This Week’s BIG Idea
A while ago, I wrote about the fear of holding back in life. I felt I was holding back when it came to my writing, so recently, I decided to challenge this idea. At first, I was in complete denial. Eventually, I realized that I had a bunch of unpublished articles in Notion about a variety of topics.
Whenever I come across something interesting, I write about it on a Notion page. I started doing this a while ago, even when I was watching movies or shows. The idea was to examine a scene from a popular television show using everything I learned from psychology books, such as Robert Greene’s The Laws of Human Nature. Time went on and I completely forgot about those articles. That said, a lot of people could benefit from them, so why not publish them? I won’t bore you with an endless stream of excuses, but I came up with some pretty creative ones.
While it’s easy to say that holding back is not a good way to live life, let’s examine this further. An exercise I like to practice when something like this happens is a technique I call “worst-case scenario/best-case scenario”. Let’s try this technique with the example I mentioned above. What’s the worst thing that can happen if I post those articles? What about the best thing that can happen? Worst case scenario: nobody cares about the articles I post and they never get any traffic. Best case scenario: someone benefits from what I posted and these new ideas they’re exposed to lead them to action and the article changes their lives.
When I have to confront these scenarios, I think to myself: “The worst that can happen is not so bad, but the best that can happen can change someone’s life.” In other words, there are consequences to holding back. You might find new articles on the site soon and I hope you check them out.
What I’m Working on
How Reading Changed My Life: I just posted a new article on the site. Other than summaries, and the weekly newsletter, I don’t post many articles, but that could change. I believe reading books is one of the most transformative habits anyone can start. In the post, I go over the system that works well for me and hopefully, others can benefit from it.
What I’m Listening to
The Morgan Housel Podcast – A Few Thoughts on Spending Money: Out of all the podcasts I listen to, Morgan Housel’s is my favorite. There are no ads, no long interviews, and no fluff. Each podcast is short and to the point. In the latest episode, Housel discusses how people spend money. Spending money says more about you than you might think and the author and podcaster discusses this topic in ten minutes.
What I’m Reading
Welcome to the O.C.: The Oral History by Alan Sepinwall: before streaming, people used to gather around the television at a set time every week to watch their favorite shows. Growing up, I did this for a variety of programs, but one of my favorites was the Fox megahit, The O.C. In this book, Sepinwall interviewed everyone in the show, providing a rare behind-the-scenes look. One of the tenets of Stoicism is reflecting on one’s mortality. What better way to do that than by realizing that this show I used to watch as a teenager just turned twenty years old?
What I’m Watching
Inside the 40 Year-Long Dungeons & Dragons Game: For some reason, I found myself thinking about Dungeons & Dragons the other day. Although I used to play many board games and trading card games when I was young, I never played tabletop D&D. I know there’s a YouTube scene where voice actors get together and play tabletop RPG campaigns for hours on end, but I didn’t know that someone could play the game for decades. Dungeons & Dragons was popular when I was a kid because some video games incorporated its ruleset, but for some reason, there’s something about tabletop gaming that I find irresistible.
This Week’s Quote
“You are perfect as you are, and you can always be better”
Mark Manson
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