Happy Free Thoughts Thursday, people.

Apologies for the late delivery this week.

Better late than never.

3 Things I’ve Learned:

1. Experiences > things

We're all familiar with the question of whether or not money can buy happiness.

What is often overlooked is how we spend the money we do have.

80% of people under the age of 30 derived more happiness from spending their money on experiences than from buying material things.

This might be obvious to many of you, but hopefully it serves as a nice reminder and helps solidify this idea knowing there's research to back it up.

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2. Quantity > Quality

In his book Atomic Habits, James Clear talks about a study from the University of Florida where students were tasked with either submitting a large quantity of photos or submitting one high quality photo at the end of the semester.

Surprisingly, all of the highest quality photos came not from the quality group, but the quantity group.

This is because the students tasked with taking more photos spent more time iterating and learning from their mistakes—they took action and improved their craft.

On the other hand, the students tasked with taking one high quality photo were caught up in the details—they were more focused on perfection than they were on getting better.

Maybe a better subheading would be Action > Perfection.

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3. Peace is like cold. (Or is it?)

In elementary school we learned that cold itself does not actually exist.

Instead, what we're experiencing when we feel cold is the absence of heat.

That blew my 8 year-old mind (and still blows my mind today—doesn't take much).

The more I think about it, the more I believe that peace, rather than existing on its own, may simply be the absence of disturbance.

This then begs the question: what's the default? Chaos or Order? Serenity or Disruption?

No research to back this one up. Just my own thoughts here.

Yes, I'm sober.

2 Questions for You:

1. What's your definition of success?
2. What excuse do you use the most?

1 Quote:

“The whole universe is change and life itself is but what you deem it.”—Marcus Aurelius

I turned 25 last Saturday.

3 quick thoughts:

1. One thing I've learned over the course of my 25 years here on Earth is that the harder you try and fight things (emotions, people, circumstances, etc.), the harder they fight back. I think the same is true for time: the harder you try and slow things down, the faster they will go. A much better approach is to accept things as they come.
2. I was packing up my things after watching the sun set last night and a guy said "Show's over." I nodded and agreed then headed home, but after thinking about it I wish I would have said: "The show is never ending—we're just on to the next scene."
3. The most profound changes I've experienced up to age 25 are people coming and going from my life. It's the hardest form of change I've undergone. But I've noticed that almost every time someone comes or goes, the quality of my inner circle improves. Sometimes that's through addition and sometimes it's through subtraction. And when someone comes or goes and the quality of my inner circle doesn't improve, that person serves a purpose in my life—even if it takes years for me to recognize it.

We're all just figuring it out as we go.

Don't be too hard on yourself or others.

Live your life to the fullest,

Chris

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