saturday mornings #1
Hi all,
Happy Saturday morning.
Pour yourself a hot beverage and enjoy. So glad you’re here with me to start your weekend. Let’s dive in.
Quote I’ve been thinking about:
“If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same…” – Rudyard Kipling
This quote is an excerpt from a poem titled “If-” by 18th century English poet Rudyard Kipling. It’s one of my favourite reminders, and has been my laptop background for several years, as I think it succinctly captures the impact of your perception on life events. Kipling makes you question how you define triumph and disaster, and has always helped me to realize that both are only as real as I choose to make them. This quote is something I’ve repeatedly leaned on while recovering and bouncing back from failure or keeping a level head when things go well. To me, the simplified version of this is “don’t let the highs get too high, and the lows get too low” which is preached by athletes, investors, and entrepreneurs around the world.
However, Kipling is also a highly controversial figure for his personal views, which leads to a broader question of whether someone was immoral or unethical in their personal life, if it discredits the value of their ideas or discourages an appreciation of their work? Can we separate one’s work or ideas with who they were as people, outside of their working life? Interesting questions that perhaps don’t have definite answers.
Fun fact: this quote is also on a plaque at Wimbledon for players to see as they’re walking out onto the court.
Book I’m reading:
Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
This is a book I’ve had on my shelf for a while, and I’m glad that I finally cracked it open. I’ve really enjoyed Dostoyevsky’s writing style and this foray into fiction. At its core, Crime and Punishment is one of the literary cornerstones of existentialism, a philosophy I’ve always found interesting as it promotes the free will of the individual to realize their potential, largely popularized by Friedrich Nietzsche.
The book addresses many captivating underlying themes regarding suffering in life and narrates the protagonist’s journey from suffering to redemption through working to accept and understand his own emotions. Dostoyevsky captures the paranoid mind of a young person feeling pain, from being alienated and lost in the world, particularly well. For anyone that’s struggled with feeling disconnected, the story is very easy to resonate with. He reinforces the idea that every human being has one fundamental need – to feel important and understood – and demonstrates the pain people feel when deprived of that.
Dostoyevsky also introduces a theory that humans are divided into two categories: the “ordinary” and the “extraordinary”. Extraordinary people are a small minority of people that work towards a higher cause to promote good, and in such, laws that apply to other people do not apply to them. And, if you look throughout history books, there are many examples of people that were transformed, in history’s eye, from murderers to conquerors due to their successes (think Napoleon or Alexander the Great). The overarching idea being, that to promote the best outcome for humanity, small wrongs have to be committed to achieve large improvements. However, through the protagonist’s attempt to test this theory in his own life, Dostoyevsky demonstrates both the mental and moral catastrophe that occurs when one thinks of themselves superior to others and then acts that belief out in their life.
Article I’ve been pondering:
“We've Been Thinking About Pain All Wrong” - Nir Eyal
Nir Eyal is a globally recognized thought leader in behavioral design and time management. In this article, he suggests that while there's no magic wand that makes pain disappear, there are patterns and trends that we can harness to lessen and control the pain in our lives. Through increasing our curiosity about the sources of pain in our life, we can learn to turn towards and grow from pain. The crux of the article is that understanding pain’s purpose helps us to control it, rather than letting it control us. It’s a seven-minute read, and I would recommend checking it out.
Song that’s been stuck in my head:
“1973” - James Blunt
Check out the song on YouTube or on Spotify
Podcast I’ve Loved:
The Tim Ferris Show #356: Peter Mallouk – “Exploring the Worlds of Investing, Assets and Quality of Life”
The Tim Ferris Show has recently become one of my favourite podcasts. In general, I find the concept of trying to unpack and understand what drives world-class performers to be engaging. Tim does a great job at trying to tease out the habits, routines, and thoughts top performers live by, and use daily, that listeners can transfer into their own lives. Learning from the experience and failures of others can be invaluable, especially if they’ve taken a path you want to follow. You can avoid the same mistakes they made and save yourself a lot of time and struggle.
This specific podcast was with Peter Mallouk, the founder and CEO of Creative Planning, a top financial and estate planning firm. For those who are new to investing and potentially intimidated and confused about how to invest, this podcast makes the topic extremely accessible and covers important investment fundamentals.
Peter and Tim talk about what role investing should take in your life, investing “guardrails” to set, and the importance of understanding yourself and your financial goals to achieve investment success. I largely agree with Peter’s thinking on how to approach investing in the markets, promoting low fee broad-based index funds, and I think this discussion provides great insight. For those who may be interested to learn about the fundamentals of investing as well as the dangers of some recent investment crazes, this podcast would be great to check out.
Artwork I discovered:
The Great Wave off Kanagawa - Print by Hokusai
I feel late to the party in finding this piece of art, but it has become one of my favourite images. Created in 1831 by Japanese artist Katsushika Hokusai, this picture is considered the most recognizable work of Japanese art in the world. It created with woodblock printing, a method that involves drawing an image onto thin paper, tracing the drawing on a plank of wood, and then making incisions and chiseling into the wood to map the drawing. The woodblock is then coloured using a brush and a flat hand-held tool to press the woodblock apply ink to the paper. I think there’s something aesthetically compelling in woodblock prints and how they’re broken down into layers, and those layers correspond with physical carvings. See a demonstration of woodblock printing and more great examples of woodblock prints, as well as a starter set for those artists out there that may want to try it out.
Challenge for the week ahead:
Meditate 5 times for 5-10 minutes a day
Meditation is something I’ve experimented with over the past couple of years but admittedly not something I’ve been able to stick with for an extended period. As life gets busy or stressful, it quickly gets pushed to the side, even though that’s when meditation might be the most helpful. However, I’ve found when I’m able to meditate consistently I see a noticeable improvement in the awareness of my own negative thoughts, a reduction in stress/anxiety, and a feeling of control over my life.
As I listen to podcasts and interviews, virtually all world-class performers attribute meditation to being a large part of their ability to remain consistent and at the top of their game. It’s a practice that can seem confusing and intimidating to begin. People often fear they’ll be bad at it, but the catch about meditation is that there’s no right or wrong way to meditate. It’s a personal journey, and one that I encourage you to look into, whether you want to reduce stress, improve sleep, increase happiness, or improve your performance in school and work.
If you want to meditate but don’t know where to start, I’d highly recommend the 10% Happier app by Dan Harris. The free version of the app has 50-70 guided meditations, of varying lengths, with some of the world leaders in meditation as instructors. The Waking Up app by Sam Harris is also quite good.
Try it as an experiment, and if it’s not for you (it isn’t for everyone), just drop it. If you happen to give it a try this week, I’d love to hear about your experience.
Question for reflection:
What’s the kindest thing someone has ever done for you?
Each person’s definition of kindness is personal and unique, but this is a great question to help cultivate gratitude and to think about some of the amazing people in our lives and experiences we’ve had. Kindness can show up in a variety of ways, but I love asking myself and others this question to focus on the good things that have happened in life.
That’s all from me this week for the first edition of saturday mornings.
I really value your feedback and would love to hear your thoughts on anything in this newsletter. You can give me a shout by replying to this email, and I will do my best to read and incorporate any feedback into future issues.
Have a great and restful weekend. You deserve it.
Much love to you and yours,
Thomas