3 Minute Monday
Hi friend,
I recorded with Andrew Huberman last week and the episode has ended up looking gorgeous.
2.5 hours shot in a huge event space here in Austin. Episode goes live Thursday!
Also I’m flying out to San Diego this Thursday to record with Jocko.
Also also been building the studio space in my new house here in Austin while Video Guy Dean was over.
The chaos is real but exciting.
Anyway, this week I’ve been trying to focus on executing.
“Strategising is easy but execution is hard” — The 4 Disciplines Of Execution.
It is a sad fact about life that we are all drawn to strategising much more than we are drawn to executing.
In fact, LinkedIn says that “Strategic” is one of the most overused words on all profiles, while interestingly “execution’ didn’t even make the list.
We all have a friend who constantly fantasises about their huge plans without taking a single step toward making them a reality.
They prefer to talk, rather than do because it’s easier.
Execution requires us to take action which involves getting off our arse.
Execution also brings us face to face with potential failure.
We never have to worry about failure when we strategise because our plans don’t need to prove their effectiveness in the real world.
By keeping plans in our heads, we sacrifice the potential for success but inoculate ourselves from failure.
James Clear says that “You do not rise to the level of your goals, you fall to the level of your systems”.
So what is a system to turn strategies into executions?
Next Action is a concept from David Allen’s Getting Things Done and is one of the best ways for turning strategies into executions.
By asking “What is the very next physical action that can be taken with this project?” we provide ourselves with an immediate step which we can undertake to move ourselves toward the goal we want to attain.
We chunk huge projects up into manageable Next Actions which we can almost always do.
You can’t “do” a strategy, you can only do a physical action.
You can’t do a weight loss.
Losing weight or getting stronger is a massive project, but the Next Action of putting your gym kit on is not.
Then the Next Action is you get in the car, then you drive to the gym, then you pick up the weights, and before you know it, the task has crumbled around you.
You combat the inertia of starting a strategy by making the Next Action steps so small and obvious that they’re always within your reach.
This way, you are always executing.
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MODERN WISDOM
I do a podcast where I always wear shorts but you never know. You should subscribe on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.
This week’s upcoming episodes:
Monday.
Alex Epstein – why does the world need more fossil fuels to keep going? What is the truth behind the modern ESG movement? Why are renewables ruining energy?
Thursday.
Andrew Huberman – a fantastic breakdown of the cutting edge tools you can use to achieve mental and physical peak performance every day. Plus how to get over your ex, how to use sauna & cold exposure and what he thinks of Lex Fridman.
Saturday.
Donald Robertson – one of my favourite stoicism historians is back to give a breakdown of lessons from the life of Marcus Aurelius which you won’t have ever heard before.
THINGS I’VE LEARNED
1.
More partners before marriage decreases marriage satisfaction.
“A national longitudinal survey of young adults asked them about their love lives prior to marriage to examine factors associated with future marital quality.
It was found that having more sexual and cohabiting partners before marriage is associated with lower relationship quality once married.
In particular, having only ever lived with or had sex with one’s spouse was associated with higher marital quality.
Findings are consistent with other studies showing that cohabiting with more partners before marriage is associated with greater likelihood of divorce.
And that a higher number of sexual partners before marriage is associated with lower marital quality and greater likelihood of divorce.”
h/t Rob Henderson
2.
Nutpicking.
“Cherry-picking the most outlandish members of the enemy side and presenting them as indicative in order to make the entire side look crazy.
A common tactic on Twitter.
Arguably, the entire culture war is just each side sneering at the other side’s lunatics.”
— Gurwinder Bhogal
3.
Dishwashers cause allergies in children.
Studies found that young children whose families mainly used a dishwashing machine were significantly more likely to develop eczema and somewhat more likely to develop asthma or seasonal allergies (allergic rhinitis) than those whose families washed their dishes by hand.
LIFE HACK
Temperature-controlled mattress toppers.
Getting a temperature-controlled mattress topper is a game-changer.
It keeps you perfectly cool throughout the night and can have separate zones for each side if you and your partner sleep at different temperatures.
Eight Sleep even measures your sleep stages and biometrics through the mattress throughout the night and then adjusts the temperature of the bed to maximise your sleep quality.
Plus it gives you sleep reports so you can track your sleep over time and see how it’s improving without any additional wearables.
Eight Sleep have an exclusive July 4th sale on so if you’ve been thinking about buying one, now is the time to get £150/$150+ discount.
Big love,
Chris x
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PS
Happy Treason Day America!
