HOW TO GET

YOURSELF
TO DO THE
THING
Consistently, reliably, and
even with enjoyment

BRENT HURAS
INTRO
Hi!

Congrats on arriving at this document that’s all about making you disciplined,
strong, and consistent. Not everyone invests this sort of time in themselves — in
making themselves better, stronger, and more productive. But you are, and the
future is always promising for people like you.

Now let’s look at what we’re about to discuss.

You know what you should be doing but you don’t do it.
Therefore, you need to learn how to get yourself to do the thing.

That’s it! That’s the whole shebang. One of the greatest and longest-standing
conundrums in the world of self-actualization; the question applies to all manner
of activity, whether we’re talking about fitness, diet, studying, work, meditation,
some creative endeavour, or whatever else.

Can I promise an answer that is definitely going to work for you and change your life
forever? Honestly, I think so. I totally realize how it sounds to say that. You’re
probably thinking it can’t possibly be that simple. But most people overshoot the
complexity of the problem. It’s not as complex as you might think. It’s actually very
simple.

In the following pages, I’m going to share with you a basic principle that you can
use to get yourself to do what needs to get done. In the short term, you’ll be able to
use this principle to get yourself on track with your work.

In the longer term , if you learn this principle and practice it over time, you will
notice yourself becoming increasingly masterful over all of your habits in life.

Alright, let’s do this.

1
DON’T WANT TO; DON’T HAVE TO
Here’s the principle:

We don’t do anything that we neither want to do, nor have to do.

To flip those negatives into a less challenging sentence, we could say: Anything that
you or I ever do, is done because we either want to or need to. Or both.

Does that make sense? We watch YouTube videos because we want to. We brush our
teeth because we need to. We sleep at night because we want to and need to. But
think about any sort of activity that you neither want nor need to do. Are you going to
do it? Not in 1,000 years, unless something changes in the need or want category.

Good. Now look at the activity in question that you’ve been procrastinating on starting.
I don’t care if it’s your paid work, client work, school work, personal projects, fitness,
health, diet, or getting your haircut. You know it’s within your best interest to do it, but
you don’t.

And why not? Because you neither want to nor have to.

Now I know what you’re thinking: “but I DO eventually need to do this project for my
company, otherwise I’ll get fired.”

That may be true. But, I’m talking about that moment when you still have tons of time
before you need to begin, and you’re procrastinating. You know you should start now.
But it won’t truly become necessary until the moment it can no longer be delayed.
Usually when you’re down to 2 days before the deadline — or even less.

As another example, let’s say you want to learn how to play the piano. This is
something you should totally do because it would be a rewarding new skill, but it’s not
necessary and never will be. Even though you may want to be a skillful pianist, you
don’t actually want to sit down at the piano right now and practise, do you? Compared
to playing another video game?

2
We need to be honest about the difference between things we should do and what we
actually must do right now. Similarly, we need to be honest about what things we want to
“have done” but don’t want to actually do.

This honesty is a big step and it will pave the way to helping us change our attitude about
getting things done. To change this attitude we start by:

1) Changing the situation so that we have to do the thing, and then

I’ll explain how to do this now.

3
HAVE TO
I’ll begin with a disclaimer: Simply making it so that you must do something doesn’t change
how much you want to do it one bit. If you hated doing push-ups yesterday, you’ll still hate
them today. The following advice will not make it more pleasant to do that thing you’ve been
putting off. But it will just make you do it.

Nevertheless, we’ll need to start here so that we can get you moving. Once this is established,
then I’ll teach you how to start wanting to do the thing, so that the whole thing becomes
more sustainable.

How can you make yourself have to do something? There are many ways, but here’s the most
hard-core one I’ve ever heard of. I’m NOT recommending this — I’m just offering it to illustrate
my point:

Write a check for an amount that’s 10% of your total wealth, and make it out to a friend that
you trust. Tell your friend that for the next 90 days, they’re going to receive an email from you
every day by 11am saying that you carried out your promise to accomplish your goal [play
piano/exercise /write a page for your book].

If they DON’T receive this email from you, then they can cash the cheque and spend the money
immediately. Insist that they hold you accountable for this.

In a situation like this, you would now have to do it - assuming you don’t want to lose 10% of
your wealth. Here are some other examples of ways to create necessity.

- Make a promise publicly to all your friends and family that you’re going to lose a certain
amount of weight by a certain date.
- Get an accountability partner or join a mastermind group to hold you accountable.
- Sign up for a test, evaluation, or performance on a particular date (like a piano exam 3
months into the future) and tell everyone to come out for it because you’ll be performing for
them. Tell them that it’s going to be amazing, get them excited.

The common denominator is your ass needs to be on the line. There needs to be something at
stake that you care about, such as your money or reputation.

4
I once heard a story about a guy who wanted to start getting up earlier in the morning. So he
put his alarm clock in a steel cage and buried the key in his backyard garden! He’d have to
walk out to his garden in order to open the cage and turn off his alarm every morning. Now
THAT will get you out of bed.

How can you make it so that you have to do the thing that needs to get done? Make it so that
you truly have to. It’s that simple. Put your money where your mouth is. Make it public. Make
the failure real. Lock yourself in and throw away the key, so that the only way out is through.

That’s how.

The problem with this strategy is forcing yourself to achieve your goals this way is not
sustainable. It will work. You’ll get results and you’ll love them. But you’ll still hate doing the
thing. So now we should talk about how to do the thing without hating it.

5
WANT TO

If you can make it so that you want to do the thing, then eventually you can release
the have to factor.

The way to make yourself want to do something is by attaining flow with it.

Flow is when we’re engaged, interested, and in action. It’s like an effortless effort.
We’re really applying ourselves in flow, but we’re really enjoying ourselves at the same
time. Examples include playing your favourite video game, cooking your favourite
recipe, doing your favourite household task.

With the correct approach and perspective, one can attain flow with any task. This
includes the activities that you don’t like, find tedious, find boring, or inspire utter
reluctance in you. Once you master this principle, then you will have unlocked the last
layer of the problem of getting yourself to do the thing.

Here’s the basic method for finding flow with any task:

First, accept that it must be possible to achieve flow with this task. In order for it to
happen at all, you need to be open to it as a possibility.

Second, create a firm decision that you’re willing to learn how to find flow with it. So
we’re going from “it’s possible” to “it’s going to happen”.

Third, accept the necessity of this task. This point is essential. It’s not possible to
attain flow with a task if we believe that a) we shouldn’t have to do it, b) it’s pointless
or a waste of time, c) we just need to get through it. If this task is here for you to do,
then accept it fully. Resolve to totally drop any mental resistance to it.

Fourth, slow down. Slow all the way down so that you can properly grapple with it and
find a rhythm with it. Stop trying to hurry through. Slow is smooth and smooth is fast:
once you establish a proper rhythm, you’ll be able to speed it up. But for now – slow.

6
Fifth, embrace the now. Here’s a maxim: “If it were not this thing, it would just be the
next thing.” And the next thing would literally become this thing. Drop this constant
reaching for ‘the next thing’ or the attempt to ‘just get through’ this thing. These are
immature drives and totally prevent the possibility of flow. Instead, embrace the now. Let
this thing be enough for you.

Depending on how reluctant you are toward this task, these five suggestions might seem
to be asking a lot of you. But if you approach and apply them with your best sincerity,
you will start finding flow, which in turn will start pulling you - attracting you - to the task.

You’ll start actually wanting to do it.

7
THAT’S IT
As promised, the principle and methods are simple.

To get yourself to do what needs to get done, make it so that you have to. Then get to
work on making it so that you want to. That’s the victory! When you want to do
something, you’ll simply do it. At this point you can start to release the have to
measures that you put in place.

You can use these ideas right away to get some great results with the tasks you’re
struggling with right now, but you can also develop your ability to do this over time so
that you get good at doing whatever needs to get done. This is such an important and
powerful skill to have. It opens all sorts of doors for you.

What’s next from here?

I suggest refining these techniques but also learning how to get into greater, meta-
level rhythms of productivity in your life so that your life can take on a much greater
velocity, richness, and depth.

I’ve developed a large body of work around this study, and you can access almost all of
it for free here: https://linktr.ee/brentthecoach

I wish you the very best!

Brent Huras
Productivity Coach