Most of the time I don’t know what I’m going to write here until I sit down to do it. Some weeks I’m hit with an interesting event or funny story that makes it obvious. Yet every other week it’s simply a crapshoot.
I work hard to make my life as boring as possible. I want the minimal amount of plans and outings. I don’t need to be distracted by calendar invites in order to be happy.
This lack of structure paired with the commitment to write and publish every Sunday would drive someone who has an analytical/organized brain nuts.
I know this because whenever I work with these types of people, I am able to push all their buttons just by showing up for work with my packed lunch and a banana. And they keep me in check too so I’m happy when they walk in my path.
The Only Thing that Matters
One thing that I continually get closer to every month is the knowledge that whatever people’s opinions are, they don’t hold a candle to our internal states.
If I am ok with hitting send today, then that’s the only thing that matters. In the moment of creation, your opinions as the reader are secondary, as sad as this is to admit to you.
Yet the hard pill comes with a cherry on top, because with it is the wisdom that we all need to break that habit of needing other people to be ok with us.
This is a toxic social cue that we’ve all been conditioned to believe in.
No one wants to become reviled like Hitler. Everyone is afraid that they will spend the next 300 years being ridiculed and held up as the poster child for dysfunction.
Yet you can go ahead with your life with the faith that you will most likely not end up like Jeffrey Epstein or Bernie Madoff.
Your friends, family, coworkers or partner do not need to like you all the time. If they did then you would be simply living their lives, and not your own.
With only so many hours in a life span, it should be glaringly obvious that this is no way to live, but only a way to die.
Three Ideas from My Notebooks
1. How you start is not necessarily how you end. You might’ve had a bad sleep but halfway through the day you would never even know. A workout starts out like a joke and ends up being something that Superman would log on his Apple Fitness account.
2. Say hi to your inner critics. Wave to them as you start driving by on the highway. When you take action, you start driving. But if you spend your day at the pit stop lost in a world of thought, it can become challenging to make any progress.
3. Everything in life can be carefully rehearsed. I went to my first Cirque Du Soleil show last night and could only imagine the practice facility where these acrobats do their work day in and day out. It’s probably extremely rare that they fuck up.
All of the ideas going back to May 2023 are located in The Ideas Index:
The Fienberg Method: Taylor Swift Deep Dive
Last week I started this series to look at how to whip out the chords to Stay Stay Stay by Taylor Swift.
This week we continue on with an actual lesson in how you practice a song in a way that prevents you from building up the habit of playing music poorly.
I should highlight that one of the best reasons to play music at any age is it turns your brain on.
I value reading books, writing newsletters and even watching Jack Ryan once in a while.
Yet the act of getting the notes or chords out in time, across a three minute song or an entire set of music is very hard for any other activity to hold a candle to in the comfort of your own home.
This is coordination, motivation, time management, and strategic thinking all rolled up into one activity that has an extremely low barrier to entry when you can rent a guitar for $10/month.
Full playlist with the last two videos is here.
Thanks for reading today, and have a great week ahead 🧡🥯🧡
Elliott