Date on the Calendar, Where Our Food Comes From, Advice About Advice
Thursday Three: Episode 5
read time 3 minutes
Here are three interesting ideas you won’t find doom scrolling.
TL;DR
Why it’s important to have a date on the calendar
The reality of where our food comes from
Unconventional advice about advice
Why it’s important to have a date on the calendar
If there’s something you really want to do, you have to get it on the calendar. Just saying you're going to do something is rarely enough.
Speaking from personal experience…
Running a Half Marathon with My Fiance
My fiance and I had been talking about running a half marathon together since we started dating. It wasn’t until we signed up for one last year — my fiance’s brother and I signing her up without her knowing (sorry Rach) — that we started taking it seriously! We committed to a 12-week training plan and finally did it last weekend.
Learning More About Cybersecurity
Ever since I started my job at HackerOne, I’ve been telling myself that I NEED to learn more about cybersecurity. It wasn’t until I committed to sitting for the CISSP (Certified Information Systems Security Professional) exam on March 12th that I started taking this goal seriously. Please wish me luck!
Doing a Half IronMan
I’ve been telling myself I was going to do an IronMan for years. It wasn’t until I signed up for one (half IronMan for now, but full in the future) that I fully committed — signed up for a swim class, bought a bike, and purchased a training program.
So if you have something that’s been lingering in the back of your head. That one thing that you’ve always wanted to do, but just haven’t committed to it yet. Get a damn date on the calendar or you’ll likely never do it.
This idea was inspired by a small point within a MONSTER thread written by Chris Boettcher. Highly recommend reading the whole thing from top to bottom.
The reality of where our food comes from
Most foods Americans eat come from ten major corporations. The food they make (notice how I didn’t say grow?) is horrible for people. But Big Food has hundreds of lobbyists throwing millions of dollars at Congress to keep their mouths shut about it.
So…
Big Food continues to feed America
Americans continue to get sick :(
Big Pharma continues to treat Americans
Americans suffer while Big Food and Big Pharma get rich. Drives me crazy.
What can you do about it?
Eat locally. Find a local butcher. Find a local baker. Sign up for a CSA. Change your diet so that 80% of what you are eating comes from your community.
It’s not going to happen overnight. It’s actually A LOT of work to build out your own little ecosystem of where your food comes from. And let’s be honest… It’s much easier to just walk into your local box store and pick up everything you need in one place.
But if you put in the time, your mind and body will thank you for it.
Here’s a helpful framework from Dr. Anthony Gustin for where to get your food — starting from the easiest to the most challenging (but best for you):
Unconventional advice about advice
Most advice sucks. But this advice about giving advice definitely doesn’t.
Personal stories are the lifeblood of good advice. So if someone tells you “You should do this. You should do that. Blah. Blah. Blah…” without a personal story supporting what they are telling you, then it’s probably not worth listening to them.
In other words, you should only take advice from people you look up to — or who you aspire to be like. It doesn’t make sense to listen to those who haven’t been down your path or who aren’t where you want to be.
Austin’s Recommendations
There’s nothing I nerd out on more than personal finance. Okay, maybe CrossFit… But I love jamming on personal finance too.
If you’re semi-interested in personal finance, you’ve heard of Mint—Intuit’s budgeting app they recently decided to shut down, which left me scrambling to find a new app!
Luckily, my boss is a huuuge personal finance guy and recommended I check out Monarch Money. So I used it for a month and fell in love with it. They make it super easy to categorize transactions and track your net worth.
I actually like it better than Mint.
If you want to try it out, Monarch is offering a free 30 day trial. Grab it below and let me know what you think.