There’s no need for us to be goddamn robots. We have access to every book, seminar, and specialty in the globe. To not live doing something we enjoy is simply a lack of effort.
Often times the scariest part is overcoming the fear. The fear of ‘what ifs’, the fear of the unknown, the fear of what others will think of us, the fear of distancing ourselves, the fear of leaving what feels comfortable.
Every person has their own unique set of talents, skills, and characteristics. It bothers me so much that we all get stuck in pockets of society or jobs where these talents go underutilized. I explore ways for us to make the most of our time on this Earth and enjoy the time here. It’s not all that long afterall.
All Customized Life Resources
- Quotes/Shorts ~1 Minute or Less
- Videos/Shorts ~5 Minutes
- Videos/Articles ~15 Minutes
- Podcasts ~2 Hours
- Books ~8 Hours
- !!!Caveat!!! + 5 main resources
- Songs
- Mental Workouts
My Creations
- Seth
- Miles
- Ceilidh
- Me
- Tristan b4 Iceland
- Rex at USAFA
Concepts
1) Default Path
From the moment we’re born we’re walked down a path. We are involved in classes, clubs and courses without a whole lot of variety. We’re all funneled in to a concrete building and taught all the same things staring up at the same buttoned up teacher.
We’re taught to obey, follow directions, and you will excel. Deviations are seen as time wasters and ‘following your passion’ only leads to less time to ‘finish your homework’. We’re given the gold stars and then each one of us is funneled in to the workplace without a lick of an idea at what we’re supposed to be doing.
2) Explore
We need more time to explore and figure out what we actually ‘want to do with our lives’ before we subtly slide ourselves into a job that we despise. It’s a hell of a lot harder to dig ourselves out of a hole than it is to just step over the hole in the first place.
In my experience the most beneficial way to find a fulfilling life:
– Try as much shit as possible
– Continue to experiment and explore until you find something you can’t stop thinking about
– Pursue that path
3) Dive Deep
Once we find the things that we can’t stop thinking about… the things that we utterly cannot live without, then comes the courage. We come into this life alone and we’re going to leave alone.
There’s nobody that magically brings us happiness and there’s no foreign point in the future where we suddenly stumble upon happiness. Happiness is something that we make for ourselves. It’s up to us to find the stuff that brings us joy and meaning and find a way to do those things each and every day.
4) Courage to Be Different
This sounds easier than it is. On paper it’s not hard, but it requires serious independence and a bit of distance between family and friends. Family and friends often have a certain perspective of you and your capabilities. They don’t mean to do it, but anything outside this realm of competence feels weird for them.
It seems like far too often we forego the option to enjoy our lives to fit in with the expectations of the people around us. Luckily, we can learn from those that came before. The #1 regret of older people reported by Bronnie Ware:
I wish I’d had the courage to live a life true to myself, not the life others expected of me.
5) Courage to Fail
Oftentimes friends don’t want to see you move to another city. They don’t want you spending time with other hobbies and people because that means time away from them. They don’t want to see you fail.
By the nature of experimentation, failure will happen. It’s inevitable. If we
Each of us has paths or ideas or creative ventures that sort of noodle around in the back of our minds. We’ve always wanted to travel there or always wanted to start that side hustle. Unfortunately, we’re not given an outlet or the resources or a way to progress down that path. It’s so uncertain and unclear that we forego it in
6) Death
At the end of our life what will we care more about? Will we care about the things we did or the things we were too scared to start?
Quotes/Shorts ~1 Min
“I’ve never regretted failures, I’ve always regretted things I haven’t tried”
Alex Hormozi
“Everything you’ve ever wanted is on the other side of fear”
George Addair
ACTION: What do you want life to look like when you’re on your deathbed
– death – how do we want our lives to look
– how do we want to be remembered?
– do, have, be
– What values do we want our kids to exemplify
– Our role models
– hormozi – never regretted things didn’t do
– Alay fears
“Fail fast and grow”
Lockheed Martin
“Failure is not something to be ashamed of… Failure is something to be powered by.”
Abby Wambach, member of National Soccer Hall of Fame, Wolfpack
The best hygiene for beginning writers or intermediate writers is to write a hell of a lot of short stories.
Ray Bradbury, author of Fahrenheit 451
If you can write one short story a week—it doesn’t matter what the quality is to start, but at least you’re practicing, and at the end of the year you have 52 short stories, and I defy you to write 52 bad ones. Can’t be done.
“Ain’t no excuses we all start at the bottom”
Joyner Lucas, Evolution
“And I don’t know where I’m goin’, but I’m learnin’ as I’m growin’
Joyner Lucas, Evolution
That’s the evolution”
“My best thoughts have come from when my body was in motion”
Source: Unknown
“You can listen to all the podcasts and read all the books you want. If you don’t change your behavior or apply any of it to your life it is a waste of your time”
Colin Douglas
‘The amount of information you can intake vs the amount of change you can make is isometric’
We’re limited to change not by our information but the rate we can implement itChris Williamson
“The most important advice I give to young people is to patient, never compromise, give your destiny time to find you.
Bitterness always comes to those who look back on a life of choices imposed upon you from the outside.
You may not make all the right decisions, but if you own those decisions, they all become the right ones”Wade Davis
Robert Greene, Advice to 20s
fear perspective
“On a long enough timeline, the survival rate for everyone drops to zero”
Chuck Palahniuk
“We need more people willing to accept the consequences”
Josh, Coach at Olympic Training Center
“If one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours”
Henry David Thoreau
‘This here… none of this matters. All this right here that we’re looking at? None of it matters.
Danny the base jumper, Utah
What matters is your health, your family, your friends, and what you care about’
“Nearly all man can stand the test of adversity, but if you really want to test a man’s character, give him power”
Abraham Lincoln
Thank you, Surfs Up
“Fear is a mile wide an an inch deep”
Leila Hormozi
Dan Koe“If you can spend 8 hours building someone else’s dreams you can spend 1 hour building your own”
Dan Koe
Looking for good shit
“Success is stumbling from failure to failure with no loss of enthusiasm”
Winston Churchill
“I have a lot of proof that the world is conspiring to make me happy”
Matthew McConaughey
It’s crazy what happens when we shift our focus from all the things we don’t have, to all the things we do have. The world starts to light up with appreciation for the things we didn’t even know we had.
1 hobby to stay in shape
Deeper Pockets
1 hobby to make money
1 hobby to meet people
I heard this suggestion from a Deeper Pockets real estate podcast and it stuck
sitting in the uncertainty.
“Life can only be understood backwards, but it must be lived forwards”
Soren Kierkegaard
“Make only things [you] can make”
Alex Hormozi
Why do the things that anyone can do. Do the things only you can.
“Chase your passions don’t chase the money”
Russ, Since I Was Broke
“Ain’t nobody else like you in this bitch”
Lil Wayne – Weezy, those are facts tho
“Nothing great was achieved by people who try to be great at everything”
Alex Hormozi, 21 Brutally Honest Lessons with Chris Williamson
“Choose in advance what to be bad at”
Oliver Burkeman, 4000 Weeks
“You’re bored because you haven’t exposed yourself to potential futures that demand an increase in skill. You’re anxious because you’ve projected too far in to the future and don’t have the skills demanded”
Dan Koe
‘If you haven’t succeeded yet it’s because you aren’t good enough yet’
Dan Koe
Simple as that. Every loss is because you weren’t yet skilled enough. If you lose it’s because you don’t have the skills yet. Get the skills and you win. The
decide to do something.
“Action cures fear”
Some guy I met on Twitter
“Don’t aim to be the best, be the only”
You’re Gonna Be Fine
Bill Bur, Tim Ferriss
“You can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future.
Steve Jobs
You have to trust in something – your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.”
“You can’t become an ultra successful lawyer or artist or politician without first settling on law or art or politics”
Oliver Burkeman, 4000 Weeks
Pale Blue Dot by Carl Sagan, Planetary Society co-founder
In 1990 presents images of Earth from the Voyager missions
5 Mins Article/Vids
Raymond K Hessel from Fight Club
15 Mins Article/Vids
Podcasts (2 hours)
Books (8 hours)
1) Excellent Sheep by William Deresiewicz
2) Defining Decade by Meg Jay
3) Innovation Code by Jeff DeGraff
4) StrengthFinders 2.0 by Dr. Travis Bradberry and Dr. Jean Greaves (cofounders of TalentSmart)
“Research has shown that EQ is a better predictor of success than intelligence quotient (IQ) or technical skills”
Feist & Barron, 1996
EQ and Bosses statistic Allison Criss?
CAVEAT
I am hestitant to recommend personality tests. Social sciences aren’t proven fact. What they do nicely, however, is demonstrate there are different worldviews. Humans are all motivated by different things and we think differently.
Some are more abstract while others think more concretely. Some think more cooperatively while others are more utilitarian and possess the “fuck you gene” as some call it.
Once we know we think differently we can begin to approach personality tests with a grain of salt.
- 5 Voices
- OCEAN
- Human Design
- StrengthFinders
- Innovation Code
- Keirsey’s 4 Types
- MBTI 16 Personalities
Each of these have given me slightly more insight into how I might think.
The danger is relying on them and using them to indicate how we will act.
This isn’t true though:
“Every person is an exception to the rule”
– Carl Sagan (I think)
It’s not fair to ourselves nor others to simply put them in one of these boxes. Each of our personalities and interests are 100% unique like a fingerprint. We can use these tests as guiding principles to see how some people operate, but to become reliant or dependent on them is foolish.
Each of us is our own individual and the only voice we can listen to is the tiny one inside our heads. Intuition is ridiculously powerful. We’ve got to listen to it.
- Gary Vee intuition
- Steve Jobs believed intuition is more important than intellect
- The gut is the 2nd brain
- Huberman and Robert Greene – Little voice in your head. Childhood
- Idols to understand our values
- Kids to understand our values.
- Exce
Songs
Really Scared, Lil Dicky
Manifest, Russ
Make Belief, Lil Dicky
Always Knew, Russ
Follow Your Arrow, Kacey Musgraves
“You’re damned if you do and you’re damned if you don’t so you might as well just do whatever you want”
The first 4 minutes of this EP fire me up, When I Grow Up, Joyner Lucas
Mental Workouts
- Role Models – Making a list can give insight into our values. What patterns are there?
Figuring out why we look up to those who we do can let us know what it is the things we really care about. Some of mine.
– Steve Jobs (Apple) – An unwillingness to accept disbelief as an answer
– Alex Volkanovski (UFC Champ) – Class and courage
– Patrice O’Neal & Bill Hicks (comedians) – Raw authenticity - How would you want your kids to act?
We aren’t perfect. We fuck up. And no, at the moment I don’t have kids (i hope) but the thought experiment gives me insights into my values. Asking myself how I would want to raise my kids. - Customization
My Reflections
- #61 A Perfect Day
- #56 No, I’d Rather Be Distracted
- #52 Are We All Just Dumb?
- #34 Are We Real?
- #33 Grow(ing) Up
- #31 It’s Not Much, but It’s The Advice I’ve Got
- #29 Dreams and Drugs
- #26 Change Your Downloaded Path
- #14 It’ll Change Your Life
- #13 All-Expenses-Paid-For Resort? Hell no, I’ll Pass
Weekly Wanderings
- WW #86 – (8-27-2024) Overabundance, Walking, What we’re entitled to, Beautiful advice from a beautiful man
- Week 82 Wandering (6-11-24) – Getting more better things done, Choosing directions is tough, Being bad at stuff, A common regret
- Week 80 Wandering – 5-29-24 – No substitute for time, Get good fast, Being less dumb, Isolate yo’self
- Week 79 Wanderings (5-29-2024) – A new icebreaker, Entrepreneurial podcast, Grateful for being happy, Increase your chances of luck, A goodie song
- Week 78 Wanderings (5-21-24) – Determining the effectiveness of our actions, 10000 Year long term thinking, Is it real or temporary pain, A book on the ‘reason to live’, Such a good song
- Week 75 Wandering – (5-1-2024) – A better life requires some self belief, Alan Watts the wizard, Business advice from a stranger, An old timey banger
- Week 73 Wanderings (4-9-24) – Enjoyment is sometimes a choice, Faith in the future by Jobs, Long term planning, Overcoming fear
- Week 72 Wanderings – How to be less of an asshole, Good friends are assholes, Podcast on the Customized Life, Intentional Relationships
- Week 71 Wanderings (3-26-24): Asking for help, Weaknesses as strengths, Having a good time, Evaluating Friendships
- Week 70 Wanderings (3-19-24) – Managing the confusion of our lives
- Week 69 Wandering (3-12-24)
- Week 68 Wandering (3-5-2024)
- Week 67 Wanderings (2-20-2023) – Venturing in to the Unknown and life as a dreamer
- Week 65 Wanderings (2-6-23)
- Week 64 Wanderings (1-30-24) – Nostalgic Song, Podcast on drugs and anthropology, Unexpected wisdom from Drake, Philosophy from a painter
- Week 63 Wanderings (1-23-2024)
- Week 61 Wanderings (1-9-24)
- Week 52 Wanderings (11-6-2023)
- Week 51 Wanderings (10-30-2023)