THIS IS ISSUE.012 OF THE SMRT LIST

Hi, Friends!

As spring ushers in a new season, it’s time to ask ourselves: are we where we thought we’d be when winter began? Or did we, like most people, get sidetracked by endless distractions?

• Spending hours scrolling through memes on social media instead of taking a break to rest and recharge.
• Getting laid off and suddenly becoming obsessed with binge-watching every season of The Office instead of updating your resume and applying for jobs.
• Suddenly discovering a new Netflix series that you can’t resist binge-watching until 3am, causing you to oversleep and miss your morning workout.

We’ve all been there and done that but it’s never too late to train to become a peak performer— an executive athlete.

Last summer, I started this newsletter as a way to challenge my own thinking and force myself out of my comfort zone. And let me tell you, the past year has been one hell of a ride.

I learned how to sit in endless discomfort, experienced mortality and grief like never before, and spent 20k on training that supposedly teaches you how to work smarter and be more productive… what I got out of it was how to truly embody recovery and slowing down. 🤷🏻‍♀️

But the one truth that’s really stuck with me is this: the journey is all we have. Literally.

I mean, think about it. Once we reach our goals, what’s left? The never-ending pursuit of more, more, more. And let’s be real, our dopamine-driven brains will never be satisfied. So if we want to live our best lives with unshakable inner peace, we need to learn how to control our minds and understand what’s happening neurologically when we’re making shit happen so we can reuse that framework over and over.

Because let’s face it, time is the most valuable commodity we have. Money can always be made (or lost, depending on your luck), but time? You will NEVER get it back. And that, my friends, is where science comes in.

We struggle to manage our time because we’re focusing on the wrong thing.

The future is ENERGY MANAGEMENT. ⚡️

And it begins with your brain. 🧠

In this edition of THE SMRT LIST, I’m dishing out some uncomfortable truths (because let’s be real, who doesn’t love a good dose of reality?)

• How to design a life you don’t need a vacation from. Imagine if every day felt like it was a FRIYAY and loving Mondays. 🙋🏻‍♀️
• 12 Contrarian Philosophies To Embody For The Long Game
• How I Achieved My Dream Life in 3 years
• The Science of Manifestation

💡 INSIGHT

How To Design Your Dream Life

I created a life I don’t need a vacation when I discovered the wonderful addiction to road cycling. I was still in the 9-5 and one day I said to myself, “I’m going to create a life where I can ride my bike whenever and wherever I want.”

Write down your idea of a dream life. Say this to yourself every day. Visualize yourself living your dream life, what you’d be doing, and how you’d be feeling. Embody it as if it’s already happening.

Here is mine:

• Time freedom, the ultimate freedom.
• High energy, by consistent movement.
• Impenetrable inner peace, achieved through building grit.

It happened three years later. And still going on now. All from the power of a manifestation. That’s how badly I apparently wanted it.

Wait.. there’s more to it.

If nothing is working out for you, it’s your fault. That’s right. No one is coming to save you but yourself because everyone is too busy with their own problems.

Joe Dispenza teaches if you want to jump into a new timeline or reality, you need to be living as if you’re your future self. I created my dream life by living as if I had all those things while still chained to a 9-5:

• exercised and ate well every day
• rode my bike to work rain or shine
• hustled hard on my side businesses
• lived on the edge of my comfort zone
• read, write, and learned something daily
• experienced as much as possible by saying YES
• understood that no one was coming to save me but myself

Why People Hate Their Lives

Here are 5 reasons that hold people back from mastery (becoming aware of them is the first step to change):

1. Victim and scarcity mindsets.
2. Being a manifestation or bliss junkie whilst not taking action.
3. Skimming through life unconsciously, not living with intention.
4. Not having their environment set up for success (people, content, food, etc).
5. Not learning how to read energy— there is more to the world than what you see on the surface.

12 Contrarian Philosophies To Embody For The Long Game

I don’t know about you but I’m going to live the most fulfilling life possible. If I were to die tomorrow, I promise I’ll have no regrets.

When I was in my 9-5 working as the design lead on the #1 sports game in the world, I woke up every single day since I was 19, excited to go to work while most people my age dreaded Mondays and only looked forward to weekends. When I quit my perfect, comfortable white-picket-fence life, I went on a sabbatical with the goal to find that same passion in the next season of my life.

I’m addicted to passion and I felt it with my entire soul. That’s what drives me to never settle for mediocrity because after experiencing true passion, you can never go back.

I’m not here to brag but I want to show you it’s possible. Click below to read:

How I Created My Dream Life in 3 Years

You may have heard all of this before but since insights very rarely equate to action, I’m going to remind you again. The more you see it, the higher the chances that advice you read online will finally click in your subconscious brain. 🤓

1. Chip away at the vision every day. The world is moving at exponential rates and your brain has to keep up by focusing on constant growth and learning (up-skilling).
2. Staying curious AF. When you’re curious, you’re driven and become passionate so it doesn’t take much effort to stay on track.
3. Work hard and focus on your personal growth. Mind (meditation, nature, mindfulness, journaling), body (exercise, nutrition), and soul (relationships, writing, play). The good life requires a strong foundation otherwise when things get tough, everything will crumble.
4. Working smart, not hard. I know a lot of “hard workers” but they’re still a slave to society and their own monkey minds. Smart people are peak performers who learn to trigger flow states to be 500% more productive, deploy active recovery to stay healthy, while still making time for relationships, fun, and play. We call it “the dangerous mindset”.
5. Build resilience through hormetic stressors (”good” stress) such as cold showers, ice baths, saunas, and exercising in the rain, snow, and undesirable weather conditions. These are controlled, acute stressors that knock you just enough out of comfortable homeostasis to trigger healthy adaptive cellular responses that build grit.
6. Learning the science of manifestation, and applying the principles to my daily life. Life is a constant work in progress but becoming obsessed with neuroscience and biohacking took it to the next level. Knowledge is an intrinsic motivator because you can’t control what you don’t know!

The Science of Manifestation

Want to Learn More?

🧠 Stay Informed

Wealthy Minds

• ⏱ Current: Master Your Mind, Master Your Life: The Art Of Peak Performance
• 🥑 Health: My Favourite Supplements For Gut Health
• 💸 Wealth: Conventional intelligence is overrated. You’re smarter than you think.
• 💕 Love: Self-love means to live in discipline to determine your outcomes.
• 🥂 Life: “Mitakpa”, the concept of impermanence.
• 🧬 Science: The Aging Dance: When DNA Forget Their Moves
• 🔮 Future: Defining your non-negotiables to play the long game.
• ⌛️ Past: Entrepreneurial advice from building from zero multiple times.

🧠 Podcasts

Curiosity Is The New Intelligence

🔊 Lex Fridman Podcast: Sam Harris: Trump, Pandemic, Twitter, Elon, Bret, IDW, Kanye, AI & UFOs

• It’s important to listen to philosophy because most of us can’t handle the complexity of reality, that’s why we tend to think in black and one. It’s much easier to take one side than to settle for the confusion of reality.

🔊 The Doctor’s Farmacy: How To Burn Fat, Heal Your Metabolism, and Live Longer with Dr. William Li

• Emerging research on metabolism that’s rewriting textbooks!
• Your metabolism goes through 4 stages throughout your life.
  • 0 – 1: 50% higher than adults hence why [prenatal] nutrition is crucial for children
  • 1 – 20: metabolism starts to dip towards
  • 20 – 60: college, marriage, divorce, menopause
  • 90: 75% of what it was when we were 60
• You’re not a slave to your metabolism → lifestyle, microbiome, genetics, and food quality!
• Calories in and calories out debate → not all calories are made equal. Do you think eating junk isn’t going to affect bodily functions, including metabolism, hormones, digestion, and stress? 🤷🏻‍♀️
• “Fat” doesn’t make you obese. Eating the right fats is good for you.
• “Being obese” ruins your metabolism and makes you “fat” → fat cells affect metabolism, bodily functions, etc. This is why food quality matters.
• Brown fat boosts metabolism (vs. the white fat we all hate). Certain foods and cold weather stimulate brown fat. Ready for your cold shower now?

🔊 The Human Upgrade: How to Challenge Outdated Beliefs About Aging w/ Steven Kotler

• These days I’m ALL about longevity science. you’ll see more about it popping up in my blog and content. If we optimize our lives with longevity and health span, we can live happy, fulfilled, and high-energy lives until we’re old age.
• Steven’s new book, “Growing Old, Staying Rad Hardcover” is out. This documents his adventure in learning how to park ski at 55, truly forcing us to reframe aging.
• Loving Kindness Meditation can prevent telomere damage (a marker for longevity).

🔊 The Tim Ferriss Show – Dr. Peter Attia — The Science and Art of Longevity

• Everyone’s coming out with a longevity book including Mark Hyman and Steven Kotler. I’ve already purchased all 3!

🔊 Huberman Lab – Dr. Satchin Panda: Intermittent Fasting to Improve Health, Cognition & Longevity

• Caloric restriction is correlated to longevity → eat within a smaller eating window.
• Honor your circadian rhythm. Eat less as the sun sets because your body is getting ready to rest along with the rest of Mother Nature.
• Never drink coffee on an empty stomach. Breakfast is a buffer against acid reflux. I have a post on Caffeine 101 coming soon!