3 Minute Monday
Hi friend,
“20 years from now you’d give anything to be this exact age, exactly this healthy, in this exact moment.
Take a second to enjoy it.” — Richard Webster
We trade the thing we want (time) for the thing which is supposed to get it (money).
We give up time to make money so that we can finally have more time when we have enough money.
We give up happiness to achieve success so that we can finally enjoy happiness when we achieve enough success.
“However much you feel you need to plan for the future, to anticipate it, to mitigate risks, the reality of your life is now.
Even when we think we’re in the present moment, we’re, in very subtle ways, always looking over its shoulder, anticipating what’s coming next.
We’re always solving a problem.
And it is possible to simply drop your problem, if only for a moment.” — Sam Harris
Many, maybe all, of the things we do, are an attempt to give ourselves a good enough reason to just be here, existing in the present moment.
Being choked during sex stops the chatter of our mind, as does drugs, as does alcohol, and fighting, and reading, and dancing on a beach to a DJ as the sun sets.
Our goal as awakened humans should be to lower the required height of the stimulus bar to a level where you can be present without having any of these inputs.
“If you can’t be present with a coffee, you won’t be present on a yacht.”
Think about how many times your presence has been hijacked by fears or worries or hopes for problems of the future, or regrets & victories around problems of the past.
As you flee from boredom before it even rears its head with a screen in your pocket.
We are so averse to time without distraction that we’ve become addicted to solving problems, so much so that our minds create problems purely for the purpose of solving them.
What we truly have is this moment.
Take a couple of minutes to put your phone down, allow your eyes to relax into the peripherals of your vision and enjoy a few uninterrupted breaths.
Holy fuck man we’re alive.
How astronomically insane is that.
A random collection of matter coalesced into a form that can contemplate its own existence for 4000 weeks before it vanishes forever.
You must find a way to enjoy it.
MODERN WISDOM
I do a podcast which has had 200 million+ downloads. You should subscribe on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.
This week’s upcoming episodes:
Monday.
Bryan Johnson – the man who’s trying to live to 120 years old. Spending $2m+ per year on cutting edge longevity treatments and researchers. Interesting stuff.
Thursday.
Ed Hagen – the evolutionary psychology of depression and anxiety. Why did evolution give humans the capacity for depression? Why are women more anxious than men? How can strength help your mental health?
Saturday.
Peter Singer – the founder of the ethical veganism movement revisits his 50-year-old philosophy. Fascinating stuff about the nature of animal suffering, altruism and more.
THINGS I’VE LEARNED
1.
The Compliment Gap must be fixed.
“Women receive 74% of all compliments; men receive 26% of them.
Women give 68% of all compliments; men give 32% of them.
Both women and men supply three times more compliments to women than to men.” — Rob Henderson
2.
Evolution hates satisfaction.
Your body and genes are not adapted to make you feel satisfied.
Remembering this helps existence make a lot more sense.
3.
People are more politically racist than racially racist.
“Someone had the bright idea of doing an Implicit Association Test with political parties
They found that people’s unconscious partisan biases were half again as strong as their unconscious racial biases.
For example, if you are a white Democrat, your unconscious bias against blacks (as measured by something called a d-score) is 0.16.
But your unconscious bias against Republicans will be 0.23” — Scott Alexander
LIFE HACK
Get your bloodwork done.
I had been wanting to get my full bloodwork panel completed for a long time.
I asked around and Marek Health came back as the most thorough and best service.
After going through the process, I can completely see why.
I was so impressed I actually reached out to the owner to partner with them for Modern Wisdom.
You get a full lifestyle consultation, then you go to get your blood drawn at any LabCorp location in America, then Marek will run you through all your results on tons of biomarkers and explain everything.
Then they will give you a load of lifestyle interventions, diet changes, training suggestions, supplement recommendations and pharmaceutical options (if you want) to optimise absolutely everything inside your body.
The reason I loved the service is because they can provide you with all the supplements and other interventions at the click of a button, without you having to go to any third parties, your entire custom protocol will arrive at your door.
It’s a full stack hormone, diet, training and lifestyle optimisation service and it costs less than $500.
Use code MODERNWISDOM for an extra 10% discount.
(USA only)
Big love,
Chris x
Never miss an episode by pressing Subscribe on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.
PS
Confirmed one of my longest-standing, AAA wishlist guests this week. Fuck yeah. Soon cometh.
