“People tend to abandon the good system they’ll follow in search of the perfect system that they will quit.”
We’re going to kick off the year with an in-betweenisode where I answer the most popular questions you’ve submitted.
If you’re wondering what you can do to ask a question that gets answered in the future, these are good criteria to follow:
- I can answer it in a few minutes or less.
- It will help more than the one person asking.
- It will not immediately be irrelevant.
In contrast, here are some examples of questions that don’t generally get answered:
- “If you had $100 and six months, how would you turn it into $10,000 or $100,000, etc.?”
- “If there were one particular home business opportunity where I could make $2,000 additional per month, what would you suggest?”
If I had the magical answer to either of these, I’d use it for myself! And if there were an answer to share with one of you, I’d share it with my whole audience — which diminishes its usefulness as a competitive edge considerably.
Without further ado, here are the questions I’m answering this time around. Happy New Year!
- Listen to it on iTunes.
- Stream by clicking here.
- Download as an MP3 by right-clicking here and choosing “save as.”
Want to hear another podcast where I answer questions? — Listen to “17 Questions That Changed My Life.” In this episode, I share how reality is largely negotiable. If you stress-test the boundaries and experiment with the “impossibles,” you’ll quickly discover that most limitations are a fragile collection of socially reinforced rules you can choose to break at any time. What follows are 17 questions that have dramatically changed my life (stream below or right-click here to download):
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QUESTION(S) OF THE DAY: What was your favorite quote or lesson from this episode? Please let me know in the comments.
Scroll below for links and show notes…
Selected Links from the Episode
- Tools of Titans: The Tactics, Routines, and Habits of Billionaires, Icons, and World-Class Performers by Timothy Ferriss
- Dom D’Agostino on Disease Prevention, Cancer, and Living Longer
- Real Life Extension: Caloric Restriction or Intermittent Fasting? Part 1 and Part 2
- Beating the Morning Rush: The 3-Minute “Slow-Carb” Breakfast
- Meditations by Marcus Aurelius
- Stoicism Resources and Recommendations
- Stumbling on Happiness by Daniel Gilbert
- The 4-Hour Workweek: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich by Timothy Ferriss
- Happy Money: The Science of Happier Spending by Elizabeth Dunn and Michael Norton
- What I Learned in 2016
- Smash Fear, Learn Anything
- Goals vs. Systems, Scott Adams’ Blog
- How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big: Kind of the Story of My Life by Scott Adams
- The Perfect Posterior: Kettlebell Swings and Cheap Alternatives
- Here’s the video where I show you how to build your own kettlebell with $10 worth of plumbing supplies.
- I recommend coach.me, Stickk or DietBet if you’re looking to make behavior changes and need an extra incentive
- Abbott Precision Xtra Glucose Monitor
- Dom D’Agostino — The Power of the Ketogenic Diet
- Bad Science: Quacks, Hacks, and Big Pharma Flacks by Ben Goldacre
- The 4-Hour Body: An Uncommon Guide to Rapid Fat Loss, Incredible Sex and Becoming Superhuman by Timothy Ferriss
- The Five Minute Journal: A Happier You in 5 Minutes a Day
- I talk about The Jar of Awesome and Celebrating Small Wins with CreativeLive
- Security Analysis: Sixth Edition, Foreword by Warren Buffett by Benjamin Graham and David Dodd
- The Intelligent Investor: The Definitive Book on Value Investing. A Book of Practical Counsel by Benjamin Graham and Jason Zweig
- Berkshire Hathaway Letters to Shareholders by Warren Buffett
- The Superinvestors of Graham-and-Doddsville — Warren Buffett’s 1984 speech at Columbia University
- The PayPal Mafia
- How to 10X Your Results, One Tiny Tweak at a Time
- Extreme Ownership: How U.S. Navy SEALs Lead and Win by Jocko Willink and Leif Babin
- My Life Extension Pilgrimage to Easter Island
- Coach Sommer episodes: The Secrets of Gymnastic Strength Training and The Secrets of Gymnastic Strength Training, Part Two — Home Equipment, Weighted Stretches, and Muscle-Ups
- Pavel Tsatsouline episodes: 80/20 Powerlifting and How to Add 110+ Pounds to Your Lifts and Pavel Tsatsouline on the Science of Strength and the Art of Physical Performance
- The Effective Executive: The Definitive Guide to Getting the Right Things Done by Peter F. Drucker
- True Rest Floatation Labs
- Zorba the Greek by Nikos Kazantzakis
- Stories of Your Life and Others by Ted Chiang
- 1,000 True Fans by Kevin Kelly
- Seth Godin episodes: How Seth Godin Manages His Life — Rules, Principles, and Obsessions and Seth Godin on How to Think Small to Go Big
- The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing: Violate Them at Your Own Risk! by Al Ries and Jack Trout
- Blue Ocean Strategy: How to Create Uncontested Market Space and Make Competition Irrelevant by W. Chan Kim and Renée Mauborgne
- Jack Welch & The G.E. Way: Management Insights and Leadership Secrets of the Legendary CEO by Robert Slater
Show Notes
- Slow-Carb Diet vs. Intermittent Fasting (IF). Is it okay to skip breakfast and get 30 grams of protein at lunch instead of within 30 minutes of waking? [05:11]
- Are Stoicism and compassion mutually exclusive concepts? [09:21]
- How do I deal with disappointment when reaching goals? [12:21]
- I’ve talked a lot about success, but how about rebounding from failure? [15:08]
- My top purchases for health, knowledge, and behavioral change. [18:26]
- When does experience trump scientific explanation, if ever? [22:41]
- Do high performers find intimacy and appreciation of small wins difficult? [27:11]
- How do I distinguish “lucky” top performers from the truly good worth studying? [28:33]
- How can someone use The 4-Hour Workweek principles when employed full time or actively serving in the military? [37:20]
- How to think about balancing longevity with muscle gain and physical performance. [41:14]
- On blending productivity with “relaxation” (or recovery) as a high performer. [47:06]
- How to “break through the noise” — my three rules for branding and marketing. [52:38]