My mission is to live a story worth telling while helping others do the same! If you want to add more meaning, fulfillment, and adventure to your life, we need to talk.
How to Relentlessly Prune Bullshit & Live a Better Life
Hi Reader,
I went to the Del Mar horse races this weekend 🏇
It turns out that betting on the jockey with the best mustache is not an effective gambling strategy.
What I'm learning about 🧠
100 tips for a better life.
I love reading about life advice from intelligent people.
Especially when it's condensed down into pithy statements.
These tips come from LessWrong and here are a few of my favorites:
- How you spend every day is how you spend your life
- Reward yourself after completing challenges, even badly.
- Remember that you are dying.
- Personal epiphanies feel great, but they fade within weeks. Upon having an epiphany, make a plan and actually start changing behavior.
This last one hits home for me.
Saying that you want to change and changing are two different things.
I get along best with people who minimize the time between the two.
What is one thing that you've told yourself you want to do for months/years?
Take three minutes and make a plan to do it.
Use a forcing function to make sure it happens (i.e. buying flights/signing up)
P.S. Kevin Kelly's Excellent Advice For Living is still my favorite of these life tip lists.
What I'm thinking about 🤔
The benefits of life experimentation.
Let me be the first to admit that I have a bit of a fetish when it comes to trying strange things.
Woah - Get your mind out of the gutter, I didn't mean it like that!
I mean strange things like:
- Fasting
- Ice baths
- Taping my mouth shut at night
- Running long distances
- Bear crawling a mile on the beach (do not recommend!)
And anything else that will challenge me and make me uncomfortable.
These are the fun things to write about because they are sexy.
They make me look tough and add at least 17 hairs to my mustache.
But I am also constantly experimenting with more monotonous parts of my life:
- When I workout
- When I write this newsletter
- My morning routine
- When I work/play
There are two huge benefits to experimenting with WHAT you do and WHEN you do it:
1.) It keeps life fun and exciting
2.) You unlock more of your superpowers
The first point is obvious.
We, humans, fear change but love variety.
The second is less obvious.
If I tried to write my newsletter at 4 PM it would be duller than Abraham Lincoln's rusty butter knife.
But if I write it in the early morning, it turns out that I am (occasionally) funny.
So here's the secret:
Find the correct ordering of your daily tasks and activities that works for you.
You'll need to try several different iterations before you get it right.
Experiment with the order as well as the activities.
The most important thing to remember is that you are the master of your life.
Even if you work for a guy named Dick (or maybe that's just what you call him) at a soul-sucking 9-5, you have more latitude to change things up than you think.
Try new things.
Mix up the order of these things.
And find what makes you the funniest, happiest, most playful meat sack you can be!
P.S. I wrote this newsletter today (Monday morning) instead of over the weekend and it was a decidedly worse experience. This experiment will inform my future decision-making.
Quote of the week 📜
"Relentlessly prune bullshit, don't wait to do things that matter, and savor the time you have. That's what you do when life is short."
- Paul Graham
What I'm reading 📖
An incredible (and short) article on how to relentlessly prune bullshit from your life.
It's titled Life is Short and is written by the legendary Paul Graham.
Read it here and thank Paul later.
What do you want MOST in life? 🚀
I'm on a mission to have 100 conversations with people about their biggest dreams by July 31st.
The days are running out and it's time we talked about what you want most in life.
My goal is to help YOU achieve your dreams faster, with a higher probability of success, with less effort and sacrifice, and more FUN!
Are you in?
Click the button below to schedule your free Dream Session.
| GIMME MY DREAM SESSION! |
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| JOIN THE RENAISSANCE |
Sent with love,
Gregory Russell Benedikt
Talk to me: hello@gregoryrussellbenedikt.com
Website: gregoryrussellbenedikt.com
Writing: Medium
Gregory Russell Benedikt
My mission is to live a story worth telling while helping others do the same! If you want to add more meaning, fulfillment, and adventure to your life, we need to talk.
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