3 Minute Monday
Hi friend,
Apparently today is Blue Monday.
“The most depressing day of the year.”
Well here’s some reassuring news – Blue Monday is total BS.
In short – Blue Monday is supposedly a day where bad weather, low motivation, high stress, financial instability and some other factors come together to make you sad.
It was released in 2005 as part of a Press Release by Sky Travel – which closed in 2010.
It’s creator Cliff Arnall’s first version of the “formula” didn’t even make sense mathematically.
It violated the fundamental property of “dimensional homogeneity” – you can’t compare the different units within it.
So it was both useless and meaningless.
Another version of the equation was released which accounted for “weather” and “low motivational levels”.
Neither of which were defined.
Plus it still had all the dimensional homogeneity problems from the first formula.
Making it even more useless.
Just in case you weren’t convinced, a critic showed that using Arnall’s formula would mean:
Packing for ten hours and preparing for 40 will always guarantee a good holiday.
You can have an infinitely good weekend by staying at home and cutting your travel time to zero.
So yeah, don’t believe the hype.
In related news, I’m just coming out of the back end of a crazy intense week.
Including the first release of a new style of video for the YouTube Channel which I’ll be doing a lot more of this year:
I’ve had lots of very repetitive days, with no gym, crap weather & late finishes.
If Blue Monday were a thing, I imagine it would appear on weeks like this.
There’s no real glory involved.
No dragon slaying, beach tanning, night clubbing or… basically anything else exciting or motivational.
But.
The difference between this life and the one you will regret living is mostly found in overcoming very ordinary challenges like these.
You’re not always performing on a stadium floor or with beautiful weather or the prospect of a holiday only 3 days away.
99% of the time it’s a very unremarkable, commonplace grind.
Your approach to these situations will compound and accumulate over a lifetime.
And eventually you’ll have created something you’re proud of, or something you regret.
You can make any day as Blue as you want if you’re not careful.
Lean into your discomfort as if you invited it through the door.
MODERN WISDOM
I do a podcast which has had 9 million+ downloads. You should subscribe on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.
This week’s upcoming episodes:
Monday.
Dr Rangan Chatterjee breaks down a new mindset on success, health and happiness. Really pushed each other into some awesome, deep territory on this one.
Thursday.
Philip Goff on the philosophical understanding of why we are consciousness and what that means. I adored this conversation. Insightful, challenging, rigorous.
Saturday.
Not sure yet, maybe Brian Muraresku on how Western Civilisation was founded on psychedelics.
THINGS I’VE LEARNED
1.
“Our character is the only thing that ultimately matters and wisdom consists in learning to view everything else in life as utterly worthless by comparison.” — Donald Robertson
2.
Zeno was a G.
Long, wordy, Sophistic philosophical discussions were popular in ancient Rome & Greece.
Zeno, the founder of Stoicism, took a totally different approach and was super concise.
When someone complained that his philosophical arguments were very abrupt, Zeno agreed and replied:
“If I could, I’d abbreviate the syllables as well.”
3.
Samsung was founded in 1938 as a shop selling vegetables and dried fish.
LIFE HACK
Podcast Notes continue to be awesome.
Podcasts are great for consumption but challenging for retention.
You can’t implement what you don’t remember.
Podcast Notes listen to tons of big podcasts and then summarise them.
Which is a total game changer.
Check out their notes on over 25 Modern Wisdom episodes here.
Big love,
Chris x
Listen to me on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.
Say hi on Twitter or Instagram.
PS
SOON MAY THE WELLERMAN COME.
