which option you choose. Pick one and start. Indecision is the enemy. Picking the “wrong” thing is not what’s holding you back; it’s your lack of decisiveness.

There’s no direct path to success. It will take time to discover what gives you fulfillment. What you’ll end up enjoying the most in life is likely several steps removed from you right now. Remember that. The only thing keeping you from getting there is doing the next imperfect thing.

The only thing standing in your way is choosing and doing the next three things—even if they’re the “wrong” ones. The next thing you pick is almost certainly not going to be the thing you do for the rest of your life. You might think of that as the wrong thing, but you often have to go through seasons of picking the “wrong” thing several times in order to end up at the right thing.

How exploring helps you

• You will learn skills with each pursuit.
• You will discover what you don’t like to do.
• You will gradually get closer to discovering what you truly love to do.
• You will have experiences that you take with you and apply later in ways you can’t anticipate.

The more you try to feel like you have all of your stuff together before you choose to take action and move forward, the longer you’ll be stuck.

REVIEW QUESTIONS

• According to Sean, what is one reason why it’s difficult to choose what you want to pursue?
• How can you really tell that you are truly passionate about something?
• What should you do with your list of passions?
• What are some strategies that you can use to look for your passion?
• What is the greatest indicator of a sustainable passion?
• Why should you ask your friends and family about what they think you’re good at?
• Why should you start with something that you are good at?
• Why is picking the wrong thing better than indecisiveness?
• Why is exploring not a waste of time?

NEXT ACTIONS

• Narrow down your list of passions.
• Decide which passion to nurture.

4 - Set a Big Goal

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If you can have anything you want, then:

• What is your perfect life?
• What is the life you want to have?
• What is your health like?
• Where are you living?
• What does your ideal day look like?
• How much money are you making?
• What are your goals?

Take a moment to create a new note.

Write today’s date at the top.

Then write a list of all the goals you have.

If you’re going to dream, dream big.

Where you’re at now is a result of the goals you’ve set prior to this day and the steps you’ve taken to achieve them.

If you’re not where you want to be, look at what you were doing several years ago to see why.

Where you’ll be in five years is a result of the goals you set now and the steps you take to achieve them.

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

We underestimate what we can accomplish because we think in limited units and linear growth. Your current reality becomes a unit by which you measure your potential. When you set bigger goals, you break outside of that restricted context.

Big goals force massive action which results in exponential change.

Your big goal should scare you a little bit. When it feels just outside your reach, you’re on the right track.

REVIEW QUESTIONS

• What determines where you are right now and where you are going?
• Why do we tend to settle on small goals?
• Why set big goals for yourself?

NEXT ACTIONS

• Have a blank document ready. Write today’s date at the top, and then write a list of all the goals you have.

5 - Don’t Worry About What People Think

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Don’t shape your life around what other people think.

In theory, your significant other and best friends would be the ones to believe in you and support your goal the most. Beyond them, acquaintances probably share 0.5 percent or less of your life.

Why let someone else who shares such a tiny part of your life limit your potential?

You have to normalize what is big to you if you want to attain it. The only way to normalize what is big is through repeated exposure.

Formula for recognizing greatness before it happens

• Mindset x Action + Time = Greatness

When you find someone with a good mindset who is taking action, hold on to that person. It’s only a matter of time before they achieve greatness.

You can’t think like everyone else if you want to see different results.

Why you need to share your goal

• If the people in your life aren’t helping you get closer to your goal, they’re taking you further away from it.
• If the people in your life don’t even know your goal, how can they possibly help you get closer?

Action plan for the next 20 days

1. Choose a single goal. Which single goal, if you could accomplish it now, would make the biggest positive impact on your life in the next year?
2. Create a new note and write the goal again at the top of that page. This time, write the date that’s one year from today as your deadline.
3. Create a bullet list with twenty steps that will get you to that goal.
4. Every day, accomplish one item on your list of twenty. This is the most important part: every single day, you need to be doing one of the things on your list. Don’t go a day without doing something on your list.

If you want to achieve big things, you have to do what other people aren’t willing to do.

You can achieve many great things in life, but you can achieve only one truly great thing at a time. If you try to pursue many goals at once, you will not succeed at any of them.

For there to be a chance of getting what you want, you must focus all of your efforts on that one thing.

Your lofty goal will have a lesser version. Are you going to settle?

REVIEW QUESTIONS

• Why shouldn’t you let other people shape your life?
• How do you normalize what is big?
• What is the formula for recognizing greatness before it happens?
• Why can’t you think like the ordinary person if you want to be extraordinary?
• Why do you need to share your goal?
• What is your action plan for the next 20 days?
• Why shouldn’t you pursue many goals at once?

NEXT ACTIONS

• Implement your plan of action for the next 20 days.

Part Two: Protect Your Passion

6 - Don’t Quit Your Day Job

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Note: Passion is used here as the ideal paid work you want to transition into.

Don’t monetize your passion too quickly.

The quickest way to kill your passion is to use it as a tool to pay your bills.

• This will cause you to hate what you do.
• There’s no going back once you kill your passion. Once you kill it, it’s dead.

You must protect your passion.

How to protect your passion?

• Cover 100 percent of your bills with your day job.
• If your day job doesn’t cover 100 percent of your bills, you need to find something else that does.
• Do not use your passion to make up the difference.

Illustration: 50-year-old oak tree versus a young sapling.

Don’t rely on your passion for money until it’s old enough to support you.

Different forms of compromise

• Working with the wrong people
• Taking the wrong clients because you’re desperate for money
• Compromising your professionalism, morals, and pricing

How do you avoid compromising your passion?

• Avoid getting into a scarcity mindset.
• A scarcity mindset breeds desperation. Desperation results to compromise.

How do you prevent yourself from getting into a scarcity mindset?

• You have to create financial padding for yourself.
• Unless you already have a significant amount of money set aside, the only way to avoid getting desperate and falling into scarcity is to get a day job that covers 100 percent of your bills.
• The day job is a functional piece to the puzzle. It is your foundation.

Your day job needs to be in a different industry from your passion.

• When you have a day job in the same industry as your passion, you run the risk of killing the passion.
• Unless you can control every aspect of your day job (which clients you work for, the process, the hours, and the projects you take on), you will find yourself in situations where you’re forced to do things in a way you don’t want to do them.
• If you spend the same kind of energy at your day job, you become more invested, even though the freedom is not there.
• The day job is the wrong environment for organically growing your passion.

How can you know that you day job is in an entirely different industry?

• if you come home from your day job bursting at the seams with energy for pursuing what you’re passionate about, that’s the right day job.

Golden Handcuffs

• Financial benefits intended to encourage highly compensated individuals to remain with a company.
• Underscored if you’ve increased your cost of living to match your high pay.

If you hate your day job, you need to quit.

What Your Day Job Should Be

What Your Day Job Shouldn’t Be

• Should pay your bills and cover 100 percent of your expenses.
• Should support the exploration and pursuit of your passion.
• Should allow you to grow your passion organically without compromise.
• Should help you wait until you get your passion to the point where you can make a living from it.
• Should be something you don’t hate.
• Not your favorite things.
• Should not drain your energy.
• Should not drain your creativity.
• Should not be in the same industry as your passion.
• Shouldn’t be the place where you partially indulge your passion in compromised conditions.

Make the commitment now to find the right day job and refuse to stop until you do. Don’t make excuses. Your full-time job outside work right now is finding the right day job. Go until you find it—no quitting.

REVIEW QUESTIONS

• What is the fastest way to kill your passion?
• Why shouldn’t you monetize your passion too quickly?
• How do you protect your passion?
• What is the illustration of the 50-year-old oak tree and sapling? And what is its lesson about monetizing your passion?
• What are some forms of compromising?
• How do you avoid compromising your passion?
• How do you prevent yourself from getting into a scarcity mindset?
• Why do you need your day job to be in a different industry from your passion?
• How can you know that you day job is in an entirely different industry?
• What are Golden Handcuffs? And how can they be detrimental to you?
• What should your day job be?
• What shouldn’t your day job be?

NEXT ACTIONS

• Dedicate yourself in finding the right day job.

7 - Defeat Scarcity Mindset

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Scarcity leads to desperation. Desperation leads to compromise.

How do you know that you may have a scarcity mindset?

• Worried about money
• Feel desperate
• Compromise on your prices
• Constantly worried about cash flow
• Feel like there’s not enough time in the day

Making an objective decision while in a scarcity mindset is impossible. All of your decisions are compromised.

A scarcity mindset prevents you from getting out of scarcity mindset.

The way out of scarcity mindset is to change your mindset.

How do you change your mindset?

• Change your mindset while you’re in circumstances you don’t want to be in.
• Don’t wait until the circumstances change, because they’re never going to change on their own.
• Separate your mindset from your circumstances.
• Don’t let your circumstances affect your mindset.
• Take control and make decisions. Start with making the decision to make decisions.
• Take action to make change happen.

References

McCabe, S. (2017). Overlap: Start a Business While Working a Full Time Job. seanwes.