Notes from James
WEEKLY LETTER
ISSUE #15 · Jul 26
Hey {{first_name}}
Ikigai by Héctor García & Francesc Miralles has me thinking a lot.
So much so that I made a video about the book last week, and now here I am days later writing about it in my newsletter as well.
Human longevity is interesting because there are no rules that are true 100% of the time.
If that was the case, you would know the day that you are going to die when you are born.
There are certain lifestyle choices that will determine the probability of you living longer or shorter, but nothing is guaranteed.
In this book, the lifestyle choices that the authors focus on are: finding your ikigai, how much you move your body, what you eat, your connection with nature, your sense of community, and your spiritual connection.
Ikigai is like your purpose in Western culture, but a much deeper cut.
It is the intersection between what you love doing, what you are good at, what the world needs, and what you can be paid for.
In my opinion, finding your ikigai is one of the most important things you can do with your life, and also one of the hardest things to find.
The biggest tip that the authors give for finding ikigai is to pay attention when you get into flow-state, and to follow that “nothing else matters” feeling.
Lean into the areas of your life where you feel yourself falling into flow state most often and watch the magic happen.
QUOTE OF THE WEEK
“No one saves us but ourselves. No one can and no one may. We ourselves must walk the path.”
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The 5 Most Important Things I Learned as a 23 Year Old
This past year of my life has been the best, craziest, most difficult, and the most freeing year of my life.
Take 10 minutes to sit down with me and learn the 5 most important lessons I learned in the past 12 months through getting over a breakup, becoming a digital nomad, starting to post content on social media, solo travel and much more.
Last Week’s Learning
All learning videos can be found on my Instagram
Day 331 What is wind?
Day 332 Raw vs Pasteurized milk
Day 333 What does 333 symbolize?
Day 334 The history of juicing
Day 335 The greatest thing since sliced bread
Day 336 Why does pineapple make your tongue hurt?
Day 337 How does the electric kettle know when to turn off?
From James
This past week I caught back up to my life.
Spending 2 weeks with my family was wonderful and relaxing in one way.
In another way I barely kept my daily learning streak active and fell way behind on work.
Not to say I wish I hadn’t spent the time with family, it was lovely, and I wish I could be around my siblings and parents all the time.
But, it’s difficult to stay in balance when you spend 2 weeks a year with your family all together.
Obviously, you spend the 2 weeks with family focusing on your time with family, and worry about everything else later.
This week was the “everything else later.”
Not only did I catch back up to my work, but I feel I finally have a bit more time to expand my impact on my social media.
Expect more long-form YouTube videos coming soon :)
- James