I don’t know how it bloody happens. These things always seem to occur now that I’m 37 going on 87.
The Doc thinks I was trying to lift too heavy at the gym doing calf raises (to impress the gym bros), and now I’ve gone and messed up my ankle.
It hurts like hell and it’s been 6 weeks. I’ll likely need a wheelchair for my upcoming holiday. I’ll be taking my daughter to the beach in a motorized scooter instead of walking 10 feet to the shore.
The first short habit that has a huge return in life is to stretch or do yoga every day. I’m learning the hard way. Three days ago I started this new habit and feel better already.
Either pay the price of good health now, or pay ten times the price later.
2. The real networking opportunities always happen before an event. Go early and meet the organizer. Then chat to early arrivers — often they’re the high-profile guests that are going to speak.
3. Write online if you want to attract more opportunities.
4. Go for a walk without listening to a podcast so you can hear yourself think. Solves a lot of your problems for you.
5. Follow up on every ‘ask.’ So few do and you’ll get more yeses if you do.
6. Leave the city where you were born. It breaks your mental models of how the world works.
7. Choose non-emotional responses to frustrating situations. Emotion equals an investment that takes time to get over.
8. Send handwritten notes to people you want to build a relationship with. No one does this so you’ll stand out.
9. Stop stressing about how much the tax is on everything. Taxes are part of life so just accept it. And avoiding tax wastes more money than paying it.
10. Rest with the same intensity as you work.
11. Write your one big goal for the day the night before. Makes getting started in the morning much easier.
12. If you have more than 3 priorities for the day, you don’t have any at all.
13. If you struggle to know where to get started with a goal, it’s because you don’t care enough about it to google it and just get started.
14. Make hard decisions faster than feels comfortable. Every day you wait, waiting to do the inevitable, makes the decision even harder.
15. Start lots of books. Only finish the good ones. Finishing a book isn’t a certificate you can hang on the wall.
16. Read unpopular books to think differently. If everyone reads Atomic Habits, we all start to preach Atomic-Habits-1%-better thoughts.
17. Being vulnerable gives you a lot of forgiveness for anything you may have done wrong. We secretly even fall in love with people who admit their weaknesses.
18. Make friends with resourceful people who could break you out of a 3rd world prison and find their way home if they had to. Problem solvers over problem creators.
19. Learn to add subtle humor to everything you say and do. It helps people pay attention to you and remember you.
20. Walking every day fixes a lot of problems you never end up having.
21. Don’t watch movies on a flight. That’s what everyone else is doing. Read a physical book, or write on a piece of paper.
22. Reply to people with Loom videos instead of DMs or emails.
23. Be optimistic more than you’re pessimistic. Hard to explain, but life just feels better.
24. Search Reddit for answers to common problems to avoid the SEO manipulation of Google and its ad empire.
25. The best life hacks are the ones you accidentally create yourself.
26. Have systems so you don’t need to rely on faulty human memory.
27. Use automation (like Zapier) to automate donkey work tasks.
28. Make friends with dogs in the neighborhood. They make you smile for no reason at all.
29. Find people’s ideal communication channel and stick to it. Do they prefer SMS, WhatsApp, Email, Telegram, or good old fashion phone calls? Find out and you’ll get more replies from them.
30. Don’t solve hard problems when you’re tired. Sleep on them and try again tomorrow.
31. Phones destroy flow states.
32. Hug your partner daily. One day they won’t be there.
