The superpower you need for doing almost anything

How to get yourself to do almost anything, especially if you’re stuck

Author

Adam Hofmann
February 20, 2024

There are some days I feel stuck. Things are harder than they should be and I can’t get going. Yesterday was one of those days. I wrote my post and stared at it, afraid to hit the publish button.

All the usual internal chatter from Shadow Adam was reaching a crescendo even though I was beyond excited.

In an attempt to break free, I distracted myself. I hopped between tasks, hoping to stumble upon a spark of inspiration. But amidst the flurry of tasks, I paused.

I was evading what truly needed my attention. I was clearly in the throes of an emotional storm, the accumulating fear energy anchoring me more firmly.

In my task-switching frenzy, I started to work on something called 'prompt engineering', a necessity for an experiment at work.

If you're unfamiliar with the concept, when you use ChatGPT or any large language model (LLM) you generally start by telling the model what to do. For example:

Please act as a seasoned copywriter and craft 5 captivating subject lines for an email about how sometimes it’s hard to hit the publish button on an email to your closest friends.

The idea is to be as explicit as possible, giving the AI a crystal-clear blueprint of your expectations. It uses this prompt to then generate a response.

That's when it struck me.

We are constantly prompting ourselves, every moment of every day, without even realizing it. Many of these prompts are woven into our routines, operating on autopilot.

What if we seized control of these autopilot prompts and harnessed them as tools to breakthrough?

The Personal Prompt Superpower

Let's circle back to my predicament. I needed to hit send, but I was editing my post to oblivion and getting hung up on what people might think.

So, I experimented with self-prompting…

Act as Noah Kagan and other creators I admire and do exactly what they would do.

My stress dissipated. My thoughts crystallized. The distressing emotions retreated. I felt liberated and hit send because Noah would tell me to just ship it.

What’s happening here is you’re allowing yourself to take on a different perspective which immediately lets you detach from whatever it is you’re hooked on. By “self-prompting” you free yourself to think differently and approach it in a new way.

This superpower is my daily ally, aiding me in tackling procrastination, setting foot on unfamiliar terrains, kindling motivation, and breaking free from a slump. It’s also a great technique to use when you’re experiencing a lot of negativity and doubt.

Personal Prompting Tips

Use your personal role models and friends for prompting by thinking about the qualities you admire in them.

Act as Jim and come up with three questions I can ask right now to get unstuck.

Jim always has great questions when I’m facing existential questions or find myself wrapped around the proverbial axle.

But my personal favorite is to use myself as an observer for prompting. You’ll be surprised at how effective it can be to prompt yourself with something as simple as:

Act as if you were observing someone else go through this same thing, what would you tell them to do?

I’d be screaming at them to hit send so why wouldn’t I do the same?!

Remember, you hold the keys to all the answers you seek. The real question is, are you ready to listen and spring into action? Hell yes, you are!

With love and power,

Adam

PS - if you try this power out today, hit reply and tell me about your experience!