How I get to “Hell Yeah” Behaviors

If you aren’t familiar with Derek Sivers’ Hell Yeah philosophy, it takes about 30 seconds to read his inaugural blog post: https://sive.rs/hellyeah. Here’s the main idea:

When deciding whether to do something, if you feel anything less than “Wow! That would be amazing! Absolutely! Hell yeah!” — then say no.

I wasn’t Hell Yeah on a bunch of my behaviors. Here’s how I got there. 

‍

Started with a notebook

I started with a notebook. I wrote the word Projects. Directly beneath, I scribbled my most important project right now; Lyric. Behaviors started running through my head; learn the studio, call my customers, read about supply chain, connect with a supply chain practitioner. My mind was flatlining. I wasn’t even close to Hell Yeah on any other of them. I pivoted my approach. I wrote: what does success look like? 

I used two AIs to help me think through this question; chatGPT from OpenAI and the specifically engineered Slow Velocity chatbot (in the app). Both AI’s gave me different ways to think about what success looks like for me at Lyric. 

1. Make everyone feel like ‘John Smith’ about the Lyric Studio. John Smith is over the moon 10x for Lyric.

2. Share your excitement about Lyric through sharing ideas like a teacher.

3. Form meaningful relationships with my coworkers.

I felt the excitement about these goals in my whole body. I felt Hell Yeah.

‍

Translating into Slow Velocity behaviors

After knowing what success looks like, creating Hell Yeah behaviors got a lot easier.

Reduce. Compartmentalize. I decided that Projects over the next few weeks were going to be only Lyric. In the previous few weeks, my Projects included Lyric, Slow Velocity, Automating Value Investing, and Bagpipes. I want to concentrate on Lyric. So, I put bagpipes in Health because playing some music every day repairs my mind. I put Slow Velocity and Automating Value Investing in Growth because they help me develop peripheral skills. This way, I wouldn’t be muddying the waters. 

I did that same thing for Growth, making sure I started with what success looks like. I also made sure I truly believed that

1. I could follow through on behaviors (feasibility, see below) and
2. They were the most important behaviors that would contribute to the aforementioned success (80/20 rule).

At this point, I made the update in Slow Velocity. My behavior Turnover Ratio was at 0.55 :) That’s aggressive. In this older post, I share that the average level for behavior turnover among our users is between 10-20% weekly. 

‍

Feasibility test

I wasn’t done.

I wanted to make sure that there are enough hours in the day to practice all of the behaviors on my lists. Back to the notebook. I went through the list and estimated the amount of time each behavior required. If my estimates added up to 24 hours, it would clearly be unrealistic (I need to sleep!). Luckily, when I factored in eating and sleep, I was around 22 hours. There’s a tiny bit of buffer built in. I’ll still be pushing my physical and mental limits, but it seems realistic. 

The most important factor is that, as I flip back and forth between Health, Projects, People, and Growth tabs, I’m feeling inspired. I’m feeling motivated. I’m feeling Hell Yeah. LFG 🚀

Summary of steps

1. Identify what success looks like. Use:
   1. Pen & paper.
   2. AI Coaches.
2. Solidify vision of goals.
3. Draft Hell Yeah behaviors.
4. Estimate feasibility.
5. Go as hard as you fucking can.

‍