Hey there! Hope you all had a good week. I had a nice seminar presentation at PWC and also decided on my thesis topic. Sadly Lina got rejected for her European Visa... I guess we have to be more convincing in the application next time 😅.

Juan just woke up hungover and will talk about 3 routines to upgrade your brain. Getting a hangover is not one of them.

HEALTH

The 3 Routines to Upgrade Your Brain 🧠

The kid with the broken brain.
When Jim Kwik was in kindergarten, he hit his head against a radiator and was rushed to the emergency room. This led to a traumatic brain injury and difficulty remembering things at school.

Everyone, even teachers, called him “the kid with the broken brain”. Kim did not want that label to be his limit. So for the past 3 decades, he has dedicated himself to helping others upgrade their brain.

He now has the largest academy on brain optimisation. They are known for tripling people’s reading speed, without compromising comprehension.

So how can we improve our brain performance?
While genetics and biology shape one-third of our brain's potential, the remaining two-thirds are within our control. Among the myriad of possibilities, let's focus on the three areas of our lives that have the most significant impact on us.

Stuffing your face
Here are the top 10 essential brain foods. Jim suggests having brain-food parties where you invite friends over and make platters using these ingredients:
1. Avocados.
2. Blueberries. Incredibly neuroprotective.
3. Broccoli.
4. Extra Virgin Olive oil.
5. Eggs.
6. Green, leafy, vegetables like spinach and kale.
7. Salmon.
8. Tumeric. Very anti-inflammatory.
9. Walnuts.
10. High-purity dark chocolate.

Also, just a 2% dip in hydration could significantly affect your cognitive health. Being hydrated could increase your cognitive performance by 30%.

Get your ass off the couch
Aim towards lifting weights and having daily activities. Not only do you release dopamine, serotonin, and endorphins, but you generate something called brain-derived neurotropic factors. These neurotrophic factors are like fertilisers for neuroplasticity, helping create new connections.
They also say that sitting is the new smoking, so try to stay as active as possible and maybe take your daily Zoom meetings while walking in the park.

Stop fighting yourself
You must kill your ANTS (Automatic Negative Thoughts). Our mindset has a significant impact on how our brain performs. We have around 60 thousand thoughts a day, and 95% of those thoughts are the ones we had yesterday. So, if you want to create new results in your life, you need a new behaviour. In order to justify that new behaviour, you must have a belief that that behaviour is possible.

“Whether you believe you can or you can’t, you’re right.”
- Henry Ford

— Juan

MAKING DECISIONS

Don’t be a Donkey 🫏

There’s a story that I heard in a book by Derek Sivers called Hell Yeah or No: What’s Worth Doing, and it is also here on his blog. It’s about a Donkey that’s hungry and thirsty. There’s food on his left side, and water on his right side. He keeps looking back and forth between the two options, trying to decide which one he should go to until eventually he dies of starvation and dehydration.

What is the moral of this story?
In this tale, the donkey overlooks a simple truth: choosing one option doesn't prevent pursuing the other next. He could quench his thirst first and then address his hunger. The inability to do both simultaneously doesn't mean he can't achieve both eventually.

On top of that, attempting too much at once often leads to burnout and underperforming everywhere.

The Donkey I used to be
Two years ago, I spread myself too thin: juggling a job at HousingAnywhere, leading a badminton association, taking master’s classes, founding a table tennis association, and traveling across multiple countries. In trying to do it all, I faltered in every area. My leadership and founding efforts suffered due to my frequent absences. I barely scraped through my courses and was only an average analyst. Travel felt like an escape from my responsibilities. Whenever I focused on one task, it felt like neglecting everything else.

Lessons Learned as a Donkey
In hindsight, I should have been more careful about what I was committing myself to, only taking on the activities that I felt very excited about, and not letting those extra activities pull away from accomplishing my primary goals. All in all, you won’t be able to get anywhere if you spread yourself too thin. Challenge yourself by asking if the things that you’re currently spending your time and effort on align with your ‘Hell Yeah’ passions, or if instead, you’re doing a lot of different activities just because you could. Let’s try not to be donkeys.

“Don’t half-ass two things, whole-ass one thing.”
- Ron Swanson, Parks and Recreation

— Michael

TAKING ACTION

Sign up to our Accountability Clubs

Want a community to keep you accountable? Willing to put your money where your mouth is? 😂

How it works:
💸 Everyone makes the same deposit at the beginning of the month.
✅ Every day you succeed, you get paid back a small amount from your deposit PLUS the money from others who failed that day.
❌ Every day you fail, your money for that day goes to people who succeed.
🗓️ It is 5 times a week. Month-to-month contract. You can join or leave at the beginning of each month.

March Clubs you can join:
🏋️ Exercise 5 times a week.
⏰ Wake up early during weekdays.
📵 Digital minimalism during weekdays.
📝 Signup to join for March

Updates from this week:

This was the most difficult week of the month so far it seems. Both Juan and I failed once at our wakeup goal this week, together with 2 of the other wakeup members. Leaving Max to be the only one to complete the whole week.

The exercise club has been going great for everyone. And for the digital minimalism club we’ve all been constantly going to the 30 minute limits of our selected apps each day 😂.

Highlights from Exercise Club: