Courage Through Uncertainty, Key Habits & Minimizing Screen Time

How to find courage in times of uncertainty, my key habits tracking strategy & the app I’m using to minimize phone time.

Happy Sunday!

Here are three ideas I’m using this week to live better, longer.

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Now, let’s dive in!

💡Idea from me: Courage through Uncertainty 

A skill I’m learning:

Unwavering courage through long periods of deep uncertainty.

Life is a collection of infinite games and you get to choose which ones you play. From everything I’ve seen, heard, read, and experienced, the best games are long-term. Exercise. Fulfilling work. Deep connections with others. Learning, the accumulation of wisdom, and subject matter expertise.

Many of these things take a lifetime of daily contributions.

Conversely, most short-term games are cheap, hedonistic, and ultimately meaningless leaving their pursuers emptier at the end than when they started. Taking a job you like less because it pays more. Partying, drugs, and alcohol. Casual sex. Deal friends instead of real friends.

If the games worth playing are all long-term commitments, how do you stay in the game long enough to see your investment of time, money, energy, and focus pay off?

To win over the long term, you have to love the games you play.

If you love the game — whether that “game” be a lover or a friend, a career or a commitment to excellence and expertise within a field, or maintaining a healthy body and mind deep into your life — you’ll keep playing no matter how challenging it gets.

If you aren’t in love with the games you’re playing, every day will be a grinding-of-the-teeth slog. There will still be hard days no matter how much you love what you’re doing but your love will outlast the temporary difficulty.

Mustering Courage For My Uncertain Path 

Tomorrow, I head back to Canada after a seven-week trip to Vietnam and Thailand.

I quit my job in August and have been wrestling with what I want to do in my career. Pressured from all sides to “start my life” and “get a real job,” I made the unconventional decision to solely focus on writing when I return rather than starting a conventional job search.

While there’s no certainty or security in this choice and I know I’ll have many days of self-doubt, it was an easy decision to make.

I love writing.

I love the people I get to meet and chat with.

I love getting a little better at this craft every week.

I love excavating my life to find compelling and insightful stories to share with you.

I love learning about exercise, nutrition, mental and emotional health, and everything else in the longevity space.

And while it feels further out of reach than putting my arm in the air and touching Neptune, if I can figure out how to play this game well enough, I’ll have built a long-term lifestyle I love.

Above all, I can live with failing. But I can’t live without having bet on myself.

So I’m embracing the uncertainty and walking forward with as much courage as I can muster.

A question for you…

What are you not pursuing because of uncertainty over how it could turn out?

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📆Strategy I’m Deploying: Key Habit Tracking

Since October, I’ve been tracking key habits for each month in a Note on my phone. 

The process is simple: