The Elevator: Wander, Beautiful To-Do Lists, and Identity
“Space creates clarity.”
The Elevator: Curated inputs to elevate your business and expand your lifestyle.
There’s nothing better than getting home from vacation and being happy to be there. Austin right now is summery warm, well, hot. But not so hot that you can’t walk the dog. And Portugal’s weather was like California…breezy, nice, and on the water.
Travel, more than anything, has helped me break and remake my lifestyle and my routines. Coming home, I was happy to find myself enjoying the foliage, seeing the signs for BuCcees, and noticing how different the neighborhoods are here than in Europe.
This is why I go to Central America to go offline in December. You get there and you immediately feel different. Like how I quit coffee cold turkey just because, as soon as I arrived, I realized… I didn’t need it! Call it sun, or fresh fruit, but I don’t discount the air, either, and everything about a landscape changes how you feel, which is why…
Sometimes changing yourself is as simple as travel. Unburdened by your routines, you also create space from your work. One thing I tell all of the founders I work with is that:
“Space creates clarity.”
It’s productive to step away, even though people pride themselves on always being heads down. If you’re always heads down, you become an ostrich; you can’t see the vista ahead. You take space on your calendar, no matter how hard it is to start, you’ll immediately have new ideas come in. Entrepreneurs thrive when bored, because they hate it!
Next time you want to make a change, go somewhere new. Not only does it break you from your routines, you get to see how other people live, what they care about, what other traditions look like…You’ll find out you don’t care so much for your morning or fasting routine anymore and replace it with a big breakfast and espresso.
xx David
On to the links…
1. Maybe is an open-source version of Co-Pilot that looks pretty great.
I’m thinking about making the switch, although other than budgeting, I’m not sure if it’s always beneficial to have a full view into real time net worth metrics. Is it better to not look?
Ignoring the title, I’ve really enjoyed this book from 100 Baggers: Stocks That Return 100-to-1 and How To Find Them (Amazon)
2. I thought these were some nice lists based Notebooks.
3. Are 4-Day work weeks a good solution to work problems? Cal Newport on the Workload Fairy Tale.
“Every study I’ve read (so far) claims that reducing the workweek does not lead to substantial productivity decreases.”
4. Wander rents out premium luxury rentals across the world.
5. Nice simple framing around Identity. I.e. be careful or intentional about who you identify as. “The Trick to Becoming Who You Want to Be.”
Notes and Sign Posts…
"Very little is needed to make a happy life; it is all within yourself, in your way of thinking." — Marcus Aurelius
Have a great weekend,