Hey there —

What makes you feel optimistic?

Maybe it’s coffee. A bucketful of puppies. Or receiving the news that giant pandas are no longer an endangered species. 🥳

The real key? Treating each day like a new beginning.

While this sounds like something that might be found on a TJ Maxx pillow, there’s some real truth to this.

As human beings, we tend to think about life linearly. What happened yesterday influences our tomorrow. We believe our storyline is fixed, as it steadily progresses from one stage to another.

And while this is all good and dandy since it turns small steps into big leaps, this linear storyline can put us in a box and stifle our creative juices. We get stuck in an antiquated thought process where the past must equal our future.

So, how does one begin to treat each day like a new beginning? Firstly, it means abandoning the notion that what happened in the past solidifies who you are today. The choices you made yesterday don’t close off any of the life paths still open to you.

Secondly, it’s about reframing your mindset so you wake up thinking, “What could happen today?” rather than “Here’s to another same old day.” By abandoning your old storyline, you wash away yesterday’s slate to unravel new possibilities.

Third, recognize that you can learn practically everything for free (or inexpensively) these days. In our digital age, this has never been more true. From coding, writing, interior design, reiki healing, or even chess if that’s your jam. With this abundance of info, you can wake up and decide to change your trajectory right now.

Because FYI, you are under zero obligation to be the same person you were yesterday. Heck, not even the person you were when you first opened this newsletter.

Go nuts.

How to Get Rich (without getting lucky)

Article | by Naval Ravinkant

The old way of getting rich is dead.

Back in the golden days, the roadmap to wealth was pretty straightforward. If you rolled up your sleeves, worked diligently and put in the hours, you could get on the path to fortune.

But working long and hard isn’t the way it’s done anymore. CEO of Angelist, Naval Ravinkant, knows this better than anyone else. He’s released a mega-popular Twitter thread titled “How to Get Rich (Without Getting Lucky).”

In this thread, Naval packs an impressive words-to-idea ratio on all things wealth creation. He touches base on:

✔️ Why leverage is your ticket to wealth

✔️ What kind of people to partner up with

✔️ Why you should embrace accountability

Naval also encourages you to set up an aspirational personal rate. Like, something that’s high up there. When he first started out, Naval set his rate to $5,000.

Not per month. Or per week. Per hour.

Why something that appears so ludicrously high? Because your time won’t be more than what you think it’s worth.

TL;DR

Naval’s tweetstorm on wealth creation will inspire you to acquire leverage, new skills, and accountability so you can get rich (without getting lucky).

Read this post →

What I Do When I Feel Like Giving Up

Article | by James Clear

Our brains are wired to give up easily.

Seriously. A couple of thousand years ago, getting immediate benefits was essential to survival. We are very much present-oriented, which means we’re big fans of instant gratification and not-so-big fans of working hard for delayed results.

But as we know, it’s the delayed results that amount to huge accomplishments. So what can we do when we feel the insatiable urge to throw in the towel?

Bestselling author James Clear has a few tips. Considering he’s posted two articles a week for over three years (that’s 312+ articles) this man knows a thing or two about persistence.

James suggests five useful reminders, including how our mind is a “suggestion empire,” that discomfort is temporary, and how you’ll never regret good work once it’s complete.

But perhaps the most valuable reminder is that this is life. It sounds weird when we phrase it, so we’ll let James take the lead:

“This moment when you don’t feel like doing the work? This is not a moment to be thrown away. This is not a dress rehearsal. This moment is your life as much as any other moment. Spend it in a way that will make you proud.”

Ignore the temptation to give into the ease of distraction, go roll up your sleeves, and do something hard.

TL;DR

Overcome the pain of discipline and make your future self proud.

Read this post →

Open Plan Office Noise Increases Stress and Worsens Mood

Article | by Libby Sander

If the mere thought of returning back to an open-plan office sends you into heart palpitations, you’re not alone.

Turns out there’s a scientific reasoning behind why people aren’t super keen to head back into the office. New research shows there is a significant causal relationship between open-plan office noise and physiological stress.

After only 8 minutes of being exposed to the wide open office, participants had a 25% spike in negative mood and a 34% increase in sweat response. Frightening, and also explains why your office might’ve smelled like BO.

The good news is that the pandemic is shaking things up. Surveys show 70% of people are saying “peace” if their employer doesn’t offer flexibility to work from home.

Until then, it might be time to invest in those $299 noise-cancelling headphones.

TL;DR

The noise from an open-plan office is linked to negative physiological reactions such as a worsened mood or increased sweat response.

Read this post →

Riley Endicott

This week, it’s all eyes on Riley Endicott, a documentary filmmaker based in Seattle Washington. Riley’s traveled far and wide to places like Democratic Republic of the Congo, Lebanon, and Senegal for documentary projects. In his Youtube channel, Riley talks all things filmmaking and documentaries.

Why do you create? Who is your content for?For me, creating on Youtube was a way to have an audience to share my passion projects with, as well hopefully encourage some more filmmakers to tell their own stories! I got started in filmmaking because I fell in love with the idea of storytelling and the positive impact it has had on my life.

I want to tell the sorts of stories that are meaningful and hopefully will have a lasting impact. My documentaries are often about people who inspire me and that are doing something interesting in another part of the world (like building a medical clinic in the Congo). Hopefully, my channel can inspire others to tell these sorts of stories.

The biggest lesson you’ve learned since you began creating content?Patience and perspective are key. Learning to enjoy the journey and expect the destination to be a long way away has helped me stay positive when something doesn’t go the way I had hoped.

One thing you wish you knew before you got started?Before you have an audience people will most likely find you via search. So niche-ing down and understanding your audience persona are good steps I wish I would have understood earlier. Going through the Master Youtube course really gave me a clear picture of what that can look like. It’s not only more effective but the clarity makes the process more enjoyable!

In one to two sentences, what’s one piece of advice you’d give to aspiring creators and self-development nerds?Learn to enjoy the journey! And just get started 🙂 

Would you rather be able to transform into a blueberry at will, or have blueberries whisper to you and tell you secrets about the universe that no one else will ever believe?I would definitely go with hearing the blueberry whispers because I would be fascinated to learn the secrets of the universe. It would definitely be a bummer that nobody believed me about those secrets but I have a suspicion that there would be a handful of other mystic blueberry whisperers out there - together we could form a small community and live in harmony with the universe. And eventually, maybe hundreds of years from now, those secrets would be known and accepted.

Check out Riley's Youtube Channel →

Written by Alice Lemée

Edited by Matt D'Avella, Stephen Wise, & Shawn Forno