Hey friends
Thanks for waiting an extra day for this week’s edition of The Optimized Life! I celebrated my 42nd birthday on Wednesday and need yesterday to recover 🥴🎉
A few years ago I read Brendon Burchard’s Motivation Manifesto. Reminding myself of the book, I decided to write my own personal manifesto to set out my intentions over the next 12 months.
Not quite goal setting, more a declaration of my intentions and beliefs to help focus on my priorities over the coming year.
My manifesto has 10 points that I’ll be reading at least once a day to see what impact it has on my life.
I’ll share the manifesto on my blog over the next few so keep an eye out for that email.
For now, enjoy your weekly dose of marginal gains!
🚀 Performance Hacks
How to be decisive (1min)
If you're struggling with making choices, use this 3 step process to arrive at your decision.
How to Simplify Your Life | Five 80/20 Life Hacks (10mins)
It might be impossible to rigidly apply the 80/20 Rule to everything in your life. However, it can be used as a useful tool to help you make choices that lead to better health, greater happiness, and more success. What changes could you make in your day-to-day life by incorporating the 80/20 Rule?
🧠 Brain Food
📚 Book: Building a Storybrand by Donald Miller. I read this book a couple of years ago and immediately started to apply the lessons to the website of my business. The Storybrand process will help you simplify your brand message so people understand it and help you create effective messaging for your website and social media. A must read for all business owners.
📖 Blinkist: On the Shortness of Life by Seneca. These Blinks summarize one of Seneca’s well known essays on time and what is truly valuable in life. They’ll show you where genuine happiness comes from and why working hard won’t lead to a tranquil and satisfied mind.
“Life is Long if you Know how to Use it.”
📝 Blog Post: Two Types of Knowledge: The Max Planck/Chaffeur Test. There are two types of knowledge. Real knowledge is earned. The second type of knowledge is copied - on the surface you might know the answer but lack understanding to show your work. Focus on developing real knowledge.
🎙️ Podcast: Monzo CEO on Death Threats , Depression and Digital Banking Wars - Tom Blomfield and Starling Bank: Building a $1.5 Billion Business Against The Odds: Ann Boden. Listen to these episodes back to back to learn how Monzo and Starling disrupted the banking industry and revolutionise Fintech in the UK. There’s an intriguing back story as well, as Monzo started after a Starling fall out.
❓❓Two Questions
Question for you: What’s something I definitely want to create, achieve, or experience before the end of this year?
Question for me? Send me an email and I’ll be happy to help. If you want to have a chat to go deeper, schedule a Discovery Call.
✍🏾 Quote of the Week
“Taking inventory of what you are capable of is an act of self-discipline in itself because it takes courage to confront yourself in this way.”
From The Power of Discipline by Daniel Walter. Resurfaced using Readwise.
📱 Tools + Tech
💻 App: Business Made Simple University. After you’ve finished reading Building a Storybrand, sign up for BMSU, also created by Donald Miller. On demand courses for marketing, strategy, productivity, leadership, proposals, negotiation and emotional IQ. Develop your own professional development plan as well as access to monthly live coaching events all for around £200 a year. Awesome value.
🐦 Tweet Thread: Having a bedtime ritual is great in theory. In practice; life happens. Here are 8 practical strategies that will improve your sleep.
🎨 Useful: Smartmockups lets you quickly create product mock-ups online.
💡 Recommendations
✉️ I read Atomic Habits and found it so valuable that I also signed up to James Clear's 3-2-1 Newsletter.
📥 I use Shift to manage my emails, apps and extensions on my laptop.