ATHLLC7251484925
00:00:00.000 | (upbeat music)
00:00:02.400 | - Hello, and welcome to another episode of "All The Hacks,"
00:00:05.500 | a show about upgrading your life, money, and travel.
00:00:08.280 | I'm your host, Chris Hutchins,
00:00:09.520 | and I wanna start this episode by saying happy new year
00:00:12.040 | and how grateful I am for all of you and all your support
00:00:15.200 | and how excited I am for everything
00:00:16.880 | that we're gonna get done in 2024.
00:00:18.780 | But instead of talking about all those new things today,
00:00:21.400 | I want to share some of my takeaways from last year.
00:00:24.720 | I actually went back and listened
00:00:25.840 | to dozens of episodes from 2023,
00:00:28.320 | and I wanted to share my top 10 takeaways from last year.
00:00:31.940 | I'm gonna reference a bunch of past episodes today,
00:00:35.200 | so just know that if you want to find that episode,
00:00:37.320 | you can always go to allthehacks.com/
00:00:40.240 | whatever the episode number is.
00:00:42.160 | So if it's episode 99, allthehacks.com/99.
00:00:46.160 | And as always, I'll include links to all the episodes
00:00:49.080 | I cover and anything else in the show notes
00:00:51.280 | to make things easier for you.
00:00:53.160 | So let's jump into my top 10 takeaways from 2023
00:00:56.980 | right after this.
00:00:58.120 | Taking care of your health isn't always easy,
00:01:01.800 | but it should at least be simple.
00:01:03.800 | That's why for the last two years,
00:01:05.320 | I've been drinking AG1 every day, no exceptions,
00:01:08.120 | and I'm excited to partner with them for this episode.
00:01:10.800 | It's just one scoop mixed in water once a day, every day,
00:01:14.280 | and it makes me feel so energized
00:01:16.000 | and ready to take on whatever comes my way.
00:01:18.680 | That's because each serving of AG1
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00:01:24.600 | It's a powerful, healthy habit
00:01:25.960 | that's also powerfully simple.
00:01:27.900 | And one of the reasons I love AG1
00:01:29.700 | is that healthy aging shouldn't feel complicated.
00:01:32.480 | The thought of taking multiple supplements
00:01:34.460 | or mixing and matching pills and powders every day
00:01:36.900 | sounds exhausting.
00:01:38.580 | But just one scoop of AG1 covers my nutrient gaps
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00:01:44.300 | without a lot of hassle.
00:01:46.080 | In just 60 seconds,
00:01:47.680 | I mix it up with some cold water every morning,
00:01:49.980 | add a few ice cubes because it's so good cold,
00:01:52.580 | and I know I'm giving my body what it needs
00:01:55.020 | and setting up sustainable habits for the long run.
00:01:58.020 | If there's one product to recommend
00:01:59.780 | to elevate your health, it's AG1,
00:02:01.780 | and that's why I've partnered with them for so long.
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00:02:24.380 | (upbeat music)
00:02:26.380 | Takeaway number one,
00:02:27.580 | and don't read into the order of these 10,
00:02:29.700 | is that everyone can build more confidence.
00:02:32.260 | Now, I wouldn't say I'm the most confident person I know,
00:02:34.840 | but it's certainly not a skill
00:02:36.140 | that I ever thought I was necessarily lacking.
00:02:39.020 | But after my conversation with Aziz Ghazipoura
00:02:41.380 | in episode 130,
00:02:42.820 | I realized that confidence is a skill that anyone
00:02:45.380 | and really everyone can improve.
00:02:47.580 | And one of those reasons
00:02:49.020 | is that just believing in something
00:02:50.580 | and being confident about it
00:02:51.740 | isn't always the same as asking for it.
00:02:54.220 | And that asking for things
00:02:55.620 | often leads to a lot more than you thought.
00:02:58.020 | So one of my takeaways from that episode
00:02:59.720 | is just practice getting rejected
00:03:02.120 | to help boost your confidence
00:03:03.620 | and your ability to ask for things.
00:03:05.460 | And it might surprise you over the course of your life.
00:03:08.740 | And it's literally as easy as going up to random people
00:03:12.100 | and asking questions even that you know they'll say no to.
00:03:14.980 | So find a stranger and ask for $100,
00:03:17.440 | not in a way that you're begging
00:03:18.820 | or giving a reason,
00:03:19.740 | just say, "Hey, do you think I could have $100?"
00:03:22.500 | The goal is not to get the $100.
00:03:24.980 | It's to help you get better and better
00:03:26.900 | at understanding and feeling that discomfort
00:03:29.460 | so that you can ask things
00:03:30.940 | and be more confident in the future.
00:03:32.740 | If this seems hard,
00:03:33.580 | you can work through uncomfortable situations in advance.
00:03:36.340 | Ask yourself, if this happens, what would be the outcome?
00:03:39.620 | And almost every time you'll realize
00:03:41.740 | that it's not really gonna be as bad
00:03:43.500 | as you might've initially thought.
00:03:44.980 | And part of the reason that I think being confident
00:03:47.020 | and walking into certain situations is hard
00:03:49.540 | is because there's so much uncertainty.
00:03:51.780 | But I had another conversation this year with Matt Abrahams,
00:03:54.340 | which was episode 139,
00:03:56.300 | where I learned that you can prepare
00:03:57.940 | for a lot of spontaneous conversation as well.
00:04:01.380 | And one of the biggest tactics I learned there
00:04:04.340 | was he gave four ways
00:04:06.160 | that you can relieve the pressure to respond
00:04:08.320 | if you're in a situation where you're not sure what to say.
00:04:11.300 | One of them that might be the most uncomfortable
00:04:13.020 | is to just pause.
00:04:14.840 | I've seen a handful of speakers do this really well
00:04:17.060 | at conferences and as uncomfortable as it is,
00:04:19.900 | the responses that come after are almost always so good
00:04:23.360 | that you forget about that pause.
00:04:25.820 | So that's one thing.
00:04:26.820 | The other is if you need to buy yourself some time,
00:04:28.740 | you can just ask someone to clarify.
00:04:30.900 | Another option is to just paraphrase what someone said.
00:04:33.540 | So you could just repeat what they said,
00:04:35.420 | allowing you some time to think and process.
00:04:37.740 | And then the last,
00:04:38.720 | which is something that I think it's hard
00:04:40.100 | for all of us to do
00:04:41.340 | and takes a little bit of confidence
00:04:42.900 | is to just say you don't know.
00:04:44.300 | Matt also suggested pairing that with I don't know,
00:04:48.020 | but I'll look into it and follow up with you.
00:04:50.460 | But my hunch or my inkling is this.
00:04:53.060 | So people understand that you have the expertise,
00:04:55.240 | but you couch that you don't actually know if it's correct
00:04:58.020 | versus so often we know people that say things
00:05:00.880 | that they're thinking and state them as facts.
00:05:03.500 | The other big way to get better
00:05:05.180 | at being confident in situations with other people,
00:05:07.740 | especially when communicating
00:05:09.220 | is to really just focus on other people's needs.
00:05:11.900 | So often we think about conversation,
00:05:14.620 | negotiation being about ourselves,
00:05:16.540 | but it's often about others.
00:05:18.320 | And so one line that Matt learned from his mother
00:05:21.020 | was just constantly saying, tell me more.
00:05:23.380 | Let people do the talking, listen to their needs
00:05:25.760 | and respond to their needs appropriately.
00:05:28.020 | That said, there are a few tactics that I'll share
00:05:30.060 | before I move on to number two
00:05:31.520 | that were really interesting.
00:05:32.820 | And they were all about having some structures
00:05:35.260 | to how you will have a conversation.
00:05:37.220 | And so Matt shared a few, I'll just share them.
00:05:40.100 | One was what, so what, now what?
00:05:42.460 | And he's like, if you just think about this
00:05:43.780 | and you practice it in advance,
00:05:45.820 | it just makes it really easy
00:05:47.100 | anytime you're asked a question or put on the spot
00:05:49.420 | to put your answer into a framework
00:05:51.580 | that'll help you be concise and deliver your point.
00:05:54.640 | So what happened, why is it important,
00:05:57.300 | and what are we doing next?
00:05:58.520 | Similarly, there's problem, solution, benefit,
00:06:00.760 | which is a common thing in sales tactics.
00:06:02.500 | You can frame your response or your question as,
00:06:04.940 | well, here's the problem, here's what we're gonna do,
00:06:06.500 | and here's why it matters.
00:06:07.900 | And then he gave one that was great
00:06:09.140 | that I haven't had a chance to practice yet,
00:06:11.420 | but it was for toasts or tributes.
00:06:13.380 | Anytime you're put on the spot to speak at an event,
00:06:15.980 | maybe a dinner, he called it what?
00:06:18.100 | It stands for why, why you're here.
00:06:20.020 | H is how are we connected?
00:06:21.740 | A is an anecdote or two, and T is the thank you or toast.
00:06:24.780 | So if you get tapped on at a dinner,
00:06:26.780 | hopefully that will help.
00:06:28.300 | And one of the ways he said you can practice these
00:06:30.420 | is just look at anything going on in life.
00:06:32.920 | Maybe it's an ad on TV and just think,
00:06:35.340 | what was the structure they were using?
00:06:36.940 | And just thinking about it and practicing it
00:06:39.220 | makes it second nature and makes it much easier
00:06:41.380 | for you to think on the fly.
00:06:42.860 | So takeaway one is that everyone can build more confidence,
00:06:46.100 | especially when it comes to spontaneous conversations.
00:06:49.380 | Takeaway two is that kindness is so important.
00:06:53.220 | So often we hear messages like nice guys finish last,
00:06:56.720 | but after my conversation with Gary Vaynerchuk
00:06:59.380 | in episode 118, I think we can all understand
00:07:02.700 | how flawed that statement might be.
00:07:04.720 | I know I've been jealous of other people in the past,
00:07:07.060 | and honestly, I'm not sure why,
00:07:09.060 | but there is an overwhelming abundance of resources
00:07:11.900 | and opportunity in this world.
00:07:13.600 | And other people's success doesn't usually limit
00:07:15.940 | or take away from your opportunities or accomplishments.
00:07:19.100 | Maybe if you're in a race with someone,
00:07:20.900 | obviously if they win, you will not win.
00:07:23.220 | But in general, in life, in business,
00:07:25.720 | in a lot of our endeavors, that's not true.
00:07:28.460 | And with so much more perspective,
00:07:30.860 | anytime I've been jealous in the past seems crazy.
00:07:33.060 | And now I've kind of become this person
00:07:34.860 | that always wants to be the first to congratulate
00:07:37.100 | other people on their successes,
00:07:38.700 | and it's a sincere happiness for them.
00:07:41.380 | Now, I don't know why this is so hard for so many people.
00:07:43.860 | I think a lot of it probably comes down to fear.
00:07:46.220 | People are scared they're gonna fail,
00:07:47.820 | they're gonna be taken advantage of,
00:07:49.340 | and so instead of being kind, they throw up their defenses.
00:07:52.940 | But I think if you start being kind and accountable
00:07:55.340 | to yourself and to others,
00:07:57.060 | I think you'll see your personal life, your career,
00:07:59.420 | and really everything start to flourish,
00:08:01.540 | including the success of others around you,
00:08:04.080 | which is a really amazing feeling.
00:08:06.060 | And one step that might help is just trying to understand
00:08:09.860 | who you're trying to accomplish things for.
00:08:12.280 | Are you working to make yourself happy,
00:08:13.780 | your parents or your friend group?
00:08:15.420 | And as you push and push,
00:08:16.620 | I think ultimately it'll hopefully come back
00:08:19.380 | to what's truly gonna make you happy.
00:08:21.540 | However, I just wanna flag
00:08:22.700 | that all of this talk about kindness
00:08:24.260 | reminds me of a quick conversation I had
00:08:26.420 | with Nisair Yassin in episode 123,
00:08:29.600 | where we discussed the distinction
00:08:31.260 | between being nice and being kind
00:08:33.460 | and how different they can be.
00:08:35.360 | Sometimes I think we think we're being kind,
00:08:37.780 | but we might actually just be being nice
00:08:39.800 | because we're limited by the fear of offending someone else.
00:08:42.780 | So I wanna encourage you to realize
00:08:44.140 | that if you are delivering bad news,
00:08:45.980 | it does mean doing it from a place of sincerity.
00:08:48.580 | Some of the best feedback I've gotten
00:08:50.360 | from entrepreneurs I've spoken with
00:08:52.200 | who are raising money for their businesses
00:08:54.420 | is after I gave them very negative feedback
00:08:57.180 | about why I didn't want to invest,
00:08:59.440 | but I didn't say it to put them down.
00:09:00.900 | I didn't say it unkindly.
00:09:02.820 | I shared the things that made me concerned
00:09:05.240 | because honestly, I wanted to see
00:09:07.180 | if they thought they were valid.
00:09:08.700 | And if they did, maybe they could course correct
00:09:11.060 | because ultimately I want them to succeed.
00:09:13.380 | And the feedback from those meetings
00:09:14.900 | where I decided not to invest,
00:09:16.860 | I've heard later was so, so helpful.
00:09:19.000 | So in 2024, I'm really focused on kindness
00:09:22.960 | as being a superpower for life and business.
00:09:28.120 | Getting the crew together isn't as easy as it used to be.
00:09:31.020 | I get it.
00:09:31.860 | Life comes at you fast, but trust me,
00:09:34.540 | your friends are probably desperate for a good hang.
00:09:37.420 | So kick 2024 off right by finally hosting that event.
00:09:41.500 | Just make sure you do it the easy way
00:09:43.460 | and let our sponsor Drizly,
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00:09:49.100 | All you need to come up with is the excuse to get together.
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00:09:53.780 | It could be your dog's birthday,
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00:11:54.260 | Takeaway number three is that we need
00:11:55.920 | to value our time better and really get better
00:11:58.420 | at outsourcing, delegating, or even dropping things
00:12:01.560 | that we don't wanna do.
00:12:02.980 | So why is this important?
00:12:04.380 | Well, I think we all know that time is such a precious
00:12:07.340 | and limited resource that we can't get more of.
00:12:10.020 | And I had a great conversation with Dan Martell
00:12:13.020 | in episode 98, who's really the master at this.
00:12:16.420 | And one thing we talked about was calculating
00:12:18.620 | our buyback rate to figure out what your time is worth.
00:12:21.980 | And there's a lot of ways to do that math,
00:12:24.060 | but that's not actually the hard part.
00:12:25.700 | I think the hard part is once you get that number,
00:12:28.740 | actually applying it.
00:12:30.300 | Because when we're sitting at home trying to decide
00:12:31.900 | if we wanna order groceries online,
00:12:33.740 | we're not actually going to make our buyback rate
00:12:36.140 | in the one hour we'd save.
00:12:37.980 | And so putting this in practice is especially hard.
00:12:40.900 | I know that many of the people listening,
00:12:42.420 | myself included, are frugal, we hate paying premiums,
00:12:45.820 | but you never know what you're gonna miss out on
00:12:48.260 | until you make space for it.
00:12:50.060 | Take this podcast as an example.
00:12:52.020 | Once I went full time on it,
00:12:53.540 | I was able to do so much more from consistency
00:12:56.500 | with the newsletter, the membership,
00:12:57.980 | more research for solo episodes,
00:13:00.420 | which might evolve to be an even bigger part
00:13:02.660 | of the show next year, but I didn't know that at the time.
00:13:05.700 | It was having the space to think, to write out ideas,
00:13:08.660 | to brainstorm and get creative
00:13:10.660 | that allowed so many cool things to unlock.
00:13:13.220 | And I wouldn't have had that space
00:13:14.660 | if I wasn't willing to protect my time.
00:13:16.940 | So what are some ways you can buy back your time?
00:13:18.900 | I love doing a time audit, look at your calendar,
00:13:21.660 | I'll talk about that in another takeaway later.
00:13:24.020 | You can look at all the tasks
00:13:25.540 | that you might be able to outsource
00:13:26.860 | and just try to figure out are there things
00:13:28.980 | that you don't want to spend your time on,
00:13:30.820 | that you don't enjoy, that don't give you energy,
00:13:33.420 | that you could outsource somewhere else.
00:13:35.420 | Whether that's work or home, could be grocery shopping,
00:13:38.260 | cooking, cleaning, gardening, fixing a toilet,
00:13:41.540 | all those things are possible.
00:13:43.260 | Yes, it'll cost more, but how much?
00:13:46.100 | I used to hate paying all these markups
00:13:47.980 | and delivery fees and service fees
00:13:49.500 | to get groceries delivered.
00:13:51.020 | And I wanted to know the true cost
00:13:52.820 | so I could feel good about it.
00:13:53.940 | I added everything to the card in the app
00:13:55.660 | and then I actually went to the grocery store
00:13:57.260 | and I compared the total and the difference was about $15.
00:14:00.980 | Except the grocery store trip took an hour.
00:14:03.220 | And by the way, I think I ended up buying
00:14:05.060 | about $15 of things I didn't need
00:14:07.340 | because I was a little bit more impulsive at the store.
00:14:09.820 | But even if I avoided that impulsive behavior,
00:14:12.460 | $15 an hour seems like a great deal.
00:14:15.260 | Every day, I don't just hop in the car
00:14:17.220 | and drive for Uber or Lyft to make $15 an hour.
00:14:20.020 | So clearly I value my time at more than that.
00:14:22.820 | And if you look at what I've charged
00:14:24.620 | in the past for consulting, my rate is way more than that.
00:14:28.500 | So why is it so hard?
00:14:30.620 | The more I think about it, the more I'm able to do it,
00:14:33.300 | but it's the doing it that makes it easier
00:14:35.260 | because once I do it, I start to actually see the things
00:14:38.180 | that have happened in my life with extra time
00:14:40.340 | to be creative and to think.
00:14:41.780 | And that's when it's gotten more and more comfortable.
00:14:44.140 | On the work side, 2023 was actually the year
00:14:47.060 | I finally hired an assistant and I haven't looked back.
00:14:50.180 | Her name is Possany.
00:14:51.220 | She's amazing and I'm so grateful for her.
00:14:54.180 | I worried for months before going through that process
00:14:56.940 | that I wouldn't be able to fill her week with work.
00:14:59.100 | And now we're already talking about
00:15:00.460 | when to hire another person to join the team
00:15:02.580 | because she's already taken on so much work.
00:15:04.900 | So if you're even remotely interested,
00:15:06.180 | there are lots of companies you can use
00:15:07.620 | to find or recruit an assistant, but we used Oceans.
00:15:10.500 | The website's oceansxyz.com, highly recommended.
00:15:14.100 | If you're interested, reach out to them
00:15:16.060 | and let them know I sent you
00:15:17.380 | and ask them if they can hook you up with a deal.
00:15:19.540 | Also, we have an amazing episode coming out
00:15:21.460 | in a week or two with Sam Korkos
00:15:23.100 | about all the different ways you can leverage delegation
00:15:25.420 | through assistance, automation, and more.
00:15:27.420 | So that's gonna be really awesome.
00:15:29.980 | Finally, part of this takeaway was also say no.
00:15:32.940 | And I included that because just looking
00:15:34.900 | at an email this morning and I got a pitch
00:15:37.020 | to use someone's service, and I still felt
00:15:40.140 | this small instinct that I needed to reply,
00:15:42.780 | but I'm not sure why.
00:15:44.380 | Just because they or probably some automated system
00:15:46.980 | sent me an email to my inbox
00:15:48.860 | doesn't mean I owe them a reply.
00:15:50.980 | A previous version of me probably would have,
00:15:53.300 | but I think it's really important to protect our own time
00:15:56.260 | and realize that just because someone is trying
00:15:58.700 | to impede on our time doesn't mean
00:16:00.860 | we have to let that happen.
00:16:02.820 | So when you get a phone call, you can say no.
00:16:05.180 | When you get an email, you can just archive it.
00:16:07.540 | Don't forget that you need to be more protective
00:16:09.860 | of your own time as well.
00:16:11.820 | So that's takeaway three, value your time
00:16:14.140 | and really get better at outsourcing, delegating,
00:16:16.260 | and just dropping the things you don't want to do.
00:16:18.900 | Takeaway number four for me
00:16:20.180 | was learning the skill of spending.
00:16:22.180 | This one is so important and it has two steps.
00:16:25.060 | First, getting clarity on your spending,
00:16:28.020 | which I really went deep on this year in episode 133.
00:16:31.460 | I have never had more clarity on our spending
00:16:33.500 | in my entire 39 years of life.
00:16:36.460 | I've tried all the tools.
00:16:37.940 | We ended up using Copilot to track everything.
00:16:40.460 | I think it's fun and easy and way better
00:16:42.980 | at categorizing expenses than the five
00:16:44.900 | to 10 other apps I tried.
00:16:46.660 | They are now a partner of the show.
00:16:48.020 | So if you want to try it out for two months for free,
00:16:50.100 | you can do that at allthehacks.com/copilot
00:16:52.900 | or with the code HACKS2.
00:16:54.940 | And good news for both XMint users and Android web users,
00:16:58.620 | they're building a Mint data importer as we speak,
00:17:01.540 | which should be done soon.
00:17:03.060 | And they'll be launching Copilot
00:17:04.620 | for Android and web this year.
00:17:06.900 | I'm really excited for more of you
00:17:08.220 | to be able to check it out.
00:17:09.500 | But once you understand where you're spending money,
00:17:12.100 | you need to also be intentional about where you want to spend
00:17:14.820 | and the changes you want to make,
00:17:16.340 | which involves going through all those categories
00:17:18.540 | and really thinking about what you care about,
00:17:20.380 | what you don't, what's important to you and what's not.
00:17:23.140 | And the hard part for me wasn't actually cutting back
00:17:26.220 | on things I don't care about.
00:17:27.660 | It was learning the skill of spending
00:17:29.940 | to dial up the things I did care about.
00:17:32.940 | I'll go back to how hard it is for me
00:17:34.860 | and probably many of you to steer away
00:17:37.140 | from our like frugal and optimizing way of life.
00:17:40.620 | And honestly, it's still hard,
00:17:42.700 | but I've gotten better and better at doing it.
00:17:45.020 | In fact, I once heard someone describe a budget
00:17:46.980 | as being more freeing than restricting,
00:17:49.380 | because when you allocate a certain amount of money
00:17:51.580 | to a category, it actually gives you the freedom
00:17:53.980 | to spend it without worry.
00:17:55.660 | And I have to agree.
00:17:56.820 | So this year, we've decided to increase
00:17:59.660 | our money dial for travel.
00:18:01.540 | And we wanted to do that because we love traveling,
00:18:04.500 | but we also wanted it to be comfortable with two kids,
00:18:06.980 | which is something we really value.
00:18:08.780 | And by the way, you might not, which is totally fine.
00:18:11.980 | But for us, that means renting a bigger house
00:18:14.500 | or getting two connecting hotel rooms,
00:18:16.620 | or in some cases, renting a suite,
00:18:18.740 | all of which costs two to three times what we used to spend
00:18:21.580 | and usually can't be booked with points.
00:18:24.020 | But because we know we've cut back
00:18:26.220 | in other areas of our life,
00:18:27.700 | and because we've allocated a specific amount
00:18:30.540 | of extra money to this category,
00:18:32.940 | and it's important to us,
00:18:34.940 | we've gotten a lot more comfortable spending that money.
00:18:38.100 | If you wanna go back to episode 141,
00:18:40.260 | I talked with three-time All The Hacks guest, Brad Barrett,
00:18:43.620 | from the Choose Five podcast,
00:18:45.100 | all about learning the skill of spending.
00:18:47.180 | And it also brought me back to a very early episode,
00:18:50.060 | episode number nine with Ramit Sethi,
00:18:52.140 | who really believes vehemently
00:18:54.380 | that you should spend on the things you care about,
00:18:57.260 | turn up those money dials,
00:18:58.580 | and then cut back mercilessly
00:19:00.500 | on the things you don't care about.
00:19:02.140 | So that's takeaway number four.
00:19:03.780 | I really needed to get better
00:19:05.180 | at learning the skill of spending,
00:19:06.580 | and I think it's a journey that I am on and making progress.
00:19:11.260 | Number five is that there are many paths
00:19:13.660 | to happiness and success.
00:19:14.900 | Now, this one seems so obvious,
00:19:16.460 | but Amy and I worked in tech in Silicon Valley
00:19:19.680 | for the last decade,
00:19:21.180 | and it almost seemed in our minds
00:19:23.380 | that success was being the founder of a unicorn startup
00:19:26.900 | or being a venture capitalist,
00:19:28.620 | which in hindsight seems so obviously narrow and wrong,
00:19:32.180 | but that career and effectively
00:19:33.660 | the way you invest your money,
00:19:35.060 | because if you're being a founder,
00:19:36.820 | you're taking a lower salary or investing in your company,
00:19:39.340 | and if you're an investor,
00:19:40.340 | you're actually investing in those funds that you manage.
00:19:42.700 | It just seemed like what you were supposed to do
00:19:44.580 | with your time and energy and money to be successful.
00:19:47.340 | And even though I'm doing the podcast full-time,
00:19:50.700 | it still felt a little bit to me like a side hustle
00:19:54.620 | or a less exciting path because it wasn't success
00:19:57.620 | in the way the last decade has trained me to think about it.
00:20:01.100 | And then I had a conversation with Cody Sanchez
00:20:03.180 | in episode 119, and it really changed things.
00:20:06.460 | First off, she's built her entire empire
00:20:08.660 | buying boring businesses,
00:20:10.100 | which was something I'd never considered,
00:20:12.380 | and honestly didn't sound exciting to me,
00:20:14.780 | but she's built a wildly successful company around it.
00:20:18.060 | And it just kind of kicked me out of that mode of thinking
00:20:20.540 | because she's put her time and money into something
00:20:23.780 | that's not that sexy, but that she really enjoys
00:20:26.740 | and has done so well.
00:20:28.100 | And it got the wheels turning for me
00:20:29.500 | about all the possible things I could do,
00:20:32.020 | but not just me, anyone.
00:20:33.740 | I've shared that episode to so many friends
00:20:35.740 | and family members in different industries,
00:20:38.020 | from medicine to oil and gas to teaching.
00:20:40.580 | And even though many of them aren't rushing out
00:20:42.340 | to buy a laundromat or another small business,
00:20:44.740 | they've all shared how they're now thinking
00:20:46.420 | a little bit differently about the paths they could take
00:20:49.540 | to their own happiness and success, which is awesome.
00:20:52.300 | And I can't wait to see where the next year or two
00:20:54.300 | take all those people,
00:20:55.420 | and especially take me and Amy and everything we're doing.
00:20:58.580 | Don't worry, the podcast isn't going anywhere.
00:21:00.820 | I'm just excited for everything that can come.
00:21:03.280 | So takeaway number five,
00:21:04.220 | there are so many more paths to happiness and success
00:21:06.840 | that you might not be considering.
00:21:09.180 | Takeaway number six is that we are all responsible
00:21:12.040 | for our own health.
00:21:13.560 | And this really came to light this year
00:21:15.580 | and started with my cholesterol situation,
00:21:18.100 | which for most of my life had been high.
00:21:20.340 | But for years, the advice I'd gotten from doctors
00:21:23.280 | was just exercise, eat healthy, check back.
00:21:26.500 | And even though my cholesterol numbers didn't get better,
00:21:28.680 | the advice never changed.
00:21:30.420 | I'd been on that regimen for a while.
00:21:32.340 | And then I started listening to Peter Attia's podcast
00:21:35.260 | and eventually went down the rabbit hole of heart disease,
00:21:37.600 | which by the way, is the leading cause of death,
00:21:40.500 | and realized that the advice I've been getting is so bad.
00:21:43.620 | And the reasons why are so crazy.
00:21:46.240 | One of the primary ones is that the way we evaluate risk
00:21:50.160 | of heart disease is that we look at the likelihood
00:21:53.460 | of a cardiac event and set a threshold
00:21:55.800 | where if it's higher than that point, we take action.
00:21:58.500 | And if it's not, we don't.
00:22:00.260 | And most of those tests that are used
00:22:02.260 | don't even work until you're 40.
00:22:03.980 | So if you're not 40, or if you are 40,
00:22:07.280 | but you're not a high enough likelihood
00:22:09.420 | of something happening, then we don't take any practice.
00:22:12.140 | It's as if we said, until you're a specific percentage
00:22:15.580 | likely to get lung cancer in the next 10 years,
00:22:17.780 | smoking is fine, which seems crazy.
00:22:21.080 | And so I started taking this into my own hands.
00:22:24.480 | I went and paid for a calcium score test,
00:22:27.320 | which at some places is quite affordable,
00:22:30.600 | and found out that I have a small,
00:22:32.760 | but non-zero amount of calcium in my arteries,
00:22:35.320 | which meant this is serious.
00:22:37.200 | I sought out a doctor that would actually listen
00:22:39.600 | to some of these results and talk.
00:22:41.880 | They were part of one medical,
00:22:43.220 | so it's not like I went and spent a ton of money to do this.
00:22:47.280 | And the course of action was to get on statins,
00:22:49.920 | and I've brought my cholesterol down,
00:22:51.740 | and I feel much, much better about the future.
00:22:54.660 | In the middle of this entire process,
00:22:56.140 | I also did an episode with Dr. Jordan Shlain,
00:22:58.420 | which was episode 97, and we discussed how important it is
00:23:01.820 | for all of us to be in charge of our own health.
00:23:03.820 | And that's because even the best doctors in the world
00:23:06.420 | don't have the time or ability to care about your health
00:23:09.380 | as much as you do.
00:23:10.620 | They also can't be experts in everything.
00:23:13.260 | And unfortunately, many have to tailor their advice
00:23:16.480 | to what patients can do, i.e. what's covered by insurance,
00:23:19.220 | and often what's been given to them in outdated guidance
00:23:22.100 | that they're still operating on.
00:23:24.220 | So in addition to that calcium score test,
00:23:26.860 | I've done a bunch of research on other tests
00:23:28.820 | I could be doing just to get a baseline
00:23:30.900 | of where I can affect change.
00:23:32.620 | And fortunately, a lot of those diagnostics
00:23:34.820 | are getting cheaper and more accessible.
00:23:37.060 | Things like DEXA scans, VO2max,
00:23:39.180 | getting all of your biomarkers done, whole-body MRIs.
00:23:42.460 | I'm actually gonna do a whole episode
00:23:43.980 | on what I learned in that process next year,
00:23:46.800 | but please don't get caught up
00:23:48.680 | on everything you could possibly do.
00:23:51.400 | Yes, you can use those tests
00:23:52.840 | to figure out where to make progress,
00:23:54.100 | but honestly, anywhere you make progress
00:23:56.440 | is better than nowhere.
00:23:58.020 | And I love this one point where I think it was Dr. Schlain
00:24:01.640 | said, you know, there are a million ways
00:24:03.600 | you can improve your health,
00:24:04.580 | but if you're not just exercising and eating healthy,
00:24:07.480 | a lot of them don't matter.
00:24:08.780 | So yes, you can go deeper and deeper,
00:24:11.120 | but also don't forget about the fundamentals
00:24:13.800 | and keep in mind that you're ultimately in charge.
00:24:16.140 | If you wanna go deeper on this,
00:24:17.800 | Peter Attia's book "Outlive" came out this past year
00:24:20.440 | and I really enjoyed it.
00:24:21.920 | So takeaway number six,
00:24:23.720 | we're all responsible for our own health.
00:24:25.560 | We have to take it into our own hands.
00:24:27.400 | And fortunately, that's become a lot easier.
00:24:29.800 | I've talked to a lot of amazing people on this podcast,
00:24:34.640 | but if you're like me, you wanna go deeper.
00:24:37.000 | So where can you go to learn
00:24:38.400 | from the most remarkable people?
00:24:40.160 | That's Masterclass,
00:24:41.240 | who I'm excited to partner with for this episode.
00:24:43.600 | This year, don't just talk about improving.
00:24:46.000 | Masterclass helps you actually do it
00:24:48.280 | by giving you unlimited access
00:24:50.040 | to intimate one-on-one classes with the world's best.
00:24:53.160 | In fact, Masterclass offers
00:24:54.640 | over 180 world-class instructors.
00:24:57.520 | So whether you wanna master negotiation with Chris Voss,
00:25:00.560 | think like a boss with Martha Stewart,
00:25:02.680 | or go deeper on mental strength
00:25:04.680 | with All The Hacks guest Robin Arzon,
00:25:07.120 | Masterclass has you covered.
00:25:09.160 | There are over 200 classes to pick from
00:25:11.960 | with new classes added every month,
00:25:14.400 | like modern Japanese cooking,
00:25:16.200 | which helped me be more confident in the kitchen
00:25:18.720 | and introduce some new flavors to our weekly meals.
00:25:22.080 | Plus, every new membership
00:25:23.520 | comes with a 30-day money-back guarantee,
00:25:25.840 | so there's no risk for you.
00:25:27.880 | And right now, our listeners will get an additional 15% off
00:25:31.760 | an annual membership at allthehacks.com/masterclass.
00:25:36.520 | Get 15% off right now at allthehacks.com/masterclass
00:25:42.520 | allthehacks.com/masterclass.
00:25:45.880 | When it comes to building wealth,
00:25:49.360 | taxes are such a big part of the strategy,
00:25:51.960 | and even if you've already filed,
00:25:53.640 | being proactive right now to lower your future liability
00:25:56.960 | is so important.
00:25:58.320 | And now that I'm working with GELT,
00:25:59.880 | I feel like I finally have a partner I can trust
00:26:02.280 | to handle everything for my personal and business taxes,
00:26:05.600 | and I'm excited to be partnering with them today.
00:26:08.160 | Think of GELT as the ultimate modern CPA.
00:26:11.040 | They not only offer an amazing tech platform
00:26:13.400 | that gives you personalized guidance
00:26:15.000 | to maximize deductions, tax credits, and savings,
00:26:18.240 | but also it's so easy to communicate with them.
00:26:21.160 | There's an in-house team of expert CPAs
00:26:23.440 | who can recommend the most effective tax strategies
00:26:25.720 | to minimize risk and grow your wealth.
00:26:28.080 | And my favorite story
00:26:29.240 | is that when we first onboarded with GELT,
00:26:31.200 | they reviewed our past returns
00:26:32.880 | and found a huge mistake our prior CPA had made,
00:26:36.120 | so they refiled and got us back all that money.
00:26:39.080 | So, if you're ready for a more premium,
00:26:41.120 | proactive tax strategy to optimize and file your taxes,
00:26:44.800 | you have to check out GELT.
00:26:46.480 | And as an "All The Hacks" listener,
00:26:47.880 | you can skip the wait list.
00:26:49.560 | Just head to allthehacks.com/GELT, that's G-E-L-T.
00:26:54.400 | Again, that's allthehacks.com/G-E-L-T
00:26:58.120 | to stop overpaying on taxes.
00:27:00.400 | I just wanna thank you quick for listening to
00:27:04.120 | and supporting the show.
00:27:05.600 | Your support is what keeps this show going.
00:27:08.440 | To get all of the URLs, codes, deals,
00:27:11.160 | and discounts from our partners,
00:27:12.920 | you can go to allthehacks.com/deals.
00:27:16.480 | So, please consider supporting those who support us.
00:27:19.720 | All right, my takeaway number seven
00:27:21.440 | is that eating well can be so much easier than you think.
00:27:24.680 | So, just talked about health.
00:27:26.520 | One of the biggest things there is food and diet,
00:27:28.280 | and I feel like it's always seemed so hard to eat healthy.
00:27:31.360 | But this year, we've realized
00:27:32.880 | that we've been making it more work than it needs to be.
00:27:35.480 | So, I wanna share some of the tips we've learned
00:27:37.360 | and been using to make the process better.
00:27:39.560 | First off, meal planning helps so much.
00:27:41.800 | This could be as simple as just planning out
00:27:43.400 | what you wanna cook each week.
00:27:44.920 | We organize all our meals in an app called Paprika,
00:27:47.040 | which I love.
00:27:48.080 | But if you wanna make it even easier,
00:27:49.640 | there are plenty of sites that sell
00:27:51.480 | or give away full meal plans.
00:27:53.640 | And this is one where AI can actually be really helpful.
00:27:56.720 | If you haven't done this, definitely try it out.
00:27:59.120 | Go to ChatGPT, or whatever your AI of choice is,
00:28:02.560 | and ask them to create a meal plan,
00:28:04.400 | and then continually try to tailor it
00:28:06.280 | to exactly what you want,
00:28:07.680 | whether that's flavors, or diets, or types of protein.
00:28:11.680 | And the results are amazing.
00:28:13.600 | You can do this for regular cooking,
00:28:15.240 | or you could even layer on kind of a meal prep aspect
00:28:19.040 | where you're gonna make food in bulk and freeze it,
00:28:21.240 | which will make cooking meals even easier
00:28:23.600 | in the weeks that follow.
00:28:25.260 | Okay, another one.
00:28:26.100 | You've probably heard me talk about this multiple times,
00:28:28.160 | but one of the ways we make eating well easy
00:28:30.080 | is that three of our meals every single week
00:28:32.360 | come from Green Chef,
00:28:33.640 | which is a meal kit focused on eating well.
00:28:35.920 | There are a lot of options here,
00:28:37.320 | and we've tried others in the past,
00:28:38.880 | but when we tried Green Chef early last year,
00:28:40.720 | it was amazing, both the food taste and the health aspect.
00:28:44.120 | And we've honestly been ordering it
00:28:45.520 | every week we're in town since.
00:28:47.520 | And even though I got them to become a partner of the show,
00:28:50.160 | though they don't even know I'm doing this,
00:28:52.040 | we still have to pay for it every single week,
00:28:53.840 | but we're happy to.
00:28:55.080 | And if you go to allthehacks.com/greenchef,
00:28:57.560 | you can get 60% off your first kit.
00:28:59.860 | Another thing we've done to simplify meal planning
00:29:01.800 | is just repeat meals.
00:29:03.720 | Comes in two forms for us,
00:29:05.080 | which is just repeating recipes we love,
00:29:07.160 | which has the added benefit of making the cooking so easy
00:29:09.700 | because the recipes become second nature,
00:29:12.100 | or we just do tacos on Tuesday and pizza on Friday.
00:29:15.300 | There's no overhead on what we're doing those nights.
00:29:17.440 | It's always the same.
00:29:18.800 | And when you combine that with Green Chef
00:29:20.420 | for three nights a week,
00:29:21.560 | we really only have to plan for two nights a week.
00:29:24.560 | I mentioned outsourcing above,
00:29:25.960 | but ordering groceries online has made everything easy.
00:29:28.960 | And for this, we're mostly using Amazon Fresh
00:29:31.120 | and Whole Foods because every time we keep trying Instacart,
00:29:34.200 | they do such a bad job of replacements.
00:29:36.760 | And by the way, if you end up getting an assistant,
00:29:39.760 | you could actually ask them to help plan your meals
00:29:41.860 | and order the groceries and save you time.
00:29:44.160 | In the past, we've also had someone help with meal prep.
00:29:47.680 | So I put an ad out on Craigslist
00:29:49.180 | just to find someone local who could cook meals
00:29:51.400 | and prep for the week,
00:29:52.400 | and it was way less than the cost of delivery.
00:29:54.880 | And we were able to share recipes we wanted
00:29:57.200 | to someone who would shop and cook
00:29:58.880 | for two to three days at a time
00:30:00.280 | and drop everything off on Tupperware.
00:30:02.440 | It seemed like such a luxury,
00:30:03.960 | but it was so much cheaper than you'd think.
00:30:06.200 | And all we had to do for dinner was reheat things.
00:30:08.780 | Then finally, after talking to Chef David Chang
00:30:11.180 | in episode 122, I took away a bunch of hacks
00:30:14.040 | to make cooking at home easy,
00:30:15.580 | like buying more frozen fish, using spices more,
00:30:18.520 | not always needing to peel ginger,
00:30:20.940 | so many more things in that episode.
00:30:22.580 | But a big one that has saved us time
00:30:24.360 | is just using the microwave more.
00:30:26.280 | Which no joke, we've probably made
00:30:27.560 | his salmon veggie rice dish a dozen times in the microwave,
00:30:31.160 | which you can make with just one pot
00:30:33.280 | and do the whole meal in your microwave.
00:30:35.680 | It's delicious, but the microwave
00:30:37.480 | also helps keep food nutrients dense,
00:30:39.480 | and you don't have to use as many oils or fats.
00:30:42.360 | Honestly, we enjoyed the microwave cooking
00:30:44.440 | that we learned so much
00:30:45.720 | that we ended up partnering with AnyDay,
00:30:47.360 | the microwave cooking company Dave Chang is behind,
00:30:49.680 | to get all listeners 15% off at allthehacks.com/anyday
00:30:53.520 | if you wanna check it out.
00:30:55.200 | So takeaway number seven is that eating well
00:30:57.220 | can be a lot easier than you think.
00:30:58.920 | Number eight is that you are in control of your own life.
00:31:02.720 | This one seemed so cliche to include
00:31:04.760 | because it wasn't really a new message from 2023,
00:31:07.840 | I'm sure we've all heard it.
00:31:09.640 | But talking about it with Robin Arzon in episode 145
00:31:13.160 | really made it come to life for me,
00:31:15.160 | because I realized it's not always about
00:31:17.080 | just the big changes as much as it is some of the small ones.
00:31:20.880 | So often we hear that we're in charge,
00:31:22.640 | we get to decide what we wanna do,
00:31:24.320 | where we wanna go in our life,
00:31:26.240 | but those all seem like they lead to big, hard changes.
00:31:29.720 | But it's so important to not let great
00:31:32.000 | be the enemy of good,
00:31:33.280 | and realize you don't need the best outcome to make change.
00:31:36.560 | Sometimes you can actually split those two things out
00:31:39.240 | and get started as one step,
00:31:41.360 | and then optimize your way to the ideal outcome
00:31:43.960 | as a second step that you might end up not wanting to do.
00:31:47.360 | For example, meditating was always set aside
00:31:49.680 | 30 minutes a day,
00:31:50.840 | and it would take the right location,
00:31:52.360 | room, sounds, type of practice.
00:31:54.680 | Then I did an episode with Light Watkins in episode 126,
00:31:58.160 | and he reminded me that you can meditate from anywhere
00:32:00.600 | for any amount of time.
00:32:01.920 | You may get more benefit doing it in the most optimal way,
00:32:05.360 | but there's so much benefit you can get
00:32:06.960 | just meditating while sitting on your couch
00:32:09.000 | for a few minutes.
00:32:09.960 | Then with Robin, she pushed me to prove
00:32:11.760 | that I could do something hard in the hardest time of year
00:32:15.160 | instead of an easier time of year
00:32:17.320 | with her 3 for 31 challenge,
00:32:19.680 | which as of recording this,
00:32:21.280 | I've managed to run three miles
00:32:22.920 | or move for 22 days straight in December,
00:32:25.240 | and I am confident I will manage to continue
00:32:27.400 | for the last nine days,
00:32:29.200 | which will leave me thinking,
00:32:30.640 | wow, if I can do this in December
00:32:32.680 | when we had both sets of parents visiting,
00:32:35.600 | two kids, all the holidays,
00:32:37.880 | everything we were trying to get done for end of year work,
00:32:40.360 | taxes and everything,
00:32:41.920 | I could probably do this any month of the year.
00:32:44.320 | Part of that was reframing commitment
00:32:45.680 | to be part of my identity.
00:32:47.320 | So when I think about exercise,
00:32:49.040 | I think about the fact that I'm someone who said to others,
00:32:51.460 | including you all,
00:32:52.300 | that I'm gonna make my health important.
00:32:54.160 | So if I say I wanna exercise three times a week
00:32:56.800 | and I don't do that,
00:32:58.240 | I'm not being someone who follows through on my own word,
00:33:01.040 | which is actually way more motivating for me
00:33:03.840 | than being someone who just didn't exercise in a given week.
00:33:07.800 | Finally, I wanna share a really cool thing Amy and I did,
00:33:10.240 | which we called our billionaire life exercise.
00:33:12.840 | Basically, we went through a bunch of categories
00:33:15.080 | and spent time brainstorming
00:33:16.600 | what our life would look like in each of them
00:33:18.520 | if time or money weren't a concern.
00:33:21.040 | Those categories were
00:33:22.680 | the relationship you have with your spouse,
00:33:24.520 | your friends and family,
00:33:26.200 | health and fitness,
00:33:27.960 | travel and transportation,
00:33:30.000 | hobbies and personal expression,
00:33:31.920 | work and career,
00:33:33.640 | self-improvement,
00:33:35.440 | giving back,
00:33:36.720 | and celebrations and holidays.
00:33:38.840 | So we came up with all kinds of ideas
00:33:41.240 | on what we would change and what we would do.
00:33:43.080 | But at the end, the crazy realization
00:33:45.480 | was that the difference between our really rich life
00:33:48.680 | wasn't a billion dollars.
00:33:50.200 | It was many, many orders of magnitude less
00:33:53.040 | and actually pretty close to where we were today
00:33:56.120 | with some subtle changes
00:33:57.760 | that we feel like we could easily make
00:34:00.080 | now that we've gone through this process
00:34:02.000 | of cutting where we don't care and focusing on where we are.
00:34:04.960 | And so the goal for 2024
00:34:06.600 | is to fit a lot of those into our annual spending
00:34:09.480 | and actually live the life that we want.
00:34:12.560 | And it's just so crazy when you go through this exercise,
00:34:15.000 | which I'll encourage you all to try
00:34:16.800 | because some of the things that make us feel like
00:34:19.080 | we're living our billionaire life as we called it
00:34:21.560 | was replacing our garage door opener.
00:34:23.560 | We have one of those old garage door openers
00:34:25.240 | that's so loud every time you open it.
00:34:27.600 | And anytime we're at my parents' house
00:34:29.480 | or anyone's house that has a newer garage door,
00:34:31.680 | it's so quiet.
00:34:32.960 | So for us, we haven't done that
00:34:35.680 | because we have a functioning garage door.
00:34:37.520 | But if we had a billion dollars, of course we'd replace it.
00:34:40.800 | Well, it turns out the cost to replace a garage door
00:34:42.560 | isn't that high.
00:34:44.040 | So if we can make ourselves feel so much happier
00:34:46.520 | and feel like we're living the life
00:34:48.120 | that we really wanna live for a few hundred dollars,
00:34:51.120 | that's amazing.
00:34:51.960 | And so there's a bunch of those things
00:34:53.800 | in all of these categories,
00:34:55.400 | especially around how we spend our time
00:34:57.520 | with friends and family and during the holidays.
00:34:59.920 | So I don't know, I really love that exercise.
00:35:02.240 | I hope that other people get to do it.
00:35:04.000 | So takeaway eight is that you're in control of your life.
00:35:06.880 | I encourage you all, even the small things,
00:35:09.360 | to be more intentional about it.
00:35:10.920 | Takeaway number nine is that you've gotta ditch plan B.
00:35:14.000 | And while this might be similar to the last takeaway,
00:35:16.360 | it was really different for me and much more specific.
00:35:19.160 | And it all came from talking to Matt Higgins
00:35:21.520 | in episode 105 about his book, "Burn the Boats."
00:35:25.040 | The big takeaway was all of this research
00:35:27.400 | that shows that merely having a plan B can hold you back.
00:35:30.880 | There's this experiment that happened
00:35:32.560 | with undergraduates in college
00:35:34.000 | where they brought them into a room
00:35:35.320 | and gave them a task of unscrambling words
00:35:37.880 | to form sentences and promise them energy bars
00:35:40.640 | as a reward for high performance.
00:35:43.080 | They randomly assigned them into two groups.
00:35:45.080 | And in one of the groups,
00:35:46.280 | they had them think about a backup plan
00:35:48.520 | that could get them free snacks on campus.
00:35:51.080 | And the other group, they didn't.
00:35:52.760 | And sure enough,
00:35:53.600 | the group that had those backup plans in advance
00:35:56.120 | didn't perform as well as the other group.
00:35:58.600 | The subsequent experiments have been run
00:36:00.240 | with money and time and other rewards.
00:36:03.000 | And the results are similar every time
00:36:05.520 | that just having a plan B
00:36:07.240 | makes it less likely for plan A to be successful.
00:36:10.080 | So this was a challenge because as an optimizer,
00:36:12.080 | I always wanna make the best decision.
00:36:13.880 | It often means contemplating options and having hedges.
00:36:17.520 | But I've really realized that when it comes to the big stuff
00:36:20.120 | that I wanna make sure happens,
00:36:22.120 | I need to go all in and not look back.
00:36:24.800 | It's why I quit my job to focus on all the hacks.
00:36:27.280 | It's why Amy did the same thing.
00:36:29.200 | And sure, we probably could have
00:36:31.080 | and should have done it sooner,
00:36:33.080 | but it was awesome to see what happened
00:36:34.760 | when we went all in
00:36:35.800 | and things really felt like they were gonna work.
00:36:38.160 | And one way to help make this happen even more in your life
00:36:40.920 | is a lesson from my conversation with Sahil Bloom
00:36:43.080 | about razors in episode 116.
00:36:45.720 | And it's what he called the optimist razor,
00:36:48.160 | which was when choosing who to spend time with,
00:36:50.200 | prioritize spending time with optimists.
00:36:52.840 | Pessimists see the doors that are closed,
00:36:54.680 | optimists see the doors that are open
00:36:56.240 | and probably will help you kick down
00:36:58.080 | those closed doors as well.
00:36:59.840 | So in 2024, I'm trying to surround myself even more
00:37:03.320 | with others who will push me to burn my boats,
00:37:05.960 | focus on plan A and not give up.
00:37:08.760 | So that's takeaway nine.
00:37:10.760 | Final takeaway, number 10 is taking the time to reflect.
00:37:15.080 | And part of the way this episode
00:37:16.640 | and the one I did like this a year ago came together
00:37:20.160 | is that I took the time to reflect
00:37:21.960 | on all the lessons I learned from the podcast.
00:37:24.200 | But funny enough, when I did this last year,
00:37:26.280 | I was so focused on doing it for the episode
00:37:29.640 | that I didn't actually let the exercise bleed over
00:37:32.160 | to reflecting on my own life.
00:37:35.080 | Then in episode 99, at the very beginning of 2023,
00:37:38.920 | Sahil Bloom shared his personal annual review exercise
00:37:42.160 | and it was such an eye-opener.
00:37:44.040 | I loved forcing myself to do that reflection for me.
00:37:47.000 | And in his review, the template is simple.
00:37:50.000 | There's just seven questions and you can actually go back
00:37:52.400 | and re-listen to the episode I did with him
00:37:54.640 | if you want more detail.
00:37:56.240 | The questions were,
00:37:57.520 | what did I change my mind on this year?
00:37:59.600 | What created energy this year?
00:38:01.480 | What drained energy this year?
00:38:03.560 | Who were the boat anchors in my life?
00:38:05.760 | What did I not do because of fear?
00:38:08.280 | What were my greatest hits and worst misses
00:38:10.840 | and what did I learn this year?
00:38:12.920 | I won't go through my answers to all of them publicly,
00:38:15.320 | though I am curious if you think sharing that kind of stuff
00:38:18.000 | with you would be interesting in a future episode,
00:38:20.840 | but I will share one tactic in the process
00:38:23.560 | when it came to what created and drained energy that I love
00:38:27.040 | and that's doing a calendar audit.
00:38:28.760 | And I mentioned it earlier,
00:38:30.160 | but it just involves looking back
00:38:31.840 | at a few weeks of your calendar
00:38:33.240 | and evaluating everything you did
00:38:35.320 | on those criteria of what created and drained energy.
00:38:38.560 | And if you wanna make it even more visual,
00:38:40.480 | you can take the things that created energy
00:38:42.520 | and make them green on your calendar.
00:38:44.240 | If they took away energy, make them red.
00:38:46.560 | If you're not sure, you can make them gray
00:38:48.640 | and then look at your calendar
00:38:50.040 | and you can visually see
00:38:51.480 | where you might wanna make changes going forward.
00:38:54.240 | But I don't think that just reflecting is enough.
00:38:56.600 | I think it's also really important to set goals.
00:38:59.360 | Obviously those can change,
00:39:00.960 | but when you have your plan A, when you have your goals,
00:39:04.040 | you can just accomplish a lot more.
00:39:06.320 | And when I said in takeaway eight
00:39:07.760 | that you wanna be in control of your life,
00:39:09.480 | it's so helpful to set out where you wanna be,
00:39:11.920 | what you wanna do so that you can take that control.
00:39:15.000 | Finally, two other quick things
00:39:16.240 | that I wanted to share from last year
00:39:18.040 | that kind of fit into this takeaway.
00:39:19.840 | And that's one, I looked back at episode 109
00:39:23.160 | and I re-listened to my conversation with Derek Sivers,
00:39:25.520 | which was amazing.
00:39:26.600 | And he talked about getting to the point in your life
00:39:28.800 | where you raise the bar for everything
00:39:30.960 | to be a hell yeah or a no,
00:39:33.360 | which is something I've tried to do a lot.
00:39:35.960 | Sure, earlier in your career,
00:39:37.560 | it might be way better to just say yes to everything.
00:39:40.280 | But now I'm trying to only say yes
00:39:42.760 | to the things I'm very excited about
00:39:44.960 | and let go of the FOMO I might've had about everything else.
00:39:48.920 | There are so many specific examples
00:39:51.080 | of a dinner or an event that I said no to,
00:39:53.360 | and I actually struggled to say no,
00:39:55.720 | but afterwards I felt so much better skipping
00:39:58.600 | and usually ended up using that time
00:40:00.760 | to do something I valued a lot more,
00:40:03.240 | whether it was work or just spending time with my family,
00:40:07.600 | which actually made it so much easier
00:40:09.840 | the next time something came up to say no.
00:40:12.680 | The other thing was when I talked to Cody Sanchez
00:40:15.640 | in episode 119, she shared this framework called TEAM
00:40:19.080 | that she uses to check in
00:40:21.360 | and kind of take an inventory with your relationship.
00:40:24.480 | It only takes about 10 minutes.
00:40:26.160 | So it starts with T for touch,
00:40:27.640 | maybe you wanna hold hands,
00:40:28.720 | maybe you wanna sit next to each other.
00:40:30.440 | E is for education,
00:40:31.600 | sharing something that you found interesting that day.
00:40:34.760 | A is for appreciation,
00:40:36.320 | sharing something you appreciate about the other person,
00:40:39.040 | but just don't keep using the same one.
00:40:40.680 | And then the really important one is M for metrics,
00:40:43.000 | where you just talk about things
00:40:44.320 | that you wanna change in your relationship
00:40:46.360 | or sometimes that your spouse wants to change,
00:40:48.800 | but you do it in a structured setting
00:40:50.600 | instead of sharing it in the heat of the moment.
00:40:53.040 | Now, you don't have to use this specifically,
00:40:55.360 | but it was just a good idea of ways to apply
00:40:58.120 | kind of a regular review process to your relationship,
00:41:01.840 | which might sometimes get lost in your personal goals
00:41:04.760 | and your personal review.
00:41:06.600 | Okay, so my final takeaway was to take time to reflect,
00:41:10.040 | which I hope all of you are able to do
00:41:12.320 | when you think about last year.
00:41:14.000 | Those are my top 10 takeaways from the podcast.
00:41:17.920 | I really hope this episode was helpful to you.
00:41:20.320 | I know it was so helpful for me to put together
00:41:22.560 | and think about and start to plan for 2024.
00:41:26.080 | However, if there was a big takeaway from the show
00:41:28.520 | that I didn't include,
00:41:29.920 | I would seriously love to hear about it.
00:41:32.280 | Please share it to me, podcast@allthehacks.com.
00:41:35.760 | Thank you so much for listening.
00:41:37.400 | I will see you next week.
00:41:38.700 | (upbeat music)
00:41:41.280 | (upbeat music)