19 Things That'll Brighten You Up and Don't Cost a Cent
A Year-End Grab Bag of Goodies
A carefully curated list of offerings for the end of your year: great music, articles, resources, and quotes. Enjoy, share, report back!
đś My Favorite New Jams 2023 Playlist
I listen to a lot of music. When Iâm not a short-order DJ for the kids in our car rides, Iâm deep in the proverbial archive and newcomer bins of audio. Hereâs a playlist of My Favorite New Jams of 2023. And because 2023 was a hefty dose in equal proportions of struggle, sorrow, abundance, and joy, the mix swings through all the feels, guaranteed to bolster and make you bounce in equal proportions.
Listen âMy Favorite New Jams 2023 Playlistâ
âł Life Is Short
Oldie but goodie, this 6-minute read by the inimitable Paul Graham is on my yearly re-read list. Itâs an incisive call-to-action that closes with this zinger:
Relentlessly prune bullshit, don't wait to do things that matter, and savor the time you have. That's what you do when life is short.
Read âLife Is Shortâ
đ Their Irrepressible Innocence
Another oldie I just came across, this brilliant 3-minute beauty picks up on a thread laid down in Grahamâs piece: the improbable, potent deliverance that comes from spending meaningful time with the little ones in our life.
Read âTheir Irrepressible Innocenceâ
đ§đ˝âđ¤âđ§đ˝ The Loneliness Economy
The landscape of technology in our modern lives is all-too-often a driver of our isolation and insularity. This offering aims to solve this with its comprehensive repository of resources for connection and belonging.
Explore âThe Loneliness Economyâ
đ 19 Rules for a Better Life
The gift that is Ryan Holidayâs deep, modern-day Stoic wisdom is most palpable in this compendium of deep, tactical guidelines for better living.
Read â19 Rules for a Better Lifeâ
We all have a Circle of Competence. Know what you know and what you donât. Identify your circle and its boundaries. Be ruthless in protecting it. Hint: Itâs usually smaller than you think. (Sahil Bloom)
đ Seven Thousand, Five Hundred Miles Away
Writer and poet Emma Campbell Webster wrote this short, poignant, heart-rending piece that grapples courageously with the quandary of how to do life while acute, collective suffering ignites across the world.
Read âSeven Thousand, Five Hundred Miles Awayâ
The âmother of coachingâ Dr. ChĂŠrieâ Carter-Scott devised these ârulesâ in her seminal book If Life is a Game, These are the Rules. Theyâre so timeless that they have made their way around socials as being âhanded down from ancient Sanskrit.â
Read â10 Rules of Being Humanâ
đ¨ How Are You Doing?
This brilliant micro-site takes us on a journey of emotional awareness, where we uncover the power of naming and visualizing your feelings. Immersive and insightful, itâs a practical tool for practicing our emotional intelligence.
Explore âHow Are You Doing?â
I am not what you think I am; you are what you think I am.
đ¸ 7 Ways to Close the Vocation Gap
One of the most precise, propulsive philosophical voices of our time, Peter Limberg devised the term âvocation gapâ for the âall too common phenomena of having a livelihood and vocation misaligned.â In this 8-minute read, Limberg brings his care and clarity to outlining the seven strategies possible for closing that gap.
Read â7 Ways to Close the Vocation Gapâ
đ Find a Job by Hunting, Trapping, and Planting
Taking the vocation question from a different tactical lens, Larry Cornett Ph.D. offers this phenomenal 6-minute framework for those on the search for their next job. With his deep expertise, Dr. Cornett colors in the three macro-strategies that assure a successful upgrade in career.
Read âFind a Job by Hunting, Trapping, and Plantingâ
𧾠AwesomeThread
Twitter/X can be a powerful platform for learning, connection, and community, and it can be an all-out dumpster fire. This repository curates a hand-picked, informative and categorized wellspring of Twitter threads.
Explore âAwesomeThreadâ
When youâre overthinking, youâre pretending that youâre trying to decide what to do, when in reality, youâre actually trying to eliminate the consequences or the risk, which is impossible. (h/t Erwin McManus)
𧰠A Cupboard of Tools
Oliver Burkeman wrote one of the best âproductivityâ books in 2021. Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals is a must-read. His newsletter is a dose of pure gold, too. This 4-minute piece cautions us against defining ourselves, boxing ourselves in, with the tools we find. The tools we find need to be chosen, day in day out, job by job. There is no blanket silver bullet.
Read âA Cupboard of Toolsâ
P.S. His âLists are Menusâ piece delivers the same type of relieving framing to our to-do lists.
đ´đťBusiness Needs a Bigger Myth
Artist, healer, and experience designer, Rei Chou is a prescient, pure voice and a powerful coach I leaned on during a huge career transition. Her thinking is bold and brilliant. Her words:
Business needs a bigger Myth. Our understanding of our work is far too myopic to satisfy our deeper desires for connection, relevance, and meaning⌠and to find it, its leaders must carry out their own quest. To know themselves as part of something greater than just their own lives.
Read âBusiness Needs a Bigger Mythâ
đď¸ Smart Things Smart People Said
Morgan Houselâs reputation precedes him, and his own blog writing is electric learning always. He also curated this bouquet of riches, mostly one-liner quotes from all walks of life, and theyâre zingers one and all.
Read âSmart Things Smart People Saidâ
The blemishes, scars, and setbacks are what give you the character to take you places other people are too soft and smooth to go! (Joshua Medcalf, Chop Wood Carry Water)
đđť Thatâs all for now. Blessings to you for a graceful and meaningful end to your 2023.
Warmly,
Griff
P.S. Photograph by Alessandro Carboni/TNC Photo Contest 2023