Simple, But Not Easy

Simple, But Not Easy

Hey Everyone,

Hope you're having a great week. Here are a few things I've been reading and pondering lately. Enjoy!


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1. How to Turn Your Wishes Into Reality Instead of Regrets

I really appreciated the simplicity of this article. There's a backstory, which you can read here.

But I was left wondering: What’s next? What can we do to make sure that these wishes become reality instead of regrets?

For me, this process is pretty simple (but not easy):

  1. Pick one thing on my list.
  2. Decide today to do one thing that will get me closer to making that one thing a reality and further away from regret.
  3. Do that one thing.
  4. Repeat tomorrow.
  5. Wake up in a year with fewer regrets.

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2. Here’s the Strategy Elite Athletes Follow to Perform at the Highest Level

Ryan Holiday's writing is consitently great. Here's a perfect example of a simple idea followed by engaging examples.

All these issues are solvable. Each would collapse beneath the process. We’ve just wrongly assumed that it has to happen all at once, and we give up at the thought of it. We are A-to-Z thinkers, fretting about A, obsessing over Z, yet forgetting all about B through Y.

3. How the ‘Shalane Flanagan Effect’ Works

We need more of this.

But perhaps Flanagan’s bigger accomplishment lies in nurturing and promoting the rising talent around her, a rare quality in the cutthroat world of elite sports. Every single one of her training partners — 11 women in total — has made it to the Olympics while training with her, an extraordinary feat. Call it the Shalane Effect: You serve as a rocket booster for the careers of the women who work alongside you, while catapulting forward yourself.

(Btw, I found this is in Jocelyn K. Glei's excellent newsletter.)

4. I'm Trying Something New

Several hundred of you have taken my 5 Days to Better Content Marketing course. The feedback has been great and I've learned so much from all the replies. I am truly thankful for your support!

As of today, that course is no longer free. I'm charging just $5, which (in my obviously biased opinion) is a steal. If you enjoyed that course or this newsletter, I'd really appreciate it if you'd pass this link to a friend.

  • Ben Thompson's analysis of the Stitch Fix IPO is worth a read.
  • Tweet of the week from @jasper: I'd say about 96% percent of "millennials are killing" stories can be rewritten as "millennials are making a rational financial decision in light of their economic realities"
  • Anyone have a cloud photo storage tool that they recommend (aside from Google Photos)?
  • Today is the best day of the year to unsubscribe from unnecessary email. Hopefully this isn't one of them! :)

Have a great weekend!

Jimmy

PS - I'm looking to partner with a few great businesses to sponsor this newsletter. It reaches a bunch of smart folks from places like Google, Apple, Spotify, New York Times, Marriott and Harvard. Shoot me an email if you're interested in working together.

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