🌱 3 ways to defend yourself

Learn: 20x Case Study, How to Defend Joy, Nostalgia Example

Read: 3 min

Hola from Buenos Aires, 

Here are 3 goodies to make your week more joyful. 

❓ Tell Me WHY

More than just a banger chorus, telling WHY is often the easiest path to a desired result.

My friend Justin Moore shared how this small change in his welcome email generated 20 TIMES more replies!

He just told people WHY replying is so important (tells Gmail that you want to read the email). 

Justin’s tweet here.

💪 Defend Joy 

The cafe down the street hooks up a fortune cookie with your coffee. 

I got this one last Sunday and it’s been top of mind all week. 

“Defiende siempre la alegria” translates to “Always defend joy.” 

(Spanish fortunes hit different.)

It’s one thing to say just protect joy, but to DEFEND is another level. 

How do we do that? 

Sure there's daily exercise, writing routing, etc. But a strong defense requires more. 

The best defense is a good OFFENSE. 

So I just scheduled 3 things to go on offense (aka defend my joy) over the next few weeks. I booked:

• a cleaner 🧼

• a massage  💆

• a float tank session 🌊

Just three simple things over the next 3 weeks, all on the calendar.

How will you defend your joy? 

🤔 WTF is Nostalgia? 

Here’s a thought-provoking quote by an anonymous twitter account that surfaced recently: 

"The purpose of life is to experience things for which you will later experience nostalgia". 

Makes you stop and think...

But wait, how exactly does nostalgia work? 

The other day I walked by an old Argentine lady that reminded me of my late grandma (rip nona!). The rest of the walk I was pleasantly hit with nostalgia, remembering her and specifically how she kept hard-boiled eggs in her fridge because she knew I loved them. 

But nona wasn’t whipping up hard-boiled eggs because she thought it'd create “nostalgia” for her grandson in a few decades… 

She did it because it was an opportunity for us to connect. Every time I went to their house, the first thing I’d do was cut open a hardboiled egg (and of course drown it in lemon juice and salt n pepper) and hang in the kitchen.

But during these moments, there was nothing particularly special or nostalgia-producing. To be honest, I barely remember them. Yet still, I hold them in high regard. This makes it hard to say which things in the moment, will later create nostalgia. 

So instead I’m focusing on human connections. 

Derek Sivers recalls a powerful moment traveling just for the people. He explains, “When I think back to that month in India, I remember almost nothing but that conversation. Landmarks, food, museums, and events are a blur, but one interesting conversation can linger in the mind forever.”

So here's how I’d update the original quote: 

Con mucho gusto, 

Mitchell 

Ps. RiRi tonight