Ohhh snap it's 2021.
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​Shaan here. AKA the framework don here to save you from another year of broken promises New Years Resolutions.

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I think resolutions suck, 80% of people give up on them by January 19th ("Quitters Day").

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So I went looking for alternatives. There had to be something better.
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The method I'm about to show you I stole from a couple of guys who teach the most popular class at Stanford, called the Life Design Lab.

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Every year, the class fills up and there's a huge waitlist. Little Suzy and Billy at Stanford really want to learn how to live the good life.
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The professors turned the class into a book (I give it a 6 outta 10, but there's some great nuggets in there). And I turned their insights into a framework that I've used for the past 3 years for my new years resolutions.

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Why do people do new years resolutions anyways?

--> because they want their life to improve

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But what makes for a great life? What the heck are we supposed to be shooting for? achieving something great? having a great FAMILY? HELPING others? big-ballin-shot-callin'?

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The book starts with 3 big myths (aka dumb shit people believe)

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Myth 1: If you're successful, then you'll be happy

Reality: Happiness comes from designing a life that works for you

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Myth 2: A great life comes from following your passion

Reality:: 80% of people don't know what they are passionate about. Passion is a result of having a well designed life, not the cause.

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​Myth 3: It's too late for me now

Reality: It's never too late. The best time to do it was 20 years ago... the second best time is today.

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OK - so what the heck is a "well designed life?"

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It turns out there's ~4-5 main areas of life that matter:

  1. Health - your body & brain
  2. Work - the stuff you do
  3. Play - without this, u sad.
  4. Love (family, friends) - without this, u lonely.
  5. Self respect - without this, u don’t like u.

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Every year on Dec 31st, I sit down and reflect on how each of those areas are going in my life.
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Here's mine (and an empty template attached if you wanna do it)

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The scoring is simple.

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A 1 is the lowest score. That means you're not happy at all with how that area of your life is going.
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5 is the highest, you feel great about how that area of your life is going.
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It doesn't matter what the numbers are. What matters is taking a minute to stop being so busy...using this as a moment to reflect and get a snapshot of where are you now.

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Note - a 5 doesn't mean you "made it" or it's "done". It's all about momentum & trajectory. You can be at a 5 even if there's still more work to go.
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Health is my biggest winner this year. Last year I was the fattest I've ever been (220lbs), and had terrible eating & exercise habits. I was at a two in health. A 1 would be if I'm sick or have a disease, so last year was just a notch above that.
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This year I turned things around in August, and now am working out 6x a week and eating clean. I jumped from a 2 to a 4.

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Work for me is about picking the right thing (project selection) to work on and THEN feeling like I'm making a lot of progress. I gave myself a 4.5/5, really happy with this.

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Play is the stuff you do for fun. There is no goal. The reward is doing the activity itself. For me this is often working, but also other things (eg. reading, playing sports, watching basketball, etc.).

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Love is a tough one - because it takes into account a whole bunch of relationships. I'm a son, brother, husband, father and friend. I noticed some slippage this year. I started getting "comfortable" at home, and not bringing my A-game like I did when I first met my wife.
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I subscribe to the belief that "if you do what you did at the beginning, there will never be an end" in relationships. So I gotta get back to that "first date shaan" on a regular basis.

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Self Respect- This isn't from the book, I added this myself. I found that even if evreything is going great on the surface, if I felt shitty about myself, then I felt shitty. How do I feel about myself? Do I like the person I'm becoming?

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OK now that I have my score, I do one last thing. For my high scores, I write a keep doing and for my low scores, I write a start doing.

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Here's mine for 2021:

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Health - keep doing personal training w/ JA. 6 days of exercise +clean diet = win (just keep going)
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​Work = keep doing content consistently. Long term, I want to teach millions of people about business.
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This year:
Podcast: 1.5M downloads --> 3.3M downloads (2x)

Newsletter: 0 subscribers --> 15k subscribers (15x)

Twitter: 8k followers --> 42k followers (5x)
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Just keep pumping out content.

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Love = start doing a blackout period from 530-730pm everyday where I have no phone, and just spend quality time with the family. Tell all my business partners about the blackout so they know not to reach me.

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Play = start doing reading instead of tiktok at night.

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Self Respect = keep doing my 10min mindset training every morning before I start work to put myself in a phenomenal state of mind.

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Alright that's it. The whole thing should take about 30-40mins, and you're ready for the year.
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This process is a combination of Reflection (looking at where you are now) and Iteration (simple tweaks to what you do).

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I do it 3x a year (April 1, Aug 1, Jan 1), and this has been a game changer for me.
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Alright - that's all from me. Word on the street is that Cobra Kai season 3 is out, so I have some binge watching to do.

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If someone forwarded you this message, click here to subscribe to this newsletter & get all my good stuff.

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-shaan

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ps. empty template below
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