In my latest annual review, not a lot of things went well. It got a little laborious to keep reviewing what specifically went wrong because the list just kept looking like "all of it." So after beating myself up a bit, I shifted and started to ask myself another question: What might you be wrong about? This is a lot less fun of a question so ask. With "what" went wrong - it's easy to blame stuff - not named you - for things that happened. It's easy to ...
What If You Didn’t Let Yourself Fail?
Let’s play a little thought experiment. What if for a week - you couldn’t let yourself down? As in, you physically were unable to let yourself down. What if for a week - you couldn’t let yourself fail? What if for a week - you had to do everything you said you were going to do? This is reminiscent of my integrity challenge from a few years back. What if you showed up every day for yourself? What if you took care of yourself like someone ...
The Problems That Grip You
https://youtu.be/sCHhgwRkY3Y?t=2760 The problems that grip you are the portal to your destiny. https://twitter.com/joelrunyon/status/1066740709351337985 I heard this on the version of Rubin Rerport and Jordan Peterson live. I saw them in Denmark (thanks Dave for the tickets!) and this was just a few days later. I've listened to Peterson a lot, but this quote struck me: The problems that grip you might contain your destiny. A lot of people ...
What Do You Want To Give Up?
I love the first 5 seconds of this video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mzCZWUxWsjY Important Part of the Transcript: Yeah...that'd be cool. That'd be cool. I want to be this. I want to be that. Grab your f--king nuts and be it. /// Everyone talks about what they want. Everyone talks about the freedom they want. About the rights that they have. About the life that they "deserve." No one talks about what they want to give up to ...
Is Your “Question” Really Just An Excuse?
Do you really need to ask that question? I was at the gym in Barcelona and we had a 1000m rowing test. I like to think I'm pretty good at rowing, but it’s been a while and my endurance is way off - I know I could go hard at a 1:30 pace, but I didn’t know how long I could hang out there. So I was going to ask the coach about his best advice on pacing for the challenge. Then, in the half-second where I was translating my question to Spanish in my ...
Are you too comfortable to be happy?
[no_toc] Are you too comfortable to be happy? Do 100 burpees. You’ll be tired as hell, but you’ll be satisfied. Peter Thiel likes to ask the question: > What important truth do very few people agree with you on? It’s a good question and I one I explored more in this post. But here’s my answer: Most people are too comfortable to be happy. Modern life is just really damn comfortable. But unfortunately, that shields you from many ...
Revisiting The Low Information Diet (Revised for 2018)
I recently picked up the 4 Hour Work Week again. I remember reading it when it first came out - and like many people - it changed what I thought was possible about the world. With books like that, I like to revisit it from time to time to remind myself of concepts or revisit principles I can still implement. Some of it rings true still. Some of the stuff is outdated (as Tim outlines here, along with some things he'd like to add). At one point, I got ...
The Perfectionist’s Antidote
Marty McCutchen is a long-time NBA referee - who recently was one of my favorite NBA podcasts with Zach Lowe. Over the past few years, the player and referee relationship in the NBA has gotten more tense - with players thinking that referees have gotten worse and the refs thinking that players are acting less professional. Objectively: refereeing is a tough job. It's an incredibly stressful, complicated, and frenetic environment. There's tons of ...
The First IMPOSSIBLE Tattoo
I don't have any tattoos - but I love the story behind other people. I'll talk to the barista at the coffee shop or the checkout clerk about their tattoos just to find out a little something about them. Most of them say that you "can't just get one." You'll get hooked. You'll get a bunch. And, I'm not known for my ability to deal in moderation, so I've stayed away from them for the most part. But, if there's one thing I've thought about in the ...
Jordan Peterson’s “Rules for Life”
There's a question on Quora that asked: What are the most valuable things everyone should know? Here is Dr. Jordan B. Peterson's answer, which received over 3,200 upvotes and almost 250k views. It also launched his book - 12 Rules for Life. I'm interviewing Jordan for the IMPOSSIBLE podcast and I'll be sharing that here tomorrow. In the meantime, read this and take notes. What are the Most Valuable Things Everyone Should Know? Tell the ...