By Colby Kultgen
14 Questions to Ask If You're Stressed, How to Get Luckier In Life, and The Sudoku Packing Method
Read online / Read time: 4 minutes
Hello friends!
Here is your weekly dose of 1% Better.
The newsletter where I share my 5 favorite ideas, lessons, and discoveries of the week. No fluff, just the good stuff.
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1. A list of questions to ask yourself if you're stressed, stuck, or in a clusterf*ck
I saw this on Instagram and loved it.
These are 14 questions to ask yourself if you're stressed, stuck, or in a clusterf*ck:
1. Is my belly full?
2. Is my bladder empty?
3. Have I seen the sun?
4. Have I told the truth?
5. Did I touch a living creature?
6. Did I put my pen to paper?
7. Am I drinking enough water?
8. Am I giving myself grace?
9. If I sit up tall, unclench my jaw, stretch my neck, relax my face... does it feel a little better?
10. Can I say one kind thing from me to me?
11. Whatever happens, who do I want myself to be?
12. Can I breathe in a little deeper and exhale all the way?
13. What if this was easy?
14. What if I'm okay?
I deal with a good amount of clusterf*cks in my life, so I'll be keeping this list handy.
Might even print it out and put it above my desk.
This might be my favorite article on the internet.
And it always seems to find its way back to me right when I need it.
The author, Tim Urban, outlines how many more times he'll get to do certain activities in his life.
How many more times he'll eat tacos.
How many more times he'll go swimming.
How many more times he'll see his parents before they die.
It's hilarious, poignant, and a powerful reminder of how finite life really is.
Here are Tim's 3 big takeaways at the end of it:
1) Living in the same place as the people you love matters.
I probably have 10X the time left with the people who live in my city as I do with the people who live somewhere else.
2) Priorities matter.
Your remaining face time with any person depends largely on where that person falls on your list of life priorities. Make sure this list is set by you—not by unconscious inertia.
3) Quality time matters.
If you’re in your last 10% of time with someone you love, keep that fact in the front of your mind when you’re with them and treat that time as what it actually is: precious.
3. A packing hack I wish I learned 10 years ago (The Sudoku Method)
Ok, this is pretty genius.
I'm leaving for a two-week trip to Peru this Friday, so it came at the perfect time!
P.S. If you have any other great packing/travel tips, please send them my way.
4. How to increase your surface area for luck
Not the first time I've shared this idea, but I just think it's the closest thing to a real-life cheat code I've found.
Here's my 6-step playbook to put this into practice:
- Use the proximity principle. Spend more time near people already doing what you want to do. Meetups, industry events, niche online communities.
- Talk to strangers. Say hi in line. Ask a question. Give a compliment. Many of life's best opportunities start with "hey, how's it going?"
- Embrace rejection. The luckiest people you know have been told "no" more times than most people have even tried.
- Know what you're looking for. Luck can't find you if you don't know what you want. What kind of opportunity? What kind of people? Write it down so you can recognize it when it shows up.
- Be a connector. Make introductions. Host dinners. Start the group chat. Opportunities have a funny way of flowing back to people who create them for others.
- Always have a project in motion. A side hustle, a new idea, something you're trying to figure out. Just have something you can point to when someone asks "what are you working on?"
All this to say that luck is more in your control than you realize.
As the great modern philosopher Pitbull once said: "The harder I work, the luckier I get."
5. A scientific discovery we need to happen
I would also like to know how to do this.
A few more things I'm into this week:
📣 Free masterclass I'll be hosting - Build a Brand That Attracts Clients on LinkedIn
📹 Video I found useful - 69 Things Under $50 That Improve Your Life
✍️ Article that made me question everything: Face it: you're a crazy person
Have a great week!
— Colby
