Mentorship, Echo Chambers, and Mindset
Mini Essays Big Ideas
☀️ Happy Monday from Tuscaloosa, AL ☀️
Welcome to the thirteenth Louis’ Learnings email!
Like the last few weeks, this week’s newsletter shares my four favorite mini-essays I wrote during the week. I discuss finding a mentor, (almost) finishing Ship30, echo chambers, and mindset.
Enjoy!
Best Essays From Last Week
Finding a Mentor In 5 Steps
In Episode 30 of Danny Miranda's Podcast, Nicolas Cole explained the process of finding a mentor in a dead simple formula.
How to find a mentor in five steps:
Find someone further along than you are in what you are learning.
Ask them a specific question about how to improve and progress.
Follow their recommendation. Do the work.
Report back with your results. Ask them another specific question.
Repeat steps 2-4.
Eventually, a mentor-mentee relationship will form organically.
Don't overcomplicate this process.
Don't send DMs asking for ongoing mentorship.
Don't go looking for mentors for its own sake.
Ask for specific advice, follow it, repeat.
Summarized Echo Chambers
Like it or not, we exist in personalized digital echo chambers.
Internet companies are too good at knowing what we want, so we are constantly bombarded with the same types of information.
Based on my past browsing decisions, my personal echo chamber is dominated by success content.
Every suggested book on Amazon, search on Google, video on YouTube, or account on Twitter is about success.
Even on brand new platforms, my patterns re-emerge. Within 3 days of using Clubhouse, I'm right back where I started: success content. But my digital world is the not same as everyone else's.
My idea of a household name is not the same as my real world community's. The biggest names in the success space, Grant Cardone, for example, are complete unknowns to my parents or roommates.
Despite this new disconnect about who is and isn't a celebrity, there are some benefits to being confined to a narrow echo-chamber. The strongest of which is constant repetition. Because of this, observing and internalizing patterns and principles is an inevitability.
So for those of you existing in different digital realities, Here's a broad summary of the constantly repeated lessons and advice I've observed from being trapped in the eye of the internet-success hurricane.
Write your goals down daily. It's not a goal unless you write it down.
Solve the problem in front of you. Focus on winning the day.
Find a mentor and hire coaches. Learn from the best in the world.
You are the average of the 5 people you spend the most time with.
Follow proven recipes. Don't reinvent unnecessarily.
Develop a passion for the process. Don't fixate on outcomes.
Build good habits. Break bad habits.
Be consistent.
What echo-chamber are you in? What have you learned from it?
Ship30for30 ish? (February 3rd, 2021)
Today marks the final day of January's Ship30for30 challenge. For the unfamiliar, the goal of the challenge is to publish 30 of these "screenshot" sized essays in 30 days.
As expected for the final day, celebratory 'Ten Lessons from Ship30' threads dominated my Twitter feed this morning. Rightfully so, challenge finishers spent the day sharing their achievements across the internet.
So where's my victory post? Why isn't this essay about that? Where's my hard-earned reflection?
It's coming, but it won't be here for another week or two. Why?
I failed Ship30 on day 10. I had a cross country flight. I needed to buy groceries. I was tired. I was hungry enough to eat an encyclopedia but too drained to write a 200-word essay.
100$ spent. 10 days later. 9 essays shipped. Game over, right?
Not at all. I took some time to refuel and rest, but got back to work within a few days. Sure, I might miss the deadline, but I'm still going to finish Ship30.
With the ubiquity of the internet challenge, I've come to an important realization. Too often, we start to care more about completing an arbitrary challenge than we do about achieving the result that motivated us to take on the challenge in the first place. We fix our egos on badges and completely lose sight of the bigger picture.
Why did I start the challenge? Why did I treat a well-intentioned internet stranger to his next 10 chipotle visits? Because I wanted to grow as a writer.
I wanted a motivating reason to be 30 essays further ahead in my writing career than where I started on January first.
Two weeks late or not, that's still the goal. I'd rather cross the line eventually than never cross it. Don't get hung up in the details. Do the work.
It's not all or nothing. It hardly ever is. Keep going.
The Mindset Fountain
Certain problems are easy to solve.
If you are thirsty, you take a drink. If you are hungry, you grab some peanut-butter (or least I do).
By now, most of us have learned how to handle these common biological signals. But what about some more complicated ones?
What do you do when you are bored? Unmotivated? Burning out? How well do you handle these emotions and triggers?
Just like keeping NyQuil on hand in-case you catch a cold, I propose proactively setting aside helpful resources for the major negative emotional states that inevitably crop-up.
I call this system the mindset fountain. Like a fast-food soda machine, you can pull whatever tap you want based on your mood.
Here's what mine looks like.
When I'm falling back into unproductive rhythms, I reread Cal Newport's books and listen to his podcast.
When my calisthenics progress flatlines, I rewatch Matthew Smith's Journey from Zero to Holding One-Arm Handstands.
When my general motivation fades, I listen to the JRE with David Goggins. By the end, I am ready to run through a brick wall.
When my social life dries up, I watch YES Theory to get inspired.
When I'm over-cluttered, I watch Matt D'Avella to make space.
When I lack enthusiasm for my projects, I turn to Jack Butcher's feed.
Rather than being thrown off by these states, I know ahead of time where I should turn and what content to consume.
Proactively stock your pantry like it's the start of the pandemic all over again. Make sure the taps of your mindset fountain are full.
The internet is here to help you. Use it!
Content Updates
LK Podcast #53 with Geoff Woods: Geoff is the Co-Founder and President of ProduKtive, a training company based on the best selling book, The ONE Thing. We discuss the best ideas from the book and how to integrate them into our lives.
LK Podcast #52 with Dickie Bush: Dickie Bush comes on to discuss how and why he started his writing community, Ship 30 for 30. We also dive into the benefits of writing online, personal development, playing center on Princeton's football team, investing, and Dickie's future goals for Tampa, FL. (Watch on YouTube)
Project Updates
Aura Shipping Prices: Aura (the sports drink startup I work with), lowered their shipping costs to be a lot more affordable for the east coast and south!
Our podcast with Dickie Bush got picked up by Podcast Notes! They wrote a short blog post (1-2 minutes read) about the best ideas from the episode.
Coming Soon!
(Soon) An interview with Tal Gur from The Art of Fully Living
(Soon) An interview with Nicolas Cole, Top Writer on Quora in 2015-2018
2 Quick Clicks
(1) Reading Online 💻: Nicolas Cole’s Most Recent Book
The Art and Business of Online Writing: How to Beat the Game of Capturing and Keeping Attention
The title does a good job describing what the book is about!
(2) Reading Offline 🗞: The ONE Thing by Gary Keller and Jay Papasan
This hasn’t changed since last week. I’m still finishing the book. I still recommend it!
That’s All For This Week!
What did you think of the essays? What have you been up to?
I’d love to hear from you.
Cheers,
Louis Shulman
Help Me Out! Share Louis’ Learnings
If you know someone who would enjoy these emails, share it with them here!
Photo of the Week
This was my best performing essay of the week.
I think the square screenshot makes reading really approachable. Even when I finish the writing challenge, I think there could be value in continuing to make smaller graphics like this one.
Subscribe
If this was forwarded to you, subscribe here!
Excited to listen / see all that is coming up soon! Great things coming down the pipeline!