Rewind a year. Me: 26 and FOJ (fresh out of a job). Having saved up a fair amount from my 9-5, I was largely living off savings. Nevertheless, I was thoroughly enjoying life: making money online by freelancing SEO services, and seeing the world. After two years of long work hours, I was finally free. I committed to take my time, network, and enjoy life for a few months before diving head first into building a business. The natural next step was to move […]

I find television very educational. Every time someone switches it on I go into another room & read a good book. – Groucho Marx It was pouring in Split, Croatia. My roommate and I had plans to climb a mountain outside of the city, but had to rethink our afternoon as the heavy rain came down. Having seen most of the sights and wonders of the city, and without many options that would keep us dry, we decided to do something we […]

I’m a big believer in the power of habit. By putting certain parts of my life on autopilot, I have more energy to dedicate to important stuff, like building relationships and doing creative work. A friend recently asked this question on Facebook: “what’s the activity that has the biggest impact on your life?” While certainly there are many simple things like flossing and showering that matter a lot to my health and well-being, without a doubt it’s my routine in the morning (and night) […]

You should sit in meditation for twenty minutes every day — unless you’re too busy. Then you should sit for an hour. – Zen Proverb I learned to meditate in about a year, thanks an app called Headspace. In the app, founder Andy Puddicombe guides you through meditations while giving advice for managing our emotions. He also covers meditation basics like mindset, attitude, and simple breathing techniques. As someone new to meditation, Headspace was new and exciting. Yet despite my affinity with the app, and despite my well-established meditation […]

Today I am publishing my 2016 Integrity Report. This is a template adapted from James Clear with permission. I’ve wanted to write something like this for a while, but hesitated because I wasn’t sure how to begin and wasn’t clear on my personal values. Further, seeing James’ reports, I felt that directly modeling his report would be disingenuous. However, given his direct permission to use the format, and given that modeling others is my first decision making principle, it’s time to write it out. This […]

Sleep is super important. We spend more than a third of our lives asleep, and there’s a lot of solid research pointing to the health benefits of sleep. When I sleep well, everything is easy. I like it when things are easy. I feel smarter, clearer, happier, healthier, and sexier when I’m well-slept. When I’m under-slept, the opposites are true. I feel mildly depressed, anxious, clouded, reactive and generally unconscious. Yet in spite of this, I rarely commit to a consistent, healthy sleep […]