By Colby Kultgen
Hey friends.
Welcome to 1% Better!
If you're new here, this is the newsletter where I share the 5 best things I find each week to help you get a little better each day.
Let's dive in!
Today at a Glance:
- Idea: You only get 80 summers
- Idea: Are you sure you're anxious?
- Exercise: Reverse engineer your ideal life
- Thread: Life-changing purchases under $100
- Tweet: The worst threat imaginable
Read time: 4 minutes
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You get 80 summers if you're lucky
80 summers.
That's all you get.
Of course, we all know that the average person lives to around 80, but when I heard it described like this—it stopped me in my tracks.
Maybe because this summer is almost over.
Maybe because I've been thinking about my mortality lately.
All I know is that it stuck in my mind.
It also reminded me of my favorite article on the entire internet:
The Tail End by Tim Urban (it's a must-read, trust me)
In the article, Tim outlines how many more times he'll get to do certain activities in his life.
How many more times he'll eat tacos.
How many more times he'll go swimming.
How many more times he'll see his parents before they die.
It's a hilarious and poignant reminder of how finite life really is.
Here are Tim's 3 biggest takeaways at the end of it:
1) Living in the same place as the people you love matters.
I probably have 10X the time left with the people who live in my city as I do with the people who live somewhere else.
2) Priorities matter.
Your remaining face time with any person depends largely on where that person falls on your list of life priorities. Make sure this list is set by you—not by unconscious inertia.
3) Quality time matters.
If you’re in your last 10% of time with someone you love, keep that fact in the front of your mind when you’re with them and treat that time as what it actually is: precious.
Are you anxious, or just living an anxious lifestyle?
As a lifelong anxiety sufferer, this idea from George Mack got me thinking:
While I know I'll never "cure" my anxiety, a few small lifestyle changes have dramatically improved it over the last 10 years.
Namely: meditation, improving my sleep hygiene, cutting back on caffeine, exercise, and working on my self-talk.
P.S. If you want the best self-talk exercise I've ever discovered, reply to this email.
An exercise to reverse engineer your ideal life
Pro tip:
The easiest way to get what you want in life is to start with the end in mind.
This week, I was inspired by my friend Jay Yang to put together a set of questions that would allow you to reverse-engineer an ideal life for yourself.
Here's what I came up with:
- What do I want my ideal life to look like? (Define your vision for your perfect day, environment, relationships, and activities.)
- What kind of person do I need to become to achieve this vision? (Identify the traits, skills, and mindset required to reach your ideal life.)
- What goals should I set to develop these qualities? (Determine specific objectives that will help you grow into the person you need to be.)
- What obstacles are standing in my way? (Recognize challenges or barriers that could hinder your progress.)
- What actionable steps can I take right now to overcome these obstacles and move closer to my goals? (Outline immediate actions you can implement to start making progress.)
My challenge to you:
Set aside some time this week to go through this exercise.
Bonus points if you report back to me with your results.
What purchase under $100 changed your life? - Thread from Dan Go
I'm such a sucker for a thread like this.
I firmly believe that a few well-thought-out purchases can have a massive impact on your overall well-being.
A few from the thread that caught my eye:
- The Power of Your Subconscious Mind (book)
- A white noise machine for sleeping
- A weighted blanket
- A bidet
A few of my own:
- Kindle
- A physical alarm clock (to keep my phone out of my bedroom)
- A lot of different books
- A high quality pillow
Let me know a purchase under $100 that changed your life.
If you know, you know 😂
Have a great week!
—Colby