Welcome back to another newsletter. As always, the format is simple:
- The latest from me
- Ideas I’m thinking about
- Resources that are upgrading my quality of life
Let’s get into it.
The latest
It’s been a minute since I’ve released a newsletter.
The first reason is simple: it’s been too low of a priority. If I’m going to create content, videos come first because that’s my bread and butter. And if I haven’t given my videos the proper time or energy recently, newsletters weren’t going to be released either.
The second reason, however, is only obvious in retrospect.
The newsletter began at the end of 2021 as a low-lift format that I absolutely loved due to its simplicity. But it later transformed into another unnecessarily complicated project that took up more time and energy than I preferred, and spread me that much thinner. And the cause of it all? I became very attached to the quality of my writing and struggled to release anything that was less than what I deemed to be “good” at the time.
As a result, procrastination ensued, unedited entries began to build up, and I struggled to consistently ship newsletters.
As you can probably see, this isn’t exclusive to just newsletters. It’s come to my awareness that this behaviour — being overly attached to what I’m creating — is a common theme across writing, editing and other creative endeavours where quality matters to me and potential scrutiny is involved, so I’m working on it.
This newsletter also got very political for a minute there, as it became my go-to outlet for sharing my thoughts and realizations as I watched the world burn before my eyes.
The intentional destruction continues on, but how I think about it is different.
Instead of calling out the bullshit (which anyone with a brain can see), I’ve adopted a far more effective approach from Andy Frisella:
“Personal excellence is the ultimate rebellion.”
Politics alone won’t fix our global challenges, so it won’t be such to be a main focus in my content anymore.
I’ll still subtly roast leftism, feminism and other nonsense here and there, but it’ll take a backseat to what really matters.
Because becoming great, becoming independent of all their systems designed for our enslavement, and leading by example so others can do the same — that is the thing that terrifies “them” the most.
So, it’s time to go back to the roots of what I originally made content about — growing, improving, and evolving — because that’s how we get out of this mess.
I’m all in on self improvement this year. I’m heads down, focused, ready to win — and I hope you’ll join me.
So with that being said, let’s get back to focusing on how to maximize our potential and level up our worlds.
Ideas
Close the gap on procrastination. The faster you get the things done that you don’t want to do, the more time you’ll have for doing the things that you do want to do. That same time that you waste putting off doing the uncomfortable but necessary work is time that you can be spending pleasurably, but instead you’re choosing to spend it in a dreadful state.
Make the creative process that much easier by writing ideas down as they come to you, leaning into inspiration when it arises, and continuing in the flow state when it’s present.
It’s not about whether you feel like doing it. It’s about whether the action is required of you; if it’s essential. And if the answer is yes, you must do it. [via Alex Hormozi]
Instead of talking about the future and sharing your plans with the world, let your actions tell the story. If you’re going to speak, talk about what you’re doing now or what you’ve done; not what you’re going to do.
Optimizing your life for success comes down to making the essential things easier to do and the inessential things more difficult to do, but most people have it set up in reverse. This is a big reason why people fail — they’ve left their external environment up to chance, and chances are it’s working against them.
There’s no level of success you’ll reach where you’ll feel fully qualified to speak publicly about a topic. There will always be someone who’s more qualified to give advice, but that doesn’t mean you can’t bring value to others through your unique set of experiences, perspectives, skills and lessons.
Question to ask yourself: if doesn’t align with your goals, why are you doing it?
Resources
Andy Frisella X Alex Hormozi on Real AF. Two legends in their own right, coming together for such an incredibly high IQ conversation. I’ve already gone through this over 2 times, and I’ll continue to come back for more.
What “sell me this pen” is really about, from Jordan Belfort himself.
Daredevil S3. Binged this series over the course of Q1, and S3 was by far my favourite. A very, very good season.
The Last of Us. Amazing to see this wonderful game turned into such a beautiful show. It was so enjoyable that I binged it in only 3 days.
The Last of Us Editors’ Breakdown: Part 1 and Part 2 via The Editing Podcast. If you’re a creative and you can get past some of the woke stuff, these 2 episodes will be valuable to you. There is so much to learn within the world of film that can be applied to my own projects, especially as the gap between YouTube and Hollywood closes more and more as time goes on.
Until next time, be great.
—Josh
