One of my favorite bloggers, James Altucher, notes that if you improve 1% per day your value doubles every 72 days.
Think about this — we can become 500x versions of ourselves in < 2 years. (Double every 72 days, x9 cycles, 2^9 == 512).
Here are a few areas I want to 500x:
- Speech
- Programming
- Physical health
- Sleeping
- Dental health
And here’s what I’m doing to improve 1%:
- Calling out other people when they say ‘like’ to encourage accountability (yes this is unsolicited)
- 10-15 hours /week of online courses
- Running on treadmill or Metaconda, 7 days /week
- Olly, a new OTC gummy for better sleep
- Crest white strips, 30-45 mins /daily with no ‘off’ days
Some milestones from last week, in the same order:
- Started teasing my girlfriend for saying ‘like’ and now she’s calling me out when I do it
- Built my first single-endpoint API from scratch
- Beat my 5k personal best, clocked 22:41 (7:18 /mile)
- Went to bed before 1am, twice
- Teeth look… whiter
This post started with a different title, ‘Bacterial Thoughts.’
I was going to write about when cynical ideas enter our headspace and discourage us from taking action / making tough decisions / standing up for ourselves.
But I don’t have a cure.
I don’t know how to expel bad thoughts. Thanks to a little-known learning disability I look at letters and see numbers and sometimes need 5 minutes to read a page in a book because I’m balancing vowels and consonants for each sentence like there’s a master grammar conspiracy (explanation of this in a separate post if demanded).
I can’t tell you that another coffee will give you the energy and focus you need to succeed and I certainly can’t claim that a good night’s rest will provide clarity. I’m not a lifehacker with 7 Awesome Tips to help conquer your to-do list, nor do I even care about your to-do list.
I own 3 computers because I hate walking around with a book-bag. Last week I didn’t respond to emails from 2 good friends because “I didn’t feel like it.” My ideal weekend is at home, alone, updating my Mint account and avoiding people. I’m voting for Donald Trump.
My brother and I haven’t spoken in months because “I don’t feel like it.” I owe thank-you cards to several people for Christmas gifts but I didn’t buy any thank-you cards until last night. Last night I watched Demolition starring Jake Gyllenhaal and in the movie his wife dies, and he doesn’t feel sad. Often I think I would feel that way if my wife died, because sometimes I wonder if I even have emotions.
Everybody at my company is great but if it were up to me I’d work remotely and never go to any of our meetings because I hate meetings. A few people I used to look up to lost their minds so I had to unfollow them. Yes, when I look up to someone the highest praise I give is a Twitter follow.
Most of these sentences start with ‘I’ because I care about myself more than you. If I go to my high school reunion it will be to see how fat the skinny people got and how much richer I am than the smart people. Most people probably share this sentiment but won’t say it out loud. I will.
So no, I’m not perfect. But I’m getting better.
Are you?