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January 2022: Started out slowly šŸ¢

January 2022

January has been good. My main overarching mindset this year is to pace myself in terms of how much I get done because this year is a marathon, not a sprint. I donā€™t want to be super exhausted close to the end of the year. I believe Iā€™ve started out well.

Then Iā€™m doing the more or less challenge, got it from Josh Spectorā€™s newsletter. Each month Iā€™ll commit to do more or less of one thing in an effort to improve my life. I like that itā€™s just one thing and itā€™s doable.

For January, I focused on taking less sugar, Iā€™m surprised by how much sugar I had to avoid from the simple things like biscuits and beveragesā€”of course outright surgery substances were out of the question. Everyday one part of my brain felt odd or rather sugar deprived. Now the month is over, I suppose itā€™ll help me question how much sugar I need to take it.

You should try the challenge, in February Iā€™ll most likely focus on Meditation and mindful breathing.

Highlights of the Month

  • I started cooking more for myself this year.
  • Iā€™m back to exercising regularly; Skipping and press ups on most days and Saturday morning jogging.
  • Iā€™m done with the first phase of the Mckinsey Forward program.

Helpful stuff I came across

šŸ“š Permission to Feel: Unlocking the Power of Emotions to Help Our Kids, Ourselves, and Our Society Thrive ā€“ Marc Brackett

ā€œUntil the 1980s, most psychologists viewed emotions as extraneous noise, useless static. Our feelings slow us down and get in the way of achieving our goals. Weā€™ve all heard the message: Get over it. Stop focusing on yourself (as though such a thing were possible!). Donā€™t be so sensitive. Time to move on.ā€

An excellent book on how to understand and regulate your emotions. I learnt so much from this book, but one thing that stood out is me realizing I didnā€™t know the difference between Jealousy and Envy until I read this book. A reminder that by wrongly describing emotions, weā€™re starting off on the wrong foot.

šŸ—žļø Lifeā€™s Work: An Interview with Jerry Seinfeld ā€“ Harvard Business Review

Can you teach someone to be funny?

Nope. You can teach someone aspects of making it in the comedy profession, but you canā€™t teach someone to be funny. I didnā€™t realize how genetic it was until I saw my daughterā€”I couldnā€™t believe how funny she was. I didnā€™t teach her to be that way, and I know my dad was funny, so now I see that thereā€™s a huge genetic component. You just pop out with this thing.

šŸ—ž Teslaā€™s African expansion is imminent but is it reasonable to drive one in Lagos?

ā€œIn a regular carā€™s engine you have about 200 moving parts, so if you take this out because it doesnā€™t exist in a Tesla, thatā€™s 200 fewer things that can break. When you look at your automatic transmission, thatā€™s another 800 fewer things that can break. So youā€™ve reduced your problems by like 1,000,ā€ Ismail said.

Elon musk didnā€™t retweet or comment but itā€™s still one of my favorite articles. It stretched me to learn more about cars.

šŸŽ„ Neymar: The Perfect Chaos

A beautiful documentary on the Brazilian Footballer Neymarā€™s life and sporting empire. Fun fact: About 250 employees are responsible for managing Neymarā€™s image and career.

Notable quote: After the 2014 incident, the doctor came in and told me, ā€˜I have two pieces of news. One good and one bad.ā€™

ā€œAnd I was like, ā€˜The bad one first.ā€™

ā€œā€˜The bad news is that youā€™re out of the World Cup.ā€

ā€œAnd Iā€™m like, ā€˜Whatā€™s the good one?ā€™

ā€œā€˜If you had been hit an inch to the side, you wonā€™t have been able to walk again.ā€

+ WWII in Color: Road to Victory: I love history, for the first I heard an explanation of the United Statesā€™ decision to detonated two nuclear weapons over Japanese cities (Hiroshima and Nagasaki) that made sense.

šŸŽ„ ā€I knew I was depressed, but I refused to accept itā€™ Toyin Abraham sits #WithChude

I enjoyed watching this interview because when celebrities open up to share stories of their dark hours, it reminds us that theyā€™re humans. Thereā€™s also another episode with Jimi Agbaje[paywall] that I enjoyed watching.

+ Talent, Guts and Success ft Bovi.I also enjoyed watching this interview.

šŸ—ž Lessons from my first year as a journalist

About a year ago I made a career change from Accounting to Journalism. As I like to say, I moved from obsessing over numbers to obsessing over narratives. Why? Among many reasons, it was an opportunity to learn about an aspect of life I wasnā€™t too familiar with: storytelling.

This article has been in draft for a few months, glad it finally out.

+ Learning Curve 2021: Some of the most helpful books, articles, podcasts, videos I came across. As usual, hereā€™s 2021 list.

Favorite Quote šŸ’­

Doing your best might look different every day.

Thank you for reading!

See you on the last Saturday or Sunday in February 2022 ā€“ so help me God!

Did you come across anything helpful or something that got to you? Please share with me. Also If you have any feedback please reply via email

Have a terrific February!

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