Last week’s newsletter opening got some good feedback with its parable of the Chinese Farmer. I certainly will not turn this introduction section into your weekly motivational gospel, but I found another good short story that I think kicks things off well. So let’s give it hell and have ourselves a Monday to get this week rolling:

Understanding Life

To understand what life is about, you have to visit three locations:

• The hospital

• The prison

• The cemetery

At the hospital, you will understand that nothing is more beautiful than health.

At the prison, you will see that freedom is our most precious commodity.

At the cemetery, you will see that life has an end date. The ground we walk on today, will eventually be our roof of tomorrow.

Take none of these blessings for granted, and live life to the fullest. Not tomorrow, but today.

A little harsh for a Monday morning? Sure. Or maybe it’s just harsh because we know it’s true, and need to start living its advice instead.

Brain - 50 Powerful Life Hacks

Sometimes the content for this newsletter just naturally presents itself - others I really have to go digging for the right ideas and right messaging.

This week was one of those “Easy Button” moments for most of these sections. I received an email to a great post I will share here, I randomly found my old copy of the book we cover below, and I spent a ton of time this week crafting up my workout regime and goals for the next quarter of the year.

The “50 Powerful Life Hacks” was a blog post from Sahil Bloom, a motivational content producer, and a newsletter writer himself. His socials and videos are great, but I really enjoy Sahil’s written content, especially around ideas he has learned and come to value over time. This post was exactly that.

You can read for yourself here, and below are a few of the ones that I have continued to think about over the last few days:

• “Everything has a list price (what it costs on the surface) and a real price (what you have to give up to get it). Make sure you're willing to pay the real price for the thing you're after in life.”

• “To improve your mental health and build a journaling habit, try my 1-1-1 Method: Every single evening, write down one win from the day, one point of tension, anxiety, or stress, and one point of gratitude. The whole process takes about 5 minutes and leaves you with a sense of calm before bed.”

• “If you struggle with motivation or focus, add structure. Map out your day hour by hour with the specific focus of each window of time. Plan out exactly what you're going to do and when you're going to do it. Structure frees up your headspace to focus on execution.”

• “Never avoid hard conversations. When you avoid a hard conversation, you're taking on a debt that has to be repaid with interest at a date in the future. Time doesn't heal anything when it comes to relationships. Make the minor repairs along the way and avoid the major repairs in the long run.”

I want to lean into #3 this week, and really structure out my days. With the uptick in fitness goals, wedding in 3 months, end of fiscal year for our company this month, there will be a shortage of open time. It’s in these moments where we lean into the work and double down. Which of these 50 ideas stick out the most to you?

Body - A Few Workouts to Save

Periodically, I want to use this space of the newsletter to share some workouts that you can sprinkle into your regime. So much of continued success in the gym is keeping things fresh, having a plan that pushes your limits a bit, and adding some variety. I have recently been a little all over the place (in a good way) with my fitness. I am pushing the cut hard through the end of the year (just wrapping up my initial 90-day stretch), am slowly starting to raise my weekly running mileage to get prepared for whatever the next race prep is, and I am also sprinkling in some training for a future Hyrox event.

Through all of this, I want to make sure to not lose sight of the foundation of it all, which is strength and weight lifting. This has always been the foundation for my training blocks, and a huge reason I have for the most part been able to remain injury free through the longer endurance training blocks.

Here are a couple of recent lift days that I really enjoyed:

Day 1: High Intensity Tempo Running + Lower Body

• Running:

  • Wave 1:

    • 600m, Rest 90s

    • 400m, Rest 60s

    • 200m, Rest 120s

  • Wave 2: Faster than wave 1

    • 600m, Rest 90s

    • 400m, Rest 60s

    • 200m, Rest 120s

  • Wave 3: Faster than wave 2

    • 600m, Rest 90s

    • 400m, Rest 60s

    • 200m, Rest 120s

  • Wave 4: Faster than wave 3

    • 600m, Rest 90s

    • 400m, Rest 60s

    • 200m

• Strength

  • Barbell Squats x 8/8/8/8 (Rest 2 Min Between Sets)

  • BB Deficit Reverse Lunges x 8/8/8/8 (Rest 90s Between Sets)

  • Goblet Squats 3x10-12 (60 Sec Rest)

  • Dumbbell RDL 3x10-12 (60 Sec Rest)

Day 2 - Upper Body Bodybuilding Lift

• Superset 1:

  • DB Chest Press 4x8-10

  • Wide Grip Pull Ups 4 x As Many Reps As Possible

• Superset 2:

  • Dips 4x8-10

  • Prone Dumbbell Row 4x10

• Superset 3:

  • Lateral Raises 3x12-15

  • DB Strict Curls 3x12-15

• Superset 4:

  • Dumbbell Push Ups 3x As Many Reps As Possible

  • Cable Tricep Extensions 3x12-15

  • Hanging Leg Raises 3x12-15

Book - Living With Seal by Jesse Itzler

I have given a lot of credit to “Can’t Hurt Me” by David Goggins as the book that was the primary igniter of turning my life (primarily fitness) around. The more I have thought about it though, I think there was a precursor to that book landing the way it did with me - and that was the actual introduction to Goggins himself: Jesse Itlzer’s “Living With Seal.”

It has been a long time since I have physically revisited this book - too long for sure - but I did so this week as I was thinking about it on one of my runs.

The premise is amazing, regardless if hardcore fitness / motivation is your cup of tea. Jesse Itzler is a serial entrepreneur who started Marquis Jet, ZICO Coconut Water, is a part owner of the Atlanta Hawks, and is married to Sara Blakely. He is a fascinating follow on his own, but in this book, he tells the story of his experience meeting and living with David Goggins.

Without ruining too much of the book - Jesse sees Goggins at a race in California, running a marathon in military boots. Goggins beat Jesse that day. Jesse seeks him down in the parking lot, introduces himself, and continues to think about his interaction with him for weeks to come. “Who is this Navy Seal who just kicked my ass in military boots?” Jesse admits his training had gotten stale, and he wanted a spark, so he flies to California to convince Goggins to come live with him and train him for 30 days.

Goggins originally declines, but one winter morning, shows up to his house in NYC with a small duffle bag of clothes, ready to work, on one condition: Jesse cannot say no to anything Goggins asks him to do, or he will leave.

The legend of David Goggins is born in the pages that follow, as he puts him through brutal training conditions, tests his sleep patterns, logs multiples of the miles Jesse is used to running, and more. It is a soft entry into why Goggins is so fascinating to many, including myself. I can’t recommend this read enough.

As I read through my highlights again this week, I found the quote that kind of kickstarted my adventuring into endurance sports:

“I learned that by constantly doing things that are hard and making myself uncomfortable, I improve my ability to handle obstacles. I get comfortable being uncomfortable—and that’s real mental toughness.”

I needed to hear that at this point in my life. I was working out, I was working hard at my job, but I simply did not have discipline. I went through entirely too many waves of low effort in the gym, bad diet in the kitchen, too many drinks on the weekend - the works. When I read this, I truly started to think about what activities I could voluntarily place in my life that would help build up that discipline meter. If I hadn’t read this book, I am not sure I would have ever had the idea to get started. Maybe it’ll do the same for one of you.