T.H.U.R.S. #6

Hola and welcome to The Summit, my biweekly newsletter where I share my unfiltered thoughts on navigating the peaks and valleys of adulthood.

My mission is to question everything, grow every day and have fun along the way. The Summit’s mission is to invite you to do the same.

Today: T.H.U.R.S. #6

Thoughts:

• Something light:

Two-minute to-do list rule.

I can’t quite remember where I first heard this one, I think maybe on a podcast episode of My First Million, but I’ve found it super useful think it is worth sharing.

It is nothing ground-breaking, but it is an easy to remember rule that I have found to really free-up my to-do list. It is super easy to add a million things to that list, from ‘finish washing the dishes’ to ‘respond to that email’; but really all of these small things don’t belong on the list, just go do them!

Not only, does it declutter your list and your mind (it can be overwhelming!) it also gets the ball rolling. Instead of spending the first ten minutes writing down every little thing to do, you’ve got them all done already and can start focussing on the big things!

If you’re interested in other ways to optimise/structure your to-do list, don’t forget I have an article on that too ;)

• Something heavy:

One of my mates told me this and I sat on it for a while. At first, I didn’t quite agree. I figured not everything needs to be that deep, and some actions are pretty neutral (like eating food - surely that’s not launching me forwards or back, man’s gotta eat).

While this is can be true, the more I thought about it, the more I realised he was right. Every little action we take is either points for or points against. For example:

• Eat something healthy and nutritious: +10 points towards my health goals.

• Eat my third Royal Reese's Brownie Blizzard for the week: - 50 points.

  • Don’t try this, you’ll never be able to go back 😅.

But how do you interpret this rule? Like most things in life, balance is key! It is unrealistic for EVERY one of your actions to be positive (talking to myself here). It is something to strive for, but don’t beat yourself up over a sweet treat. Depending on how you look at it, treats could be +10 points towards your goal of having fun and being balanced 💪.

_{(or am I just trying to justify the 1200 calories from last night’s blizzard} 😭₎

At the end of the day, if your good actions outweigh the not so good, you’re still moving forward 🫡.

Overall, I like to use this rule as a reminder to hold myself accountable for all of my actions, big and small.

Highlights:

My favourite thing I learnt this week: The Five Laws of Gold.

I was reviewing one of my articles, The Finance Lesson I Gave My Sister, and was inspired to go back and skim one of my favourite books, The Richest Man in Babylon.

For anyone unfamiliar with the book, it was written in 1926 (!!!) by George S. Clason and set 4000 years ago in ancient Babylon. Through a series of short stories, Clason shares many timeless principles of money/personal finance. The book is filled with gems and I would highly recommend giving it a read!

One of my favourite takeaways, that I want to share today, are The Five Laws of Gold:

I think each of these rules are simple yet profound! I love how they are just as applicable now as they were 4000 years ago! If you want to read more, check out James Clear’s summary.

Uplift:

Something uplifting that I stumbled across and want to share: Wild Animal Encounters.

Full disclosure, I am not sure I would consider this uplifting 😆, but it is definitely entertaining! This Dax Shepard podcast episode talks with survivors of CRAZY wild animal attacks in North America.

There are no profound lessons or deep takeaways, just bone chilling stories that make me extremely nervous to go outside… let me know what you think!

Reflect:

A question I asked myself this week:

❓️What activities makes me lose track of time? Am I doing enough of them? 

💁‍♂️ For me, it’s competitive sports: anything from basketball to pickleball.

💁‍♂️I rarely make time for these activities but always love doing them and question why I don’t them more often.

Reminder: if you don’t make time, there won’t be time!

Summit:

A challenge I set myself: Mt Fernie speed run.

I set a challenge a couple of weeks ago, to summit Mt Fernie in less than 45 minutes 🥴. The trail was SUPPOSED TO BE 3.8kms long with 900m elevation gain. However, we set out to do a trial walk of the trail and found it to be a lot closer to 5kms and 1000m gain…

So, I changed my goal to 1 hour and this is what I got:

SO CLOSE! I ran the first 400 metres before I realised that the incline was no joke and not runnable 😆. I ‘speed hiked’ the rest of the way and just about collapsed at the top. One of the hardest things I have done lately, 10/10 recommend! Check out the views from the top:

The challenge this week: make time to call friends who live far away.

As you may know, I am living in Canada right now, and most of my world is back home in Australia. It can be really difficult to maintain close relationships when living so far apart and I believe making the effort to Facetime/WhatsApp/Zoom is SUPER IMPORTANT - texting and audio calls just won’t cut it.

So, consider this a reminder to call those friends/family members who you don’t see too often. It will fill both your cups!

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_{As always, if you have any feedback, you can respond to this email! I’d love to hear what you think :)}