Happiness is a Muscle 💪🏼

Dear Friend,

Hey, how’s it going? After months of indecisions, I finally made a big-boy purchase for a M2 Macbook Air. It’s to encourage me to write more, but so far I’ve just been using it as a big screen YouTube machine. But the potential is there, I promise! All jokes aside, my hope is to be able to write more and better utilize my website to collect my thoughts — on minimalism, productivity, empathy, life lessons, etc. It’s less Ted Talk and more soap box, but what do you think? What’s on brand for me to write about?

In other news, whenever my manager would ask me for feedback at work, he’d say something like, “…based on your decade of experience”. And even though I’ve been doing PM work for some time now, it’s not something I’m used to hearing — to a point where I have to actively remind myself to get over it because it’s true. I’ve always seen myself as the student in a room of teachers, but as I’m increasingly becoming the oldest person in meetings, I understand the importance to acknowledge my skills and worth.

Anyways, here are some of the things I did this month:

• 🏃🏻‍♂️ Ran 46.92 miles (average 3.6 miles per run) this month, up from 35.05 in July.
• 🏋🏻‍♂️ Spent 26 hours (~10k calories burned) in all workout exercises, down from 28.5 hours (~10k calories burned) in July.
• 🧘🏻‍♂️ Meditated 14 days (average 20 minutes per session), down from 26 days in July.
• 📷 Here are some of the photos I took in August (link should be viewable in any browser).

🧋 Social Gatherings:

• Walk with Jessica
• SF Day Trip with Amanda
• Brunch with Chris
• Picnic with Homies
• Dinner with Rick

Here is a quick list of entertainment that brought me joy this month:

• 📺 TV: The Sandman (Netflix). While the world has largely moved on to The House of the Dragon, we recently just wrapped up season 1 of The Sandman. And you know what, I think the hype for this show is legit. It’s like a better, more modern take of Doctor Who — and like The Doctor, Morpheus is equally as mysterious and weird. But even with the latest surprise episode drop, one question remain: Like, is he supposed to be hot or not?
• 🎧 Music: Sparrow, by Jump, Little Children (Apple Music). First off, please give Hold Me Closer because Britney needs a win. Then let’s talk about Jump, Little Children. For better or worse, this band defined my twenties when for a few summers I was involved with someone who didn’t always return the affection or the attention. Jump, Little Children was his favorite band, and with that their music was always in heavy rotation in my iPod nano. But drama aside, I’m blessed to be introduced to this awesome band, so color me surprise when I realized they had released a “new” reunion album back in 2018. The second Jay Clifford hits his first note off Sparrow and memories from that era just came rushing back. Not good, not bad, just glad it happened.
• 🎤 Podcast: Planet Money Summer School (NPR). Planet Money was amongst the first shows I subscribed to when I first started listening to podcasts, like, twelve years ago? While they’re good at talking about economy without being too stuffy or snobby about it, it can be a challenge to catch up to this almost-daily show. That’s what makes Planet Money Summer School so great, where they recut older episodes into educational themes for audiences to catch up and for their staff to take the summer off (or at least have a lighter workload), all while keeping the sponsorship money ball rolling. Coming from the media world at IGN, that’s what we call a win-win-win strategy!
• ▶️ YouTube Sundries:
  • Hold the Girl, by Rina Sawayama
  • My Evidence-Based Skincare Routine, by Ali Abdaal
  • Why Ceremonial-Grade Match is So Expensive, by Business Insider

🤔 A Moment of Zen: You have one million dollars to spend (only) on yourself. What would you buy? Would these purchases go toward items, experiences, or something else? Will they repay your past, sustain your present, or improve on your future? And after spending this money, who will you become?

And that’s about it for the month of August! I hope it’s interesting for you as it was nice for me to recap for the month. Please also share this newsletter if you think other people can benefit from it! They can also subscribe to the newsletters directly below.

Love wins