Ever heard of the 5 a.m. club by Robin Sharma? Or seen viral videos of people waking up at 4 a.m. and sharing their routine? I have, and I got a little obsessed with trying it out. But through a lot of trial and error with my morning routine, I learned some important lessons: Evening…
This phrase changed the way I think about habits. It comes from James Clear, the author of Atomic Habits (I recommend his book!). He said this in a talk he gave (click here to watch). The principle is this: For any habit, every rep you do is a vote for the person you want to…
Retention of lessons from a motivational talk, a YouTube video, or a book is hard to do. Why? Because YouTube encourages watching one video after another with its autoplay feature. It also had a sidebar with endless enticing videos. That doesn’t promote a good attention span or focus. And books we read are usually shelved…
“What makes you happy or unhappy is not the world and the people around you, but the thinking in your head. As well search for an eagle’s nest on the bed of an ocean, as search for happiness in the world outside of you.” – Anthony De Mello (The Way to Love, Page 6) Imagine…
In my quest to develop habits, I realized this very important lesson. If I read a good book every day, time is my friend because my knowledge builds in a positive direction. Time passing becomes a good thing. If I decide not to exercise consistently, time works against me, and my progress from the gym…
Be wary of weaponized services. The things that are out to grab you by the leg and pull you under the water for a very long time—the algorithms (a.k.a. computer code that learns what you like or presents you with highly enticing clickbait). YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, Netflix, and more. Be careful of these things because…
In the wee hours of the early morning darkness, I sat in my chair to focus on my breath. I felt pretty good when the timer went off after 15 minutes. But when I stood up, I glanced to my left and noticed something out of the ordinary. There was a giant praying mantis on…
This is a continuation of the first part of my review for the book Stolen Focus. 5. The Standard 40-hour Work Week Doesn’t Promote Focus In Stolen Focus, Johann provides an excellent example of a New Zealand company, Perpetual Guardian. This company trialed a four-day work week while upholding the same five-day paycheck. The employees…
Stolen Focus is a book about reclaiming our ability to pay attention. After all, isn’t life the sum of what we give our attention to? While it seems to be a small statement, I believe it’s profound. The author Johann Hari breaks down our ability to focus into many causes, some of which I highlight…
In my experience, weekends with too much screen time are not satisfying. If I lock away my phone and internet, I feel like I’m resting my brain. Watching YouTube doesn’t rest my brain. I’ve spent 10 hours watching YouTube on a Saturday before and felt awful afterward. I think I totally fried my brain. On the…
A personal ode to meditation: Meditation, my dependable friend. You are the source of a peaceful trend. When my mind is racing, you help calm the storm. If I have shallow breaths, oxygen flow becomes the norm. Like coffee, you are energizing to imbibe. The energy I feel is superb but hard to describe. Numbness…
The topic of happiness can come across as cheesy or superficial. Life isn’t easy, so how can someone tell me joy is simple? Then there’s the whole genre of self-help books. Do they work? It’s easy to be skeptical. The problem with happiness is we wait for something good to happen, and then we’ll be…
In a previous post, I mentioned the wise words of Naval Ravikant, an investor and modern philosopher. I want to share another piece of wisdom. He calls it the fundamental delusion. In episode 18 of the Knowledge Project Podcast, interviewer Shane Parrish asks him, “what’s the most common mistake you see people make over and…
I love an analogy I heard from Naval Ravikant, a tech investor and modern-day philosopher. In a podcast interview, he said that life is essentially a single-player game, not a multiplayer game. These terms equate to interior life vs. exterior life. Let’s elaborate: The single-player game: just you, your thoughts, and your emotions. The multiplayer…
Are smartphone apps tools or drugs? A proper tool is passive, and it waits for us to use it, much like a hammer sits and waits in our toolbox. The hammer doesn’t actively seek anything from us, and it doesn’t use psychological tactics to take hold of our attention. On the other hand, many social…
I started using an app called Focusmate in September 2021, and it’s been a game-changer. I tell my friends and family about it and why I’m a proponent of it. I discovered the app during a long struggle to establish habits. I especially wanted to get up early and exercise before work, but I failed…
Decluttering our space is an overwhelming task. The thought of it often paralyzes us, so why do it? I suggest these reasons: When we spend less time cleaning, organizing, or taking care of our possessions, we gain time for what matters most to us. We have more peace of mind with fewer possessions occupying our…
When I think of motivation, I think of something I don’t want to do, and that definition doesn’t serve me because I make little progress on my task. But I find splitting the concept into intrinsic and extrinsic motivation is very helpful. Extrinsic motivation is action toward an external reward or an ulterior motive. For…
Minimalism, or essentialism as I like to call it, is the practice of removing excess possessions to focus on our life’s values. My interest in the subject was sparked by Marie Kondo’s book titled The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up. Marie is from Japan and emphasizes keeping possessions that “spark joy” and discarding/donating/selling the rest.…
David Goggins is the embodiment of human transformation. I read his autobiography Can’t Hurt Me, and it details his rough childhood and severe lack of education. It’s an understatement to say he wasn’t set up for success, but life didn’t stop him. He became a Navy Seal, Army Ranger, set a pull-up world record, and became…
In life, we have goals: get physically fit, declutter and organize our home, learn a new language, meditate regularly. But these feel like mountains to climb because time and commitment are required. And that’s where procrastination hits us. Going to the gym makes us uncomfortable, so we look at Instagram instead. “Declutter the whole house?…
With some reluctance, I log in and look at the daily screen time for my smartphone. It tallies up the numbers and reveals 5.5 hours a day. I start to feel guilty and resentful. What else could I be doing with all that time? Those 5.5 hours add up to ~2,000 hours or 83 days…
YouTube is one of my favorite websites, but it’s also my favorite way to put off important tasks. I feel disappointed after YouTube binging because I have other things I need to do. We have many choices for our “content diet” in this digital era, but my diet has too much YouTube. How do I…
As an experienced meditator, I encounter misleading notions surrounding the topic often. Meditation is accessible to everyone and easy to do. Here are five meditation myths: Myth #1: The goal of meditation is to stop thinking. I believe this myth is the most widespread misunderstanding. It’s an impossible task to stop thinking. Even the most experienced…
I started meditation 15 years ago, and it’s my go-to for reducing stress. More scientific studies support this practice as a legitimate tool for our health. Meditation helps lower blood pressure, improves attention span, reduces anxiety, and may aid with age-related memory loss (1). Every person we see has an endless internal dialogue playing in…
Sometimes I’m dazed after using my smartphone for too long. I switch between YouTube and other apps in an endless loop. My head starts to hurt. I feel like an addict. What’s happening? Why do I feel so drawn to this miniature computer? Dopamine is a big reason why. What is Dopamine? Dopamine is a…