By Colby Kultgen
A Life Hack Worth Stealing, A Book Every Introvert Should Read, and Diet Advice from Mr. Olympia
Read online / Read time: 4 minutes
Hello friends!
We're back with your weekly dose of 1% Better.
The newsletter where I share my 5 favorite ideas, lessons, and discoveries of the week.
Let's get right to it!
A life hack I'm stealing
I got this hack from Ali Abdaal’s newsletter.
And considering Ali is basically the productivity guy, I’m inclined to trust him on this one.
His tip: If you’re doing something hard, count down instead of up.
Ali noticed that when he timed 15 minutes in the sauna with a stopwatch, he’d constantly negotiate with himself about getting out early.
But when he used a timer counting down from 15:00, he was much more likely to stay until it hit zero.
His trainer does the same thing in the gym. For 10 reps, he’ll count: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5...4, 3, 2, 1, 0.
There’s something about watching the finish line get closer that makes sticking with something easier.
Tiny trick. Definitely stealing it.
A book recommendation
I’ve been reading a fantastic book called How to Know a Person by David Brooks.
It’s a guide to getting better at reading people, understanding them, and making them feel valued.
I’m not finished it yet, but one story in the book stood out to me:
When she was young, Jennie Jerome (Winston Churchill's mother) dined with the British statesman William Gladstone and left thinking he was the cleverest person in England.
Later she dined with Gladstone’s great rival, Benjamin Disraeli, and left that dinner thinking she was the cleverest person in England.
It’s nice to be like Gladstone, but it’s better to be like Disraeli.
Brooks refers to this as “inverse charisma.”
We tend to think of charisma as being interesting, but there’s another kind that comes from making the person you’re talking to feel interesting.
I love that idea.
Anyways, I highly recommend this book to everyone, but especially my fellow introverts.
A quote I might frame
An all-timer from Russian novelist Fyodor Dostoevsky:
I've genuinely been unpacking this one for days.
Apparently it's from The Brothers Karamazov, which has now shot up my reading list.
A video of diet advice from 6x Mr. Olympia champion
I have no intention of competing for Mr. Olympia anytime soon (shocker).
But I really enjoyed this video from 6x champion Chris Bumstead breaking down the diet he followed during prep.
Chris makes it very clear that the diet itself was extreme and unrealistic for most people.
But he also gives 4 pieces of advice that I think anyone trying to build healthy eating habits could benefit from:
1. Get your sleep right.
This was his first tip for a reason. When you’re tired, cravings get harder to manage and making the better choice requires a lot more effort. Before obsessing over your diet, make sure you dial this in.
2. Take as many decisions out of your day as possible.
Chris knew what he was eating and roughly when he was eating it. His point was simple: the more you can set up your environment ahead of time, the less you have to rely on discipline.
3. Pick a diet you can actually follow.
He says his Olympia diet worked, but he wouldn’t even follow it now. If your plan is so restrictive that you keep abandoning it, you’re better off making it a little easier and sticking with it consistently.
4. Walk for 10 minutes after meals.
Probably the easiest one to steal. Chris recommends a short walk after eating as a simple way to get more movement into the day. He did it consistently enough during prep that those little walks added up to a meaningful number of steps.
A tweet I laughed way too hard at
A few more things I'm into this week:
🎧 Album I have on repeat: Emotional Junglist by Nia Archives
👨🏻🍳 Recipe I've made 3 times: Crispy Gnocchi With Sausage and Broccoli
💭 Quote that got me thinking:
I don’t want a soft life because I’m lazy. I want a soft life because I’ve spent most of my life in survival mode. My nervous system has been in fight or flight since childhood and now I’m choosing peace, softness, and stability.
👀 P.S. If you made it this far, reply and tell me your favorite thing in this issue! It helps me make future editions even better.
— Colby
