#042 – Best of 2023

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas with your families!

Being the last week of the year, I thought I’d do something a little different and recap my Top 5 favourite takeaways from the newsletter this year.

Wishing each and every one of you nothing but health, wealth, and happiness in what is going to be a massive 2024.

Let’s dive in.

read online on my website 

read time 3 minutes 

#042 at a Glance:

• Quote that will get you thinking: There is no shortcut for this.

• Podcast you should listen to: 23 controversial truths about life.

• Mental Model: The gregarious growth of bamboo trees.

• Hack you should try: How to overcome Parkinson's Law.

• Tweet I liked: Your life actually changes overnight...

Quote that will get you thinking:

Taken from Newsletter #041:

I love this quote because it is equally stark in its simplicity and validity.

So many times, we wish that we would get all of the hacks and shortcuts to becoming an ‘expert’ in various areas.

Understanding - true understanding - doesn’t know shortcuts. It doesn’t know a quicker route.

Understanding and expertise can only be drawn from time under tension; hours spent grappling with difficult concepts and cognitively piecing building blocks together like some sort of weird mental jiu-jitsu.

Podcast you should listen to:

This pretty much sums up my year in podcasts:

After 11,000 minutes worth of listening, this was my single favourite episode, taken from Newsletter #034:

Modern Wisdom #670 - Alex Hormozi - 23 Controversial Truths About Life

This is without doubt the single best podcast I’ve listened to this year – and having listened to 10,000+ minutes of podcasts this year, I don’t say that lightly.

If there is any podcast recommendation of mine that you’re going to listen to, please make it this one. The highest value-per-minute conversation that I can remember, which is pretty astounding given it went for 2 hours and 54 minutes.

Trust me, it’s worth it.

Here are just some of the key takeaways that I took from the chat:

• Your life will improve if you just have the confronting conversations (even the ones with yourself) that you keep putting off.

• When you reflect on the worst times in your life, on a long enough time horizon, they always end up being net wins.

• You’re not afraid of failing. You’re afraid of what other people will think if you fail.

• The reason why cynicism is so popular is because the upside of never trying is never having to feel the pain of failure.

• It’s hard to hate someone when you fully understand them.

• The difference between being nervous and being excited before you do something is your level of preparation in advance of it.

• Every worthwhile goal is only worthwhile because there is a cost associated with it.

• Self-love is holding yourself to a higher standard than anyone else does.

• Just use what you’ve got.

Listen on Spotify here. Listen on Apple Podcasts here. Watch on YouTube here.

Mental Model:

Taken from Newsletter #031:

The Gregarious Growth of Bamboo Trees 

For many species of Bamboo Trees, they undergo a process known as gregarious growth.

This means that they can spend up to 5 or 6 years growing underground as rhizomes. Very incremental yet instrumentally important developments of the root system below the surface.

Then after this period, they shoot up and in a matter of weeks – after years of no visible growth – they can grow 30+ metres into the air and continue to grow thereafter.

I feel like in many ways, many of you reading this, including myself, are within that initial phase. Laying the foundations and undergoing incremental growth below the surface, not visible to many. Working tirelessly for the long-awaited and inevitable explosion out of the soil and into the sky.

In many ways, just like the bamboo plants, we have to “earn” the right to grow to soaring heights through significant periods of quiet and seemingly invisible growth, only for it to compound tremendously later on.

I really like that.

Hack you should try:

Taken from Newsletter #002:

Parkinson’s Law

According to Parkinson’s Law, our work expands to fill the time that we’ve dedicated to its completion.

Example: “I’m going to block out 4 hours to complete one section of my assignment.” Chances are, it’s going to take 4 hours (if not longer).

The evidence is clear: if we set slightly unrealistic time goals to complete tasks, we will make more progress than if we had initially allocated a longer period of time.

If you think it’ll take you 5 hours, give yourself 4 to complete it.

Tweet I liked:

Taken from Newsletter #026:

That’s all for this week, thanks for reading!

Grateful for your support.

Stay hungry, stay humble, & stay curious. ⚡

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