One Quote:

"There will always be someone who can't see your worth. Don't let it be you." — Mel Robbins

Never rely on others to tell you your worth. Only you know what you are truly capable of.

Trust in yourself.

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One Framework:

Character Alarms

There is a concept called Character Invention that many of the most prominent executive coaches teach to their clients.

The general idea is pretty simple:

We all have a level of fear and imposter syndrome associated with performing certain acts. Depending on your situation, you might feel it around public speaking, performing a musical act in front of a crowd, hitting the gym hard, or being the parent or partner you know you can be. This can be crippling.

With Character Invention, you create a character in your mind who can do the things you fear with ease. You teach yourself to "flip the switch" and become this character in order to crush that activity.

I like the idea of Character Invention and have made regular use of it with public speaking or appearances. But it always felt like a tool for special situations, so it never became a part of my daily life.

The Character Alarms framework is a simple way to integrate Character Invention into your daily life.

It's a minor adaptation of the Three Alarms creation of executive coach Eric Partaker, who I first came across via my friend Ali Abdaal.

With this framework, you set alarms for specific times of day when you want to turn on a specific character. The alarms serve as both a reminder and a nudge in the right direction to act in accordance with how that character would act.

Here's an example of how it might look for me (note, I go to bed really early):

There are three versions of me that I want to turn on:

• The Morning Monster: This character is built of cold, emotionless discipline. He doesn't worry about how he feels on any given day, as he relies on discipline, not motivation, to take action. This character is built to hit the cold plunge and get in my weight training and cardio.
• The Deep Work Machine: This character is focused on a single task with the highest priority. He doesn't get distracted by notifications or pulls of urgency. This character is built to write.
• The Dad & Husband of the Year: This character is present, emotionally and physically. He doesn't use his phone and he doesn't make excuses. He is there, with his son and wife, and embraces every second. This character is built to be the Dad and Husband I admire.

The alarm goes off and I'm reminded of the character that I want to be in that moment. For me, it's a reminder to take the actions necessary to become that character.

When you consistently take these actions, your identity naturally follows suit.

Actions can create identity.

I'd encourage you to give it a shot. What character do you want to become at different moments during the day? Try setting these alarms and assessing whether it sparks you to action.

One Tweet:

The two most interesting takeaways that I had:

• The meditation practices seem to have led to a slower aging of the brain. Mingyur's brain was in a healthier state than that of a typical 41-year-old man.
• The monks that were studied exhibited a 25x higher amplitude of gamma oscillations, implying a higher overall state of functioning that was permanent (not just during meditation).

I'm not sure how scientifically rigorous this all was, but I'm planning to do more reading of peer-reviewed studies on the benefits of meditation over the next few weeks.

Might be enough to finally get me to kick-off a meditation ritual in 2023...

One Article:

​6 Harsh Truths That Will Make You a Better Person​

As you all know, I'm a fan of harsh truths. Someone recently linked me to this post on harsh truths from 2012 that went mega-viral back in the day.

It's quite good, though I'd argue that several on the list are all really one single harsh truth (that you have to create something of value to be valued).

The few that struck a chord (with a few thoughts from me in italics):

• The world only cares about what it can get from you. Everyone you encounter needs something. You are either valuable (by providing those things that are needed) or not (because you cannot provide any of them) and the world will treat you accordingly. This is true professionally in the context of what valuable skills you can build to fill what others need and personally in the context of what valuable emotional support you can provide to your family and friends. We should all strive to be valuable to those around us.
• What you are inside only matters because of what it makes you do. As discussed in the framework, my view is that actions create identity. We have to DO in order to BE. It's not enough to say that we are a good person on the inside if we don't do good things for other people.
• Everything inside you will fight improvement. I agree with this. For most people, the internal wiring makes it much easier to just stay the same. It's painful to change and grow, so we avoid it. We make up excuses and do all kinds of mental gymnastics to tell ourselves that's ok. But we're better than that, and we are made to do more than that. You get one shot at life, might as well try to make the most of it!

Worth a read if you're in the right mood (read: cozied up with a pour of your favorite beverage on a weekend evening).

One Podcast:

Mimesis and René Girard — EconTalk

I came across Johnathan Bi via his stellar video lecture series on Rene Girard with my good friend David Perell. This podcast popped on my radar as a result.

Some neat ideas:

• Two types of desire: physical (looking for physical utility) and metaphysical (looking for identity that the objects confer upon us). Metaphysical desire is a trap (and what Rene Girard thought of as the original sin).
• Our individual sense of being is shaped by the culture we develop within.
• Philosophy can be thought of as a way to "de-bug" ourselves in the same manner as a software update de-bugs the existing codebase.

Listen to it here.

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