Another Excuse Newsletter

Welcome back to the Another Excuse Newsletter. It isn’t just another excuse, but a reason to start that thing you’ve been putting off.

What to expect this week:
👓Perspective - Writer’s block doesn’t exist
🔨 Tool - Texts.com 
🍿Consume - All-In Predictions
📖Concept - Broaden and Build Theory

Latest Podcast Episode

After many episodes of asking founders why and how they started, I've begun to notice a few patterns. Every founder has a unique story, but the reasons why they started can be distilled down to a few common reasons.

In this episode, I discuss those different reasons for starting and how they might apply to you.

You can check out the episode here.

Perspective

Writer’s block doesn't exist

The idea behind this statement is that there is no such thing as writer’s block.

I like this framework.

It frames not writing, or anything really as an excuse. All you’ve got to do is keep lowering your standards until you come up with a rough draft.

If you’re expecting the first draft to be shit, then you have no excuse.

You could literally put anything down on a page to ensure you get something out.

Although this is a writing analogy, it can be applied to anything.

We label ourselves as perfectionists or we’re just waiting for that spark of inspiration.

But the truth is, it will never be perfect and inspiration may never strike.

The point is to lower your expectations enough to actually just start.

You can't compare yourself to anyone who's done it before.

If you're just starting, it's going to be shit.

And that's okay.

At least you started.

Tool

Texts.com 

The founder of WordPress, Matt Mullenweg is working on something new.

It's called Texts and that's exactly what it is.

An application that congregates all text-based applications into one place.

So it's not necessarily a competitor to any of the applications we currently use, but a convenient way to use them all together.

Instead of jumping around from WhatsApp, to Telegram, to Slack, to email, you'd just open Texts and it will all be there.

Matt is very passionate about open source and he believes this is where the future of text-based applications is heading.

One super app would be crazy, we need to keep some of these applications separate, but being able to stay on top of all incoming messages is extremely valuable to me.

I'm currently trying it out and will let you know how it goes.

At the moment it's subscription-based, but he's speaking to some network providers, so stay tuned.

Consume (Read / Watch / Listen)

All-In Predictions

I don't watch the news.

I feel like the important stuff always filters through.

One of my sources of good info is these guys.

The members of the All-In Podcast are a great way to stay up to date with what's going on while hearing multiple viewpoints on a topic.

I love their New Year predictions episode because it highlights interesting topics to pay attention to. Some of them you might not have heard of.

They each nominate their winner and loser predictions for the year in topics like politics, businesses, newcomer, and even a piece of content/media.

Some of their answers overlap, but most of the time they each have a unique answer and reasons to back it up.

If you want to get some insights into where the economy may be heading in 2024, then check out this episode.

Concept

Broaden and Build Theory

The Broaden and Build a Theory is one of positive emotions.

The idea is that positive emotions have the ability to broaden the course of actions immediately available to us when responding to a situation.

That’s the broaden part.

It also has the ability to build enduring personal resources ranging from physical and intellectual, and social and psychological.

That’s the build part.

So to dumb it down even further. Find ways to feel positive emotions as regularly as possible.

By simply feeling positive emotions it helps us think more clearly enabling us to respond in the best way possible to any situation.

It also helps us build positive tools in many aspects of our lives going forward.

I enjoy coming across studies and theories like this one because it acts as something that reinforces positive behaviour.

We’ve all heard about how social media is becoming more and more of an echo chamber and we just consume stuff that confirms our current beliefs.

Most of the time this can be harmful and mind-narrowing, but if you’re confirming your beliefs about positive helpful things, then why not?

If you’d like to read more about it, you can do so here.

Thanks for Reading

Now start something!

P.S. Feedback is welcome and needed! If you’d prefer to send me an email and not respond, you can do so here: [email protected]

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