Podcaster with 1bn+ plays. I write about the most important lessons from the best thinkers on the planet. 500,000+ people read my free newsletter. Press subscribe to join.
Struggle, Tax & Dangerous Beards
3 MINUTE MONDAYHi friend, The brand new MW Merch is available for the next 3 days only - once the store closes, every piece is gone for good! Big love to everyone who’s copped so far <3 I can't wait to see you all wearing these. “The most important question to ask is what pain do you want in your life?
What are you willing to struggle for?
Anything worthwhile is going to require some degree of pain and struggle.
So if you’re oriented toward the pain and struggle you’re probably going to be more aligned with what you’re capable of accomplishing rather then if you just orient toward the pleasures.” — Mark Manson
Outstanding. Consider this. What pains can you deal with more easily than everyone else? This is a much more realistic version of “find what feels like play to you but looks like work to everyone else”. Because any pursuit, even the most existentially aligned, will regularly feel like work. I adore running the podcast. If all I had to do at 2pm Central Time every weekday was speak to my boys or some dusty academic with an unpronounceable surname, that would be bliss. But that's not all I have to do... I don’t want to do 6 episode edits in a weekend just so I can have a week to myself over Christmas. I don’t want to have to pack an entire recording studio with me to go to Guatemala so I don’t end up missing publish dates. I don’t even ALWAYS want to read another book after going through 4 in a week. But these are pains I’m prepared to have in my life. I’m willing to struggle through them. What I'm saying is, some pains I am suited for - like running the podcast. And other pains, I am not suited for - like being married to Jada Pinkett Smith. Any pursuit you love can become a labour. If you want to keep the things you love as exclusively a pleasurable activity then that’s totally fine, but you can’t commit to Turning Pro with them. As soon as you commit to give it your all, you also open the door to pain and struggle. Let’s say you love pickleball and you’re good at it, maybe you’re an ex tennis player from your youth. You can rock up on a Saturday afternoon with your mates and play and have a fantastic time with ease. Want to miss a weekend? Want to stop to start doing interpretive dance or have a baby? No worries. Straight love, no labour. However, if you want to become the best pro pickleball player you can be, all that is off the table. Pickleball no longer folds around your life, your life folds around pickleball. Early morning training sessions, conditioning, watching game tape, technique sessions, uncertainty about your income, travelling to tournaments - that is your pain. It’s a different pain to the author who is having to write proposals and meet with agents and get rejected by publishers and spend months doing research to release a book. Or the father who has to get up throughout the night and read books about parenting and get stuck in traffic on the way to football practise in order to be an amazing father. But make no mistake, if you want to become great at whatever you want to do, you will go through pain and struggle. So what pain and struggle do you want in your life? MODERN WISDOMI do a podcast where I pretend to have a British accent. This week’s upcoming episodes: Monday. Thursday. Saturday. THINGS I'VE LEARNED1. “New IRS data finds that the top 0.1% of taxpayers (roughly 154,000 returns) paid $440 billion in federal income taxes in their most recent year. The bottom 80% paid $350 billion. Meaning the top 0.1% paid more than the entire bottom 80% combined.” — h/t IRS, Rothmus, ProfStonge 2. — h/t Rob Henderson 3. In 1830s Massachusetts, beards were so uncommon and strange that a man named Joseph Palmer was mocked and shunned for wearing one. Assailants tried to forcibly shave him, but he fought them off with a knife, and was imprisoned for assault. He refused to pay his fine or court fees, and so he remained in prison for over a year.” — Adam Mastroianni LIFE HACKDrizzilicious. I have found the most insanely tasty rice cakes. Tons of flavours. 90 calories per serving. Also come in mini packs. Buy some now, you won’t regret it. Big love, Try my productivity drink Neutonic. PS |
3 Minute Monday
Podcaster with 1bn+ plays. I write about the most important lessons from the best thinkers on the planet. 500,000+ people read my free newsletter. Press subscribe to join.
3 MINUTE MONDAY Hi friend, My UK & Ireland tour starts 4 weeks today! If you love all things Modern Wisdom, psychology, philosophy, personal development, plus stories I definitely can't tell on the internet and fingering jokes - then come and see me. Plus there's a live Q&A where I'll be answering your questions and bringing some of you up on stage! Get your tickets now - http://chriswilliamson.live/ “The latest social science tells us that children raised in single-mother homes are about...
3 MINUTE MONDAY Hi friend, “Get comfortable being uncomfortable” is a mantra for many people who do hard pursuits. Endurance athletes, MMA fighters, bodybuilders, CrossFitters. So how is it that somebody can run an ultramarathon for 100 miles, but not be able to have a difficult conversation with their partner? The same person who’s prepared to get up at 6am and jump in the ice plunge and stick to their diet, is also afraid to tell an employee that they’re underperforming, or open up to their...
3 MINUTE MONDAY Hi friend, I spent 70 hours in the UK last week. Ate many digestive biscuits. Thanks for having me. I’m coming back to the UK & Ireland with a brand new live show - in 5 weeks! Get your tickets now - https://chriswilliamson.live/ In 2023, a study called “The Myth of Man the Hunter” set out to challenge the traditional idea that men hunted while women gathered. It reported evidence of women hunting in 50 of 63 societies (79%), and large-game hunting in 33% of societies where...