Nobody owes you anything
One study has demonstrated that a 30-minute sauna session twice a week for 3 weeks post-workout increased the time it took for study participants to run until exhaustion by 32% compared to baseline
If you rush when exercising, the reward is injuries
Do J-curls to increase mobility. Do so for 5 - 10 reps
Do 3 day fasts once a month and 5 - 7 day fast once a year
Ursolic Acid helps with body composition
“You should sweat like you’re being chased by the police daily"
- Do a set of push-ups and end a few repetitions short of failure. Record the number.
- Rest at least 30 minutes.
- Do ~40 repetitions of the following breathing exercise: Max inhale (raise chest) and “let go” exhale (drop chest sharply). The let-go exhale can be thought of as a short “hah.” If you’re doing this correctly, after 20 to 30 reps you might feel loose, mild lightheadedness, and a little bit of tingling. The tingling is often felt in the hands first.
- On the last breathing cycle, breathe in completely, exhale completely, then do another set of push-ups. More often than not, people will experience a sharp increase in the max number of push-ups, even though their lungs are empty.
Duck Shit oolong tea
Books:
The Prophet by Kahlil Gibran
You have all this amazing knowledge and all this amazing practice, but how are you bringing that into the world?
Don't take these supplements:
- Multivitamins
- Vitamins A and E
- Vitamin K
- Vitamin C
Magnesium supplementation is good, round 600 to 800 mg a day.
Books to read:
Mistakes were made but not by me
4 Tests every 8 weeks:
- Morning (fasting) Insulin
- Morning (fasting) Glucose
- Reactive Insulin Test
- HbA1c
The length of time a doctor spendswith you on your first visit is probably your best indicator [of their quality]
The best thing to increase testosterone is to lower cortisol
59 Seconds: Change Your Life in Under a Minute
If you are training for strength, you want to try and avoid the burn altogether. The burn is your enemy
The Basic Technique: Deadlift to your knees and then drop the bar. I used a “sumo-style” stance, but conventional is fine.
Format: 2 to 3 sets of 2 to 3 reps each, each set followed by plyometrics (e.g., sprinting 10 to 20 meters, 6 to 8 box jumps, etc.), then at least 5 minutes of rest.
Frequency: Dothis twice weekly, on Mondays and Fridays. The total “time under tension” during sets is less than 5 minutes per week.
Microdose of ibogaine hydrochloride twice weekly, on Mondays and Fridays
Higher-dose ayahuasca once every 3 to 6 months for 2 consecutive nights
- 400 mcg is where you have a transcendental or mystical experience. At this dose or higher, it is critical to have qualified supervision in the form of a guide.
- 200 mcg can be used for psychotherapy, self-exploration, deep inner work, and healing.
- 100 mcg is useful for creative problem solving with non-personal matters
When you get the message you need, you shouldn’t keep asking (i.e., having more experiences), at least until you’ve done some homework assignments, or used the clarity gained to make meaningful changes.
Flotation tank - recommended two or three times a week.
Always ask yourself, is that a dream or a goal?
How to get a good night's sleep:
2 Tablespoons of apple cider vinegar, and 1 tablespoon honey stirred into 1 hot cup of water.
10 min. tetris before bed to block negative thoughts.
Sleep master sleep mask
Meditation
Whenever all or part of a sensory experience suddenly disappears, note that. By note I mean clearly acknowledge when you detect the transition point between all of it being present and at least some of it no longer being present.
Wish for two random people to be happy.
Dealing with the temporary frustration of not making progress is an integral part of the path towards excellence. In fact, it is essential and something that every single elite athlete has had to learn to deal with. If the pursuit of excellence was easy, everyone would do it. Learn to enjoy and appreciate the process. This is especially important because you are going to spend far more time on the actual journey than with those all too brief moments of triumph at the end. Throw out a timeline. It will take what it takes. If the commitment is to a long-term goal and not to a series of smaller intermediate goals, then only one decision needs to be made and adhered to.
As you survey the challenges in your lives, it’s just: Which of those did you assign yourself, and which of those are you doing to please someone else? Your inbox is a to-do list to which anyone in the world can add an action item
Be your unapologetically weird self
Don't get stuck into a trap of lowering your prices so a lot of people can buy your product.
In negotiation, he who cares the least wins.
When deal-making, ask yourself: Can I trade a short-term, incremental gain for a potential longer-term, game-changing upside? Is there an element here that might be far more valuable in 5 to 10 years
Heuristic to find good and interesting opportunities in people: Ask them what they do on nights and weekends as a hobby.
Be so good they can't ignore you
"Smart people should make things"
Realize that the people who you put on pedestals are just like you.
IF [MORE] INFORMATION WAS THE ANSWER, THEN WE’D ALL BE BILLIONAIRES WITH PERFECT ABS. It's not what you know, it's what you do.
If something isnt' a "HELL YES", it's a NO.
Improve a notification email from your business (e.g., subscription confirmation, order confirmation, whatever):
Interesting nonprofits:
eff.org
fightforthefuture.org
For each item on your todo list, ask yourself: “If this were the only thing I accomplished today, would I be satisfied with my day?” “Will moving this forward make all the other to-dos unimportant or easier to knock off later?” Put another way: “What, if done, will make all of the rest easier or irrelevant?
Read book: Words that work
Realize that life is happening for us, not to us
Four commonalities among amazing investors:
- They cap their downside. Ask, what's the downside of doing this?
- asymmetric risk and rewards
- Diversify your portfolio
- Be givers
When in doubt about your next creative project, follow your anger
Is there a common saying, or some public pronouncement, that you can disprove by making art about it? By doing a test? What makes you angry?
How do you know if you have A-players on your project team? You know it if they don’t just accept the strategy you hand them. They should suggest modifications to the plan based on their closeness to the details.
When making a startup, ask yourself these questions:
- The Monopoly Question: Are you starting with a big share of a small market?
- The Secret Question: Have you identified a unique opportunity that others don’t see?
- The Distribution Question: Do you have a way to not just create but deliver your product?
The goal isn’t to get good ideas; the goal is to get bad ideas. Because once you get enough bad ideas, then some good ones have to show up
TO CREATE SOMETHING GREAT (OR EVENTUALLY HUGE), START EXTREMELY SMALL
TO CREATE SOMETHING GREAT (OR EVENTUALLY HUGE), START EXTREMELY SMALL
Ask yourself: What’s the smallest possible footprint I can get away with? What is the smallest possible project that is worth my time? What is the smallest group of people who I could make a difference for, or to? Because smallest is achievable.
Send somebody a thank you note.
IF YOU CAN’T GENERATE 10 IDEAS, GENERATE 20
Things to write about:
- 10 old ideas I can make new
- 10 ridiculous things I would invent (e.g., the smart toilet)
- 10 books I can write (The Choose Yourself Guide to an Alternative Education, etc).
- 10 business ideas for Google/Amazon/Twitter/etc.
- 10 people I can send ideas to
- 10 podcast ideas or videos I can shoot (e.g., Lunch with James, a video podcast where I just have lunch with people over Skype and we chat)
- 10 industries where I can remove the middleman
- 10 things I disagree with that everyone else assumes is religion (college, home ownership, voting, doctors, etc.)
- 10 ways to take old posts of mine and make books out of them
- 10 people I want to be friends with (then figure out the first step to contact them)
- 10 things I learned yesterday
- 10 things I can do differently today
- 10 ways I can save time
- 10 things I was interested in as a kid that might be fun to explore now
Forget purpose. It’s okay to be happy without one.
Breaking your rules to co-invest with well-known investors is usually a bad idea, but following your rules when others reject a startup can work out extremely well.
Write your affirmations 15 times a day.
If you can’t be first in a category, set up a new category you can be first in.
You don't have to be better, you just have to be different.
Don't be afraid to do something you're not qualified to do.
Read Age of Propaganda
I GIVE AWAY 98% OF MY MATERIAL FOR FREE AND, THEN, MANY OF MY FLAGSHIP COURSES ARE EXTREMELY EXPENSIVE. IN FACT, 10 TO 100 TIMES WHAT MY COMPETITORS CHARGE.
When you complain, nobody wants to help you
If anybody is going to go out and pitch investors, my advice is to make your first 10 meetings with investors that you don’t really want funding from, because you’re probably going to suck in the beginning.
Am I basically being unfair because I’m operating from a greater set of information?
Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World
The biggest mistake you can make is to accept the norms of your time. Not accepting norms is where you innovate, whether it’s with technology, with books, with anything.
In The Dust of This Planet
“WHEN 99% OF PEOPLE DOUBT YOU, YOU’RE EITHER GRAVELY WRONG OR ABOUT TO MAKE HISTORY.”
Find the smartest 20-somethings in your company. I don’t care if they’re in the mail room or where they are. Give them permission to figure out how they would take down your company.
When possible, always give the money to charity, as it allows you to interact with people well above your pay grade.
Take as long as you want if you’re talented. You’ll get their attention again if you have a reason to.
what he was really saying was write for yourself. Don’t try to please anyone but yourself. . . . The second you start doing it for an audience, you’ve lost the long game because creating something that is rewarding and sustainable over the long run requires, most of all, keeping yourself excited about it. . . .
You should have a running list of three people that you’re always watching: someone senior to you that you want to emulate, a peer who you think is better at the job than you are and who you respect, and someone subordinate who’s doing the job you did—one, two, or three years ago—better than you did it. If you just have those three individuals that you’re constantly measuring yourself off of, and you’re constantly learning from them, you’re going to be exponentially better than you are
Take people who aren’t wedded to the plan and [ask them,] ‘How would you disrupt this plan or how would you defeat this plan?’ If you have a very thoughtful red team, you’ll produce stunning results.”
Think about how old you are right now and think about being a 10-year-older version of yourself. Then think, ‘What would I probably tell myself as an older version of myself?’
Three of the most effective and impactful charities are:
- Against Malaria Foundation
- Deworm the World Initiative
- Give Directly
A tool for coming up with unbelievable (yet ultimately accurate) predictions is making a list of what everyone thinks is true or will be true, and asking “What if that weren’t true?” for each and then brainstorming the ramifications.
General fame is overrated. You want to be famous to 2,000 to 3,000 people you handpick.
It pays to write about what you know
Tactics for dealing with haters:
- It doesn’t matter how many people don’t get it. What matters is how many people do
- 10% of people will find a way to take anything personally. Expect it and treat it as math
- When in doubt, starve it of oxygen and don't give them attention
- If you respond, don’t over-apologize.
- You can’t reason someone out of something they didn’t reason themselves into
- “Trying to get everyone to like you is a sign of mediocrity. You’ll avoid the tough decisions, and you’ll avoid confronting the people who need to be confronted.”
- “If you want to improve, be content to be thought foolish and stupid."
- "Living well is the best revenge.”
What you choose to work on, and who you choose to work with, are far more important than how hard you work.
If you work for the awards, you don’t do good work. But if you do good work, the awards will come.