Building a Life of Success

No. 02 — June 2nd, 2023

This is The Friday Snippets, a weekly newsletter where I provide actionable ideas to help you build a high-performing, healthy, wealthy life and share what I’m pondering and exploring.

Feel free to forward this along to friends!

 Today at a Glance:

• Weekly Review

• Book I'm Reading

• Quote of the week

• Podcast I'm listening

• Copy work of the week

This is a 5-minute read, I know it's a long one, So get your coffee ready, and let's start!

Let's get started!

Weekly Review

Last week I had a bit of an issue in that I went on holiday for 8 days, I didn't write anything and didn't finish 90% of my daily tasks.

I aim to write every day for an hour even when I'm on holiday, but I actually didn't write anything and I missed last Friday's Newsletter because other things came up.

But I still wanted to write, at this point, my newsletter's still growing and I'm learning on the way, I still struggle with finding content and finding the right words, but I just write, even when my writings are still primitive.

One thing I realized about myself, is that whenever life gets busy, Tasks are the first things that disappear from my calendar.

So, I came up with a couple of action points that I will try and hope that will work for me, which are:

1. Schedule Tasks crafted for holidays - I need to pre-schedule my Tasks into my calendar whenever I plan to go for a holiday and do this a week ahead.

2. Treat these tasks as sacred - There needs to be a mental model shift for me to treat those tasks as sacred, rather than thinking they’re optional or a block of free time to schedule other stuff.

Book I'm Reading

Building a Second Brain by Thiago Forte

I'm a big fan of technology and digitalizing my life, I love taking notes all the time but always had an issue with how to take notes right and finding the right tools. Until I found a notetaking method called "PARA" made by Tiago Forte and that made me read his book which I highly recommend for anyone who wants to go digital and organize his life.

We all take notes and it's essential to our growth and success, but most people don't know how to take notes right that they can use.

We usually take notes and then forget that we took them, and when we remember about them and want to find them, they're lost!

With PARA you simply take notes and organize them by actionability.

You just create 4 folders in your favorite Notetaking app (Mine is OneNote and I'm building one now in Notion) as follows:

1. Projects - This category includes any work or initiatives that have a specific outcome or deadline. It helps you stay focused on your current objectives and track progress.

2. Areas - Areas represent the different areas or domains of your life, such as work, personal, health, hobbies, etc. They provide a broader context for organizing related projects and tasks.

3. Resources - Resources are reference materials, information, or tools that you collect and want to keep for future reference. These could be articles, books, videos, websites, or any other valuable resources.

4. Archive - Archives consist of completed projects, reference materials, or information that you want to store for historical purposes or occasional access.

5. Inbox - This one I added to collect any notes or brain dump before I organize them and decide which folder they will go to.

This book is a great one for increasing productivity and organizing your life, especially Digitally.

Quote of the week

"I have always believed, and I still believe, that whatever good or bad fortune may come our way we can always give it meaning and transform it into something of value."

From "Sahil's Bloom Newsletter" by "Hermann Hesse"

The Key Takeaway:

Our interpretation and perspective on the events that unfold can greatly impact how we perceive and respond to them.

Don't let what you can't control define you. Instead, focus on what you can influence and transform. Every setback, challenge, or obstacle is an opportunity for growth and personal development.

Adopt a mindset of resilience, growth, and finding value in every situation. Rather than being passive recipients of fate, take an active role in shaping our experiences and extracting meaning from them.

You cannot control what happens, but you can control your reaction to it.

Podcast I'm listening

"The Best Online Business Model To Make $1 Million In 2023" by Dan Koe

How many times have you come upon posts like this?

• The best business to start in 2023

• The best online side hustle that will make you rich in 2023

• 5 guaranteed ways to make a million in 6 months

• How to get rich and stop being so poor in 2023!!!

And to be honest, these type of posts or videos performs well and get thousands of views and interactions.

All of these posts, videos, and articles lack focus on the technical skills, models, and outreach strategies to make money as fast as possible.

The problem is that everyone wants quick results, and there's nothing wrong with this, I did and still do too.

But the truth is, that this might not work well and if it did, it won't last!

Simply, because they lack purpose, they lack value.

People don't care to get good, they care to get money.

And that's a HUGE mistake because it won't last.

So, If you are chasing quick money, you need to pivot and prioritize becoming the best.

Dan Koe here speaks about the best online business models and how to succeed.

It's a great one and I recommend listening to it.

Listen on Spotify

Watch on YouTube

Read Online

Copy work of the week

Writing is like playing an instrument. To master it, start with copy work.

Copy work, or the act of reproducing existing writing by hand or typing it out, can greatly improve our writing skills for several reasons:

1. Developing a Sense of Style

2. Building Vocabulary and Grammar Skills

3. Improving Sentence Fluency

4. Enhancing Attention to Detail

5. Internalizing Writing Patterns

Now, I started to take 15 minutes every morning to write out my favorite writers' work word for word.

Here's a chunk of what I'm writing, from Sahil Bloom.

You can read the full article here.

Question to establish focus:

“Am I hunting antelope or field mice?”

I came across this question from Tim Ferriss, Who first heard it from American Politician Newt Gingrich.

The idea is simple (but very powerful):

A lion is capable of hunting field mice, but the prize would not be a sufficient reward for the energy required to do so. Instead, the lion must focus on the antelope, which do require considerable energy to hunt but provide a sufficient reward.

In whatever you’re pursuing, are you hunting antelope or field mice? Are you focusing on the big, weighty, important tasks that will provide a sufficient reward for your energy? Or are you burning calories chasing the tiny wins that won't move a needle?

Ask yourself this question from time and time and use your answer to reset as necessary.

Always hunt antelope!

That's it.

Enjoy your week and see you soon!

Cheers,

Sam

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