🌱 Are you taking your happiness seriously?

Here’s your 3 insights in under 3 minutes.

💙 Self love

I wish I learned this years ago…

But now I see I was playing the game on hard mode.

Self love is just taking your own happiness and wellbeing seriously. 

That is the whole thing. 

And not in a sounds-nice-in-theory, but skip-it-if-you're-busy type of way.

You can’t win at business or life if you skip this part of the game. It IS the game. 

Look at the "successful" people in business who then go on to get divorced and are miserable inside after realizing they optimized for the wrong game. 

I honestly didn’t even know what self love was until a few years ago. 

But I am now convinced, it is the ultimate game we are playing… so we may as well learn how it works.

🤔 Try 10%

I used to think self love was just forward thinking…

"What can I do today so FUTURE Mitchell is better off?" 

This of course is what the internet would have us believe. 

In theory this sounds great. Reminding myself “Discipline = freedom!” while chugging Jocko Fuel. 

But in practice, it turns me into a to-do list junkie, which is the polar opposite of self-love. Creating this loud manager voice who is never happy, always nagging me for more stuff I "should" do.

That voice is there to protect me. I don’t want to completely ignore it. 

But I also don’t want to completely listen to it. 

Because we all have two voices in our head. One speaks from love, one speaks from fear. The fear voice is LOUDER and never really shuts off. Psychologists explain this is due to our negativity bias, since our brains weigh threats and negative input more heavily than positive ones. 

This was helpful back in the day when our threats were real life and death (being chased by a tiger). But not so helpful today, when our “threats” are a flight delay and not enough sugar in our double macchiato. 

So to make space for the other, more supportive voice, I start with the 10% question:

“What would 10% more self love look like right now?”

I picked this up in a meditation class. The instructor asked, "What would it feel like to have 10% more softness in your body right now?" 

I immediately noticed my shoulders were up by my ears. I dropped them, melted into the chair a little, and right away felt the difference. Wow. 

The best part is that 10% is always available. And often grows to much more. 

The other night I was choosing between working more and watching the Rafa documentary a friend highly recommended. I basically never watch TV, especially on a weeknight.

But after I asked the 10% question.. I closed the laptop, lit a candle, took a long shower, and watched the first episode. (Ah self love luxury!)

💬 Quote

There’s a paradox of trying to do this self love thing. 

Often the most effective way to do it…

Is to “do” nothing at all. 

🎶 Bonus Bop

Self Love - Metro Boomin, Coi Leray

Salud,
Mitchell

Ps. How fast can you run?