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Category: Investing In Yourself

Pace Your Brain

Published on October 3, 2021

Most people never talk about pace when it comes to learning.

Most of what I hear is about consuming as much as possible in the shortest amount of time possible (e.g. 2x speed while watching YouTube videos or listening to podcasts).

Pace matters just as much in learning as it does in running a marathon.

Move too quickly through the information and you’ll burnout and resent the process.

Move too slowly and you’ll bore yourself to death (and resent the process).

Find your sweet spot and you’ll become a learner for life.

Buy For Your Brain

Published on September 18, 2021

To grow richer, seek new experiences, not new things.

For new experiences beget new information.

And new information begets new connections within the brain.

And a more diversely connected brain is a brain that’s more apt to solve a more diverse array of problems.

And a brain that can solve more problems—better problems—is a brain that will more easily solve richness problems.

The key is to simply continue investing in the brain rather than in items that have no ROI.

For while items may give you temporary feelings of power, status, and appeal—investments give you a forever returning feeling of better, more insightful, more valuable—problem-solving skills.

AKA: Life living skills.

How Are You Spending The Building Blocks Of Your Life?

Published on September 13, 2021

Time, energy, attention—these are the fundamental building blocks of what a life is composed of.

With what you’ve been given, you can either choose to spend, save, or invest these blocks—just as it is with money.

When you spend time, energy, or attention—it’s gone. Like when you watch a show on TV. There’s no return of more time, energy, or attention—it’s just used.

When you save time, energy, or attention—you increase what little you had to a little more. Like when you hire a professional to do a professional service. The time it took you to get the money to pay the professional is far less than the time it would have taken you to do the job yourself—so you pay them. Resources saved.

When you invest time, energy, or attention—you stand to multiply what little you had into much more. Like when you learn new skills and/or gain new knowledge. Not only do you no longer need to hire someone for their skills or knowledge, but you no longer need to hire them for the rest of your life. The return is exponential.

A good exercise to spend some time on:

  • Write down each task of your day.
  • Label each task as being either a spending, saving, or investing of time/ energy/ attention.
  • Think about how you might save and add more investments to your day.

Knowledge Ungrasped

Published on August 27, 2021

The best teacher in life is experience.

…Wrong.

The best teacher in life is, and can only ever be, you.

Experience is merely newly presented knowledge. Just like a simple Google search.

And having knowledge in front of you (or at your finger tips) has no impact on the mind.

Knowledge ungrasped is the same as knowledge unknown.

The best teacher is the curious mind—the undeniable force that actively grasps the surrounding knowledge and infuses it with the mind.

Without that force, the talents of the teacher are irrelevant; experiences are irrelevant; access to the internet is irrelevant.

Because having access to knowledge was never the issue in the connection age.

It’s the lack of curiosity that only ever holds us back.

How To Upgrade The Quality Of Your Life In 1 Hour

Published on August 5, 2021

You’re naïve if you think the media you consume doesn’t affect your mental health.

Just like you’re naïve if you think the food you consume doesn’t affect your physical health.

What do you think happens when you consume too much bite-sized, sugar-coated, empty-calorie content?

Probably the same thing that happens when you consume too much bite-sized, sugar-coated, empty-calorie food.

If you want your mind to be healthy and fit, you have to treat the media you consume the same way you’d treat the food you’d consume if you wanted to keep your body healthy and fit.

For food, you already know that if it’s in the kitchen, you’re probably going to eat it. Likewise, if the media is in your field of vision, you’re probably going to consume it.

Want to immediately upgrade the quality of your life in one hour?

Step 1: Unfollow, block, mute, and otherwise remove any and all sources of highly processed, click-baity, shallow content.

Step 2: Follow, subscribe, befriend, and otherwise immerse yourself in sources of nutrient dense, clean, trustworthy content.

You can do this for people, brands, and ads alike—for every media platform.

I know of no better way to disproportionately upgrade the quality of your life in as little time.

Big media isn’t going away. Vilifying big media for being sources of shallow content is lazy and irresponsible. About as helpful as vilifying grocery stores for carrying processed foods.

Those who take their media diet seriously will enjoy the same results as the person who takes their food diet seriously.

Ready to upgrade? I hope so. Take an hour and get to it.

Your “Just Right” Crowd

Published on July 14, 2021

When I was growing up, life for me was football in the street, wresting on lawns, basketball in driveways, and expeditions to the corner store for 50 cent mega-freezie pops.

I don’t remember much about school or homework and I didn’t really participate in any extracurricular activities. All I remember thinking about was getting back outside and picking up where we left off the day before—right before the streetlights came on and it was time to go home.

Playing with the kids on my block was the focal point of my life.

Each of them challenged me in unique ways. Some made me want to be faster and more athletic. Some made me want to stand taller and speak louder. Others made me want to be more understanding and witty.

Of course, it wasn’t all sunshine and rainbows. We had our fair share of arguments and more-than-play-fights. But, that’s what came with the territory. We were active, competitive, emotional, rowdy, and inexperienced. It always turned out okay though because, without even knowing it, we challenged each other “just right”—“goldilocks” right.

Too easy and I wouldn’t have had a reason to work hard, deliberately focus, or persevere. Too hard and I wouldn’t have bothered trying in the first place. Without them, skill building wouldn’t have ever even been on my mind—I probably would have just binged on TV instead.

That period of my life laid the foundation for my character that I still take pride in today.

The truth of the story is this: if we want to develop optimally, we have to find ways to challenge ourselves “just right.” As the kids on my block did for me whenever we played. As the people in your life can do for you as soon as you find your “just right” crowd, too.

Shoulders Of Giants

Published on July 10, 2021

If I have seen further it’s because I have spent a lot of time climbing the shoulders of giants.

Giants being the people who have grown into bigger, better versions of themselves. The people who can offer a perspective towards life that’s deeper and more developed than my own.

Humility check: none of our perspectives are perfect—each has its flaws.

But, there are people with less flawed perspectives. People who have spent a considerate amount of time carefully analyzing their thoughts, dissecting the thoughts of others, quieting the chatter, training their minds, and seeking the appropriate help.

And it’s those perspectives—those shoulders—that we must seek to climb.

And let’s be clear: climbing is no picnic—it’s always hard. But, gaining access to their shoulders isn’t.

Heck, many giants want to have their shoulders climbed. They write books featuring their best perspectives, share insight on podcasts and videos for those who don’t (want to) read, heck!—many of them even answer well positioned, thoughtful questions for no other reason than to help.

If you want to see further—if you want to gain a bigger, better perspective towards life—start by climbing onto the shoulders of someone who sees further.

It’s there—from that elevated perspective—that you can start developing your own elevated opinions towards the surrounding landscape.

Until then, you’ll just have to settle with what you see from down here.