Less scrolling, bigger dreams, fewer opinions

🌱 HEALTHY

Do More of What Makes You Forget Your Phone

I've been trying to limit my social media use until evening lately. It's harder than I thought it would be.

The muscle memory is real. Finish a task, reach for the phone. Waiting for coffee to brew, reach for the phone. Walking somewhere, reach for the phone. It's become this automatic response to any downtime, no matter how brief.

When you're working remotely, especially from different countries, your phone becomes even more central to everything. Communication with clients, navigation, translation, entertainment, social connection. It's all there in one device that lives in your pocket.

But here's what I've noticed during the times I've successfully stayed off it: there are dozens of other things I could be doing instead.

I used to sketch for fun. Haven't touched a pencil in years, but I genuinely enjoyed it. Same thing happens when I'm cooking something new or when I'm reading an actual book. Or having a real conversation with someone without either of us checking our phones.

The point isn't that sketching or cooking are superior activities. The point is that we have options beyond the default scroll, and most of them leave us feeling better than mindless browsing does.

No one's ever going to look back and wish they'd spent more time on their phone. But plenty of people regret not pursuing hobbies they enjoyed, not having deeper conversations, not exploring the places they lived in, not learning that skill they kept putting off.

We've trained ourselves to fill every spare moment with our phones, but that's a choice. And we can choose differently.

Takeaway: This week, when you feel the urge to reach for your phone, do literally anything else instead. Read a page, take a walk, sketch something, talk to whoever's around you. The activity doesn't matter. Putting the phone down does.

🪙 WEALTHY

Surround Yourself With People Who Dream Bigger Than You

Ambition is contagious.

When I spend time around people who are more successful than me or who have bigger goals, I always come away feeling energized. New ideas start flowing. I see different angles on projects I've been stuck on. Problems that seemed impossible suddenly have simple solutions that were obvious to someone else.

That energy is real, and you can channel it directly into your work.

The people you spend time with shape how you think about what's possible. If you're constantly around people who complain, make excuses, or shoot down your ideas as unrealistic fantasies, that mindset becomes your default. Those are success drainers - they put down your goals because they don't have any themselves.

But surround yourself with people who take calculated risks, who see opportunities instead of obstacles, who talk about solutions rather than problems, and their confidence starts rubbing off on you.

It doesn't mean ditching everyone who isn't wildly ambitious. But it does mean being intentional about who you give your time and mental energy to. Seek out people who are a few steps ahead of where you want to be. Find those who believe in big possibilities. At minimum, stick with people who support your ideas instead of trying to talk you out of them.

The conversations you have this week will either drain your motivation or fuel it. Choose wisely.

Takeaway: Look at who you've been spending the most time with lately. Are they pushing you forward or holding you back? This week, reach out to someone who's doing what you want to do or thinking bigger than you currently are.

📚 AND WISE

You Don't Have to Have an Opinion

I first came across this idea in Ryan Holiday's Daily Stoic book, which has one stoic passage for every day of the year. I love this book and have gifted it to several people.

The concept comes from Marcus Aurelius: you don't have to have an opinion or react to everything that crosses your path.

Think about how often you feel compelled to respond to news stories, behaviors you don't like, or external situations that have nothing to do with your actual life. You get annoyed, want to add your two cents, or feel like you need to have some kind of reaction.

But you don't.

You don't need to catch every piece of bait. You can resist it, hold your tongue, and simply not have an opinion about things that don't actually impact you.

This is stress-relieving in ways you might not expect. Most of what we react to has zero real effect on our daily existence, yet we respond like it's a personal attack.

Not reacting gives you something valuable: time and space to process. More often than not, once you actually think about it, your initial response wasn't worth giving anyway.

You can just keep it moving.

Takeaway: Actively practice not having an opinion when something tries to pull a reaction out of you. Notice how much mental energy you save when you don't take the bait.