Love this Jack, saw you had posted this in Write of Passage and had to come check it out. It's wonderfully practical AND inspiring. You are taking action and living the big questions of your life. Incredible.
This is huge: Fear of complacency. Fear of the person I would become and the life I would create if I took the easy path. Fear of becoming filled with regret and resentful of my younger self. Fear of accepting a job I don’t love thinking “There’s no other option, what else am I gonna do?”
Big fan of the starred boxes in the pictures too: "What experiences am I optimizing for in the 24th and 25th years of my life? What experiences must I have here now or risk the change of not having?"
You're wise, man. You already know you have opportunities or windows of opportunity now that you may not get again and you're acting on them (for fear of what may happen if you don't). Fantastic stuff!
Hey Jordan, it’s great to hear from you! Thanks for reading and for your kind words -- I really appreciate it.
I love that you read the pictures. I got those questions from Bill Perkins, the author of Die With Zero. He mentioned them in a podcast and I thought they were gold. Super helpful for anyone no matter where you are in life I think.
The uncertainty truly is scary, but taking write of passage and meeting other amazing people like you gives me even more optimism for the future. Thanks again for taking the time to comment -- means a lot to me!
You laid out a really interesting topic, I had to soak up everything! I'll have to check out some podcasts he's on. I've heard a lot of good things about his book but haven't actually heard him speak.
Meeting people like yourself does the same thing to me, glad we have an opportunity to connect!
Awesome, excited to hear your thoughts! He is an amazing resource but, like anything, has to be taken with a grain of salt (re: my Stories over Science draft you just gave wonderful feedback on).
Thanks Baxter! I love that idea of using fear as a cue. In retrospect I guess that’s what I was doing. Prague was a great city! Enjoyed my time there. Beautiful in its reverence.
Congratulations on your 100th edition of Longevity Minded, Jack!!! Something to celebrate, for sure!!!
I love your message this week! What an excellent method of taking self “inventory” and steering ourselves in the direction we would like to go, rather than keeping with auto pilot. I appreciate your honesty and transparency on how you experienced this process and how it has brought you to a place of freedom within your lifestyle and fulfilling and satisfying days! Bravo on pursuing and following your gut!!! Your courage to step out of your comfort zone to discover where your will can take you is definitely inspiring to your readers!
Thank you for providing a tool and a mindset to help get us there too!!!
Thanks Mom! Wouldn't have imagined I would've continued writing for this long so 100 is certainly a milestone to celebrate. Getting out of auto pilot and steering ourselves is a really great way to think about it -- love that. Hopefully this practice is helpful in your own life as you begin plan out retirement and what you want the next year to look like.
Thanks for reading Justin! Great to hear this struck a chord -- would love to see what your timeline looks like or how this practiced helped you if you give it a go.
thank you for your well written article. i turn 75 next month and have begun to consider my near term year-to-come but also framing a general time line for my next stage of deeper retirement. as a former life insurance actuary, i have a deep grasp of what may occur...both bad and good physically and mentally. i have a 35-year second marrriage and 2 puppies to accompany me. i encourage everyone to step aside a few minutes every day, and on longer segements on a weekly and monthly basis, to consider "where am i pointed?" "how am i going to get there?" and "are there other TRIPS i need to explore?"
Thank you for reading, Gary! A few minutes per day asking these types of questions is time well spent.
I'll point the question back at you, where are you headed in the next year? What trips or adventures or discoveries do you plan to embark on? I would love to hear what that looks like for you...
...practical...executable...inspiring...the yin, the yang both have their pulls and values and i love how you laid that out here...lean into the fear and maybe you will end up in rio...a man can dream now...
Thanks CansaFis, you really helped me tighten this up by rooting out that which was confusing or repetitive and doubling down on that which was insightful or surprising. Lean into fear indeed, the only other option is to let is control you.
Love this Jack, saw you had posted this in Write of Passage and had to come check it out. It's wonderfully practical AND inspiring. You are taking action and living the big questions of your life. Incredible.
This is huge: Fear of complacency. Fear of the person I would become and the life I would create if I took the easy path. Fear of becoming filled with regret and resentful of my younger self. Fear of accepting a job I don’t love thinking “There’s no other option, what else am I gonna do?”
Big fan of the starred boxes in the pictures too: "What experiences am I optimizing for in the 24th and 25th years of my life? What experiences must I have here now or risk the change of not having?"
You're wise, man. You already know you have opportunities or windows of opportunity now that you may not get again and you're acting on them (for fear of what may happen if you don't). Fantastic stuff!
Hey Jordan, it’s great to hear from you! Thanks for reading and for your kind words -- I really appreciate it.
I love that you read the pictures. I got those questions from Bill Perkins, the author of Die With Zero. He mentioned them in a podcast and I thought they were gold. Super helpful for anyone no matter where you are in life I think.
The uncertainty truly is scary, but taking write of passage and meeting other amazing people like you gives me even more optimism for the future. Thanks again for taking the time to comment -- means a lot to me!
You laid out a really interesting topic, I had to soak up everything! I'll have to check out some podcasts he's on. I've heard a lot of good things about his book but haven't actually heard him speak.
Meeting people like yourself does the same thing to me, glad we have an opportunity to connect!
The podcast I first heard him on was Peter Attia’s, The Drive. It was a great convo. Likewise, it’s a pleasure!
Excellent, added it to my playlist! I just started diving into Attia in the last couple of months with Outlive. He's such a great resource!
Awesome, excited to hear your thoughts! He is an amazing resource but, like anything, has to be taken with a grain of salt (re: my Stories over Science draft you just gave wonderful feedback on).
Yep, very true. Being able to pick out what adds life and value and discard the rest is important, but not always easy.
I love the comments on fear. One of my mentors said that if you use fear as a cue for action for 3 months, you'll be unstoppable.
So cool you went to Prague too! That's an unreal city. So cool to hear about all these adventures!
Thanks Baxter! I love that idea of using fear as a cue. In retrospect I guess that’s what I was doing. Prague was a great city! Enjoyed my time there. Beautiful in its reverence.
What you've done takes courage, Jack. It's very inspiring.
*Looks for a legal sized sheet of paper*
Thanks for reading, Catalina! HA! Would love to hear what you think of this practice if you give it a try.
Courageously facing your Fear and acting on it!! Powerful. Super proud as always, my son!
Thanks Dad
Congratulations on your 100th edition of Longevity Minded, Jack!!! Something to celebrate, for sure!!!
I love your message this week! What an excellent method of taking self “inventory” and steering ourselves in the direction we would like to go, rather than keeping with auto pilot. I appreciate your honesty and transparency on how you experienced this process and how it has brought you to a place of freedom within your lifestyle and fulfilling and satisfying days! Bravo on pursuing and following your gut!!! Your courage to step out of your comfort zone to discover where your will can take you is definitely inspiring to your readers!
Thank you for providing a tool and a mindset to help get us there too!!!
Thanks Mom! Wouldn't have imagined I would've continued writing for this long so 100 is certainly a milestone to celebrate. Getting out of auto pilot and steering ourselves is a really great way to think about it -- love that. Hopefully this practice is helpful in your own life as you begin plan out retirement and what you want the next year to look like.
Loved your insight about fear Jack, highly relatable. Inspired and can’t wait to try my own timeline exercise.
Thanks for reading Justin! Great to hear this struck a chord -- would love to see what your timeline looks like or how this practiced helped you if you give it a go.
thank you for your well written article. i turn 75 next month and have begun to consider my near term year-to-come but also framing a general time line for my next stage of deeper retirement. as a former life insurance actuary, i have a deep grasp of what may occur...both bad and good physically and mentally. i have a 35-year second marrriage and 2 puppies to accompany me. i encourage everyone to step aside a few minutes every day, and on longer segements on a weekly and monthly basis, to consider "where am i pointed?" "how am i going to get there?" and "are there other TRIPS i need to explore?"
Thank you for reading, Gary! A few minutes per day asking these types of questions is time well spent.
I'll point the question back at you, where are you headed in the next year? What trips or adventures or discoveries do you plan to embark on? I would love to hear what that looks like for you...
...practical...executable...inspiring...the yin, the yang both have their pulls and values and i love how you laid that out here...lean into the fear and maybe you will end up in rio...a man can dream now...
Thanks CansaFis, you really helped me tighten this up by rooting out that which was confusing or repetitive and doubling down on that which was insightful or surprising. Lean into fear indeed, the only other option is to let is control you.
...well i might do the latter...but just for halloween...
beautiful essay on escaping the conveyor belt of conventionality, forgiving your own path, using fear as fuel and designing your dream life.
this is one I’ll continue to return to :)
Thanks for reading, pal. Appreciate the high praise and very glad to hear you enjoyed.
Thanks, Anthony! You really helped me flesh out this idea in our chat last week.