Oh hi there!

Every morning I write 3 pages, stream of consciousness, in my yellow dot journal. I write about personal things I am struggling with, I write about business ideas, I write about my vision for the world. Here's a takeaway from each day of my morning pages.

January 1, 2021

Maslow's hierarchy of needs follows the hierarchy of body > mind > spirit. Without the needs of my body being met (exercise, sleep, etc) it becomes really hard to let the needs of my spirit be met.

January 2, 2021

"You're so _ _ _ _ _ _." We all have that word that we get told again and again. For me, it is "tall." I wish it could be a non-physical descriptor. But I guess that comes with the depth of a relationship, and the people that tell me I am tall have often only known me for less than 10 seconds. With what words do you want that blank to be filled? For me it is: intentional, creative, or impact-oriented.

January 3, 2021

In order for you to start healing, you have to accept you are broken. If you are in a rut, just doing + trying things (sans expectations for yourself) is the first step to feel life again.

January 4, 2021

In every go-back-in-time movie, there is the worry of the butterfly ripple effect. We rarely think that way about our every day actions. I don't believe most actions rooted in consumption have the same ability to create that effect as actions rooted in creation. Consumption is like a multiple choice test, you are simply choosing one out of many. Creation is like a long-form answer, you are creating a combination of words that have never been written before. What will you create today? What ripple will you make?

January 5, 2021

I have been letting loss aversion rule my life too much. We all know that actions are rooted in either love or fear. We ought to flip our fearful thoughts about loss:

• "What if I lose my partner?"
• "What if I lose my job?"
• "What if I lose my health?"

to thoughts based in love:

• "How can I show this person how much they mean to me?"
• "How can I believe in myself and ideas?"
• "How can I appreciate my health?"

You should catch your next fear-based thought and check it!

January 6, 2021

The string of small automatic actions in a day (hitting snooze, skipping breakfast, flossing) are mostly habitual and are left unexamined most of the time. Yet, these are the actions where optimization could lead to compounding returns. My goal over the next week is to more closely check these instinctual responses and make changes where necessary.

January 7, 2021

Values are a judgment of what is important in one's life. They can be intangible (experiences, concepts, ideas) or tangible (objects, people). All my values are intangible concepts (zest, curiosity, creativity, impact, community) which trickle down into the experiences, people, and objects I prioritize. Today I have been struggling with if you can compare the two and say which is more important. Can I compare my journal to the idea of curiosity? No, I have the journal because curiosity is a core value. I think keeping these notions of what guide us at a high level (intangible concepts) makes the most logical sense when defining your values. They inform everything else. Find a good list here.

January 8, 2021

I have a lot of different types of capital (financial, experiential, material, cultural, spiritual, etc). Financial capital is the one that always overshadows the rest. I need to get to a place where I use my surpluses of capital to fuel my deficits, but the funny thing about financial security is that I often perceive it as a binary scale. I either have a job or I don't. As such, I over-index on the importance of work and let it eat into my other areas of capital. This does not allow the psychological safety to create a well-lived life. I need to reframe my expectations about work so that I can have full cups all around. Centering myself around the Holstee Manifesto in the morning may help.

January 9, 2021

Social media operates on the idea of optimizing breadth of reach, not depth of content. The tools for establishing depth of a relationship largely still exist outside the world of tech (coffee chats, phone calls, gifts). We have social media for broadcasting out, but not for listening and making meaningful interaction. How might we build technology for listening and interacting in meaningful ways?

January 10, 2021

How do we mix a random walk (randomly making choices) with a walk of intentionality (carefully making choices)? Random walks allow you to enter a situation without preconceived notions and really capitalize on being in the moment. Intentionality allows you to move forward with your values and carry out your vision for the world.

January 11, 2021

I have a tagline that my 20's is dedicated to experimentation. I want to spend my life discovering what I love, understanding why I love it, and pursuing it. The cost to this is stability and depth. For my 20's, I think that is an appropriate cost.

January 12, 2021

The world needs intentional consumption and reckless creation. Right now, we have it flipped. We binge Netflix for hours, we scroll Instagram for days, we look up Zillow houses for every major city in America (or is that just me?). I don't blame us. The technology that we create is wildly addicting and it is intentionally designed in that way (#dataScienceIsEvil?). On the flip, we tend to critique instead of create and tear down ideas instead of build them up: our inner editor comes out too soon too often in the process. How might we create processes/tools that encourage the right balance?

January 13, 2021

Home is more than a geographical location, especially for the nomadic. I feel at home when I am around people I love, when I am in the state of flow, or when I am on the dance floor.

January 14, 2021

I skipped my morning pages for a solo hike. 'Twas worth it.

January 15, 2021

Why are we so drawn to polarization views when the truth is often found in the middle? The mellowest voice never gets the attention. I wish that wasn't true.

Questions? Feel free to reach out to me!