Listen to my appearance on The James Altucher Show 👇👇👇👇👇👇👇
In my endeavor to become a modern day Hemingway, save for the bullfighting, hard living and well, the tragic end of his lfe. I came upon a book entitled “Bird by Bird” by Anne Lamott. You can watch my review HERE. I had heard of this book many times before. Tim Ferris has touted it often as a great companion for any aspiring writer. So I finally bought a copy.
Read MoreI love Steve Martin. He’s the one comedian I've watched for almost my entire life. I was born in 1975. Saturday Night Live premiered in 1975. Steve Martin made his SNL debut in 1975. It was at this time my father worked nights at the coal mines near my hometown of Sulphur Springs. One of my earliest memories was watching SNL with my mother when my father worked.
Read MoreIf you’ve ever driven me and I didn’t make you feel good or carry the conversation, don’t tell me. You will only add to my already apparently jacked up insecurity in this matter. Thank you for understanding.
Then there’s the problem of what the driver is doing while I’m in my meeting. I have a friend who was tasked with driving a very high level elected official one night. The elected official and his wife were having dinner at the home of a very well known media personality. My friend was instructed to just wait outside…in the car! For three hours he sat while all these people had a 3 hour dinner. I’m sorry. I’m just not wired to pull something like that off. Do they ever once at the dinner ask, “I wonder how Dan is doing out there?”
Read MoreThere’s a lot of really good stuff out there. However, there’s only one best. If you can’t have the best why not have the best available. Here’s the real money shot…if you can’t have the best available, do without, altogether. Boom! Thank you. You’ve been a wonderful audience.
Read MoreHere’s the thing. I’d like to talk about the thing for a second. Well, technically I guess I’m writing about the thing, but you get the picture. I’m dabbling in the discipline of minimalism. Am I full blown minimalist? No. Not by a long shot. However, I am trying to reduce my material belongings down to the essential.
Read MoreYOU are in control of much of that which holds you back. Life can be amazing, if you let it.
Read MoreThe first war I remember waiting on was for my father to disown me. My Dad had a way of dealing with people who had wronged him. He often spoke of his methodology.
He would say he’d “write em off.” Once Frank Wright Jr. wrote you off there was no coming back. He had written you off for good.
Read MoreYou read the title right. I like little butts. Well, I really don’t like them I’ve just come to appreciate them much more. Oh I know what you’re thinking. Big butts are so much more appealing. They even inspired an iconic rap by the modern day hip hop poet called Sir Mix A Lot. Don’t remember it? Let me imbed it in your mind for the rest of the day.
Read MoreIt’s 4:45 a.m. and I put my feet on the ground. I make my way to the bathroom and turn the shower on cold. No heat at all just cold. I set my Apple Watch timer for two minutes. So begins another day. I dry off, put on my workout clothes and head to the garage.
Read MoreIt all starts with one thing. Make a decision to find one thing you will do this day, this week, this month that will alter your life for the better. What is it? Only you know what it is. Clear out all the clutter and leave nothing but this one thing. Focus on it. Stare at it then attack it. On the other side is freedom, accomplishment. No longer will this nagging project be rattling around in your head.
Read MoreMore and more I’m fascinated by what I don’t know. It’s been said the further from the shore the deeper the water. It’s the same with knowledge. The more the tide of knowledge pulls me from the shore of what is known the deeper the waters of what I don’t know are found.
Read MoreIn the Dawson Church book, “Bliss Brain” Church explains what is happening here. He meticulously lays out what’s happening when our brains are at rest vs. highly engaged yet using equal amounts of high energy. The brain is always in action. It never really rests.
Read MoreThe importance of a good morning routine cannot be overstated. It is how you own the day. I despise waking up and reacting to the day. I want to at a minimum start my day in control-proactively determining its events. There will be enough unaccounted for things to happen beyond my control. However, I can control my morning. It’s all within my choosing.
Read MoreOk so I’m going to get some serious push back on this concept, but let me make my case. The other day I was doing Yoga. The instructor made a comment that really stuck with me. We were moving from one pose to another, and he let us know that every move was a pose in Yoga. Every single movement was its own pose.
Read MoreOnce upon a time a guy would stand outside the Boston subway stations handing out pulp copies of a sports rag. It wasn’t anything fancy, but it a pretty good following. It was an alternative to the Boston Globe, and it was more raw. It was a sports paper written from a fan’s point of view.
Read MoreThere is a theory made famous by Malcom Gladwell that to master anything you need to put in 10,000 hours. Want to be a better golfer? That’ll be 10,000 hours of practice. Want to be a better cook? That’ll be 10,000 hours. Want to be a better lover? Well, you get the picture. The research that led to this discovery was rather limited. It was conducted using the average practice of violinists, which frankly doesn’t correlate with everything one might want to master.
Read MoreSo many of the rules and constraints we put on ourselves as Steve Jobs put it, “were created by people no smarter than you.” If you want to change your life, you have to start questioning why you do things. Why do you accept things? Why do you go to parties you hate? Why do you wear clothes you aren’t comfortable in? Why won’t you forgive someone when you know it would make your life better? Why won’t you write that book? Most likely it’s because society, your family, your education has taught you to believe certain things and under no circumstance stray from those beliefs.
Read MoreIn James Clear’s book “Atomic Habits” he drives home the point of focusing on small decisions that can lead to extraordinary outcomes. This is terribly powerful. Whether you are trying to learn a language, lose weight or play the guitar break the task down into small bite sized pieces. The effect of mastering these small incremental steps can be huge.
Read MoreOn October 14, 1947 the world was introduced to its first sonic boom. It was on this day flying an experimental BellX-1 at Mach 1 at an altitude of 45,000 feet Chuck Yeager became the first human to break the sound barrier. In Tom Wolfe’s book, “The Right Stuff” Yeager’s heroics led countless teens to pursue their dreams of becoming pilots
Read MoreI’m not saying there’s not things to worry about. There are. The problem is worrying about them will solve nothing-only doing can do that. Therefore, if the worry pops up either do something that can directly impact it or stop worrying and find something to be grateful for that replaces the worry. My whole premise for the Vitruvian Project I started this year is to do just that. I want to first improve every area of my life to the maximum. My hope is in doing so the fruit of that labor will spill over to my fellow man. I want to get me “right” before trying to go out and right the world.
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