[antifragile 4 🔥] Dr. Becky on parenting first principles, Mark Manson on everything worthwhile, being decisive, on hurrying
#41: a weekly 4-item newsletter created to inspire dads to use the challenges of fatherhood as fuel for building an incredible life & an antifragile mind.
Let’s start with a win.
This past weekend, I ran the Monument 10k in Richmond and beat my time from 13 years ago by 1m 30s (41:12, 6:38 pace)!
Thanks to my coach, Brian, for both creating a great game plan and teaching me the value of slow, consistent work (mixed with the occasional gut buster ☠️).
Next up: Kinetic Triathlon Festival on May 10th 👀
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Welcome to the 41st edition of the antifragile 4 🔥.
It’s a weekly 4-item newsletter created to inspire dads to use the challenges of fatherhood as fuel for building an incredible life & an antifragile mind. Some weeks will have a theme, others will meander. Expect it every Friday.
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Here is this week’s antifragile 4 🔥:
Dr. Becky 🧱 on a first principle of parenting
Mark Manson 🧗🏻♂️on everything worthwhile
Brooke Castillo 🤔 on being more decisive
Robert Pirsig 🏍️ on hurrying
+ AI Image of the Week 🤖 🎨
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1.) Dr. Becky 🧱 on a first principle of parenting
Kids need to feel like they have sturdy parents…parenting, first and foremost, is a journey of self-care.
How can I be the sturdiest person possible?
Dr. Becky Kennedy
Watch 3 minutes starting at 21:30.
She’s not talking about the hand-wavy type of self-care.
She’s talking about building yourself into the type of human who models love, resilience, and antifragility to your kids. So they, in turn, can cultivate those traits.
That is what parenting is.
So, are you becoming the sturdiest person possible? Or heading the other direction?
2.) Mark Manson 🧗🏻♂️on everything worthwhile
Everything worthwhile in life is won through surmounting the associated negative experience.
Mark Manson, The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck
When I think back, the things I know will make me happiest to think about on my deathbed are things that required me to push completely out of my comfort zone.
Where are those opportunities today?
3.) Brooke Castillo 🤔 on being more decisive
I’ve been thinking a lot about decisions this week.
Both big, life-changing decisions & small, daily decisions. They are the essence of our agency as humans. Regardless of our situation, we always get to choose.
Each new decision presents a brand new opportunity to choose again. What a beautiful thing!
These decisions add up to be your life’s path, wherever that might lead.
When presented with big decisions, I found these two simple questions (from amazing coach Brooke Castillo) can be beautifully clarifying:
What’s the worst result that could happen?
What’s the best result that could happen?
I find that I often overexaggerate the worst case & underestimate the best case. This helps to fend off this unhelpful tendency and properly evaluate decisions.
4.) Robert Pirsig 🏍️ on hurrying
I leave you with one more quote from Zen & the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance:
I don’t want to hurry it. That itself is a poisonous twentieth-century attitude. When you want to hurry something, that means you no longer care about it and want to get on to other things.
Robert Pirsig, Zen & the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance
AI Image of the Week 🤖 🎨
a dad building the sturdiest version of himself out of bricks 🧱
Two last things for you this week:
Listen to the full Dr. Becky / Huberman podcast episode. It’s an absolute banger for parents & non-parents alike.
Be fire and wish for the wind 🔥
With love,
Chris
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