The fastest way to transform yourself is to become obsessed with the truth.

Throughout our lives, there are thousands of truths, and it’s our job to uncover them quickly.

The faster we can uncover them, the more we can accomplish. This goes for everything in life: business, relationships, sports, hobbies, skills, and personal happiness.

Imagine two people in different toxic relationships. Person #1 identified the relationship was toxic and ended it after 1 month, and Person #2 stayed in the relationship for 5 years.

Who is better off? Obviously Person #1. Person #1 was able to identify the truth and move on. Then, they had 4 years and 11 months to identify more truths and make more decisions on them. 

After 5 years, Person #1 has discovered hundreds of truths, and Person #2 has discovered 1 truth.

Uncovering the truth is easy, because we all know the truth in the back of our heads. We just need to release it.

How to release it? The easiest way to explore the truth is to be curious and create things that help us release the truth.

I try to do this by writing every day. Writing has gotten me through some really hard business problems - some problems that could have been solved even faster if I wrote about them earlier.

Writing has also allowed me to identify many individual/personal truths, has made me happier overall, and given me a better quality of life, especially through the pandemic.

We hear wise people “speak the truth”, whether it’s from a quote, a TED Talk, or on TV.

Because we hear these people “casually” speaking the truth, it makes us believe that the truth is something we can “think through”. But I think this is wrong. 

All great truths come from the result of years and years of experience, creation, and writing!

I wrote today, but it's way too private to share.

Going to write something nice tomorrow.

Asking for things is the biggest challenge of my life.

Asking for help. Asking a girl out on a date. Asking for a favor. Asking someone for a meeting. Asking someone to make plans with me. Asking for a raise or a promotion. 

Instead of asking, I’ll do the opposite. I’ll work really with the goal of getting people to ask me things.

People ask me for meetings. People ask me for help. And sometimes (rarely), girls ask me out.

This is the mantra of the creator or the do-er. We think that the best results will come from putting our heads down and working hard.

But this is a mental crutch.

Above are some simple examples of how to exit the comfort zone, which, in my opinion, is 100x more powerful than working hard (it’s still important but I don’t need any improvements here).

If working hard is a cup of coffee, getting out of your comfort zone is 10 hits of meth.

First thing, get the fuck out of the house.

Then, go to the store or coffee shop, ask the barista their name, and how long they’ve worked there.

Introduce yourself, you just made a new friend.

Then, pick up a new hobby and/or sport - one that you are particularly beginner at. Be the worst person at that thing and experience some embarrassment and humiliation. 

Experience this once and you’ll never give a fuck about learning anything new again.

Start writing. Write every day. Learn to identify what’s in your comfort zone, and what’s not, and write about all of this. Write about your fears and insecurities, and how you’ll come to terms with them.

Fill up your day with activities. Projects. Work. Writing. Reading. Sports. Meeting friends. FaceTime chats. Go to the movies. Make a movie. Learn!

Download dating apps. Ask people on dates. Make new friends. 

Look to your right or left right now, anyone there? Strike up a conversation with that person.

Ask people to do shit. Get rejected, bailed on, flaked on, and left for dead.

Discover that rejection has NOTHING to do with you - but really just people that you used to be like - passive, “fake busy”, and living without intention.

Then think back to all those times when people asked you to do something, and you didn’t do it because you wanted to stay home and binge YouTube. Realize those people are actually you now, living life to the fullest. Make those people your new friends.

Quit your stupid corporate job. Start a business around your passion. Meet more amazing people that are also following their dreams. Meet the people that are running the world.

Discover that these people running the world had the same journey as you. You are one of them now.

No time to write today. Went out til midnight. 

Tomorrow something good, maybe!

As creators, our obsessions with personal productivity is unhealthy.

I came across this post, going into some serious detail about the pros and cons and nuances of the new trendy productivity software, todo apps, etc.

Who. Fucking. Cares.

Being organized is overrated. Writing down “notes” is overrated. Mental frameworks are overrated. Self-help books are overrated. The Pomodoro technique is overrated. Productivity hacks and gurus are overrated.

All of this crap is a way for us to “feel” productive without actually getting things done.

People use fancy productivity systems because they forgot to set a simple goal.

A simple goal: Launch the thing. Build the feature. Write the blog post. Outsource the thing.

Once you set a goal, you don’t need a “system”. The “system” is your brain. Your brain is a smart and enterprising MF!! That brain of yours is smart enough to prioritize what needs to get done and in what order.

While you’re tweaking your project plan in some trendy todo app, someone else already built and launched your idea.

...with a todo list written on a post-it note.

Before people find their calling in life, I believe there is “the moment”.

It’s romantic to envision this happening as some sort of sudden realization, like right when Peter Parker realizes his superhuman powers.

It’s that moment where you realize you must do this new thing for the rest of your life.

For me, it was when I built my first web app. I realized I could make anything I wanted simply by writing and modifying code on my laptop.

After this realization, nothing was the same. I only wanted more of it. I needed to figure out how I could build my life around it, and make it my career.

For some people, this happens “moment” happens early in life. Some later in life. For some people, it never happens.

People should optimize for the moment.

We look to “wise people” for the answers.

Whether it’s Obama, Kanye, Jesus, or Buddha, we believe that these people can give us some answers.

But this is a shortcut way of thinking.

We cannot solely become better people by reading, studying, and learning from others. We can only become better people through the sum of the experiences of our entire life.

Sure, learning from these people is important, but it’s only a tiny fraction of the experiences that make up our lives.

What is the answer to life? How to be happy? 

In this novel, the protagonist goes on a journey of self-discovery. He meets many different cultures and walks of life. He even meets the Buddha himself.

Everywhere he goes, he comes to a similar conclusion: that nobody can “teach” the meaning of life.

He continues to search. He lives in recluse. He fasts and meditates for years. He meets and lives among “holiest” people in the world. He becomes an entrepreneur. He becomes rich and lives a luxurious lifestyle. He gets addicted to gambling and booze. He has a child.

At the end of his diverse life, we realize that nobody along his journey had the answer to the meaning of life. 

So what is the meaning of life? The search itself.

Piggybacking on my weatherman post from a couple days back.

This morning it was raining, but I didn’t hesitate for a second about my plan. I can still run in the rain!! It’s just water!!

I set out to run 13 miles and did it with ease. I ran my 3rd fastest half marathon of all time (including actual races). Crazy since I'm not even training for anything.

Usually, the rain and wind annoy me while running, but today it felt amazing. It’s all mental.

Going on offense is so much better than defense.

Reach out more than you get reached to.

Make more plans with people than people make plans with you.

Ask people on dates more than you get asked.

Write more than you read.

Create more than you consume.

Stop looking at the weather forecast.

Instead, make plans regardless of the weather. 

It’s better to make a plan, with an option to change it later, than to not make a plan at all.

And it’s even better to just do that thing in the rain and lightning and hail and snow.

The same goes for starting a business / getting in shape / following your dreams. The forecast often looks gloomy. Not gloomy in terms of rain clouds in the sky, but gloomy with your excuses and insecurities.

Don’t let the weatherman live in your head, fuck that guy.

Missed a day of writing, supporting one of my favorite artists Louis Metric by buying some of his merch.

If you haven't checked out his music, you should, it's amazing.

It took me 1.5 months, but I finally finished my long-ass book.

To be honest, the book wasn't all that great. I had higher expectations for it, and I kept thinking it was going to get better. It never really did.

Before this book, I was reading a ton and getting very excited about books. This definitely slowed me down.

I'm mostly glad that I finished it though. One of the harder things I've done in recent memory.

Ok, back to shorter books again for a while.

We underestimate how much people do things for social media.

I remember a few years ago there was a girl that I really liked. We went on a couple of dates and followed each other on Instagram. To be honest, I probably liked her a lot more than she liked me (in hindsight).

I remember that I wanted to signal to her that I was cool and interesting, and what better way to do that than with Instagram Stories, amirite?

During this time that we were talking, anytime that I did something cool, I made sure to post it on my Instagram Story. And sometimes, I even went out of my way to do extra cool shit just so I could get it on the ‘Gram.

After posting, I secretly hoped she would watch, and send me a message. I would also often check the list of people who “viewed” my story feed to see if she had seen it or not.

This lasted for weeks, if not months. It was one of those relationships that fizzled out, but I probably wanted it more than she did, so I was still flexing on the 'Gram even after it was clearly over.

It’s so weird to admit this in writing, and it’s so cringy that I did this! But I did. And I think about this often.

While I took things to the extreme, this first-hand experience changed how I think about social media for the better.

Before this, when anything cool/funny/crazy happened in my life, my first reaction was to document it, in hopes of getting validation from others.

That is the opposite of being present, the opposite of living in the moment.

Since then, I’ve gotten better at identifying my “urge to post” and push those feelings away. It has helped me understand when I’m doing something for someone else or if I’m doing it for myself.

Nowadays, I don't even have Instagram on my phone, and haven't posted an Instagram story in months. But if I think back to the last one I posted, yep, it was because I wanted to show off ;)

Next time you go to post on social media, just think for a bit about why you’re posting it. Are you being actually genuine? Who do you want to see it?

On most days, I experience a small moment of “awe” thinking about just how much opportunity there is to build a business on the internet.

I’ve been working on businesses for almost five years now, and as each day goes by, that moment of awe gets bigger and bigger.

2020 is only the beginning. We are barely scratching the surface.

All you need to do is pick a topic, hopefully something you’re passionate about, and get to work.

At first, you might feel like “everything has been done”. You google your idea and realize that 10 other companies are already doing it.

But you must look closer. Go deeper!

Within one idea, there are 100s of approaches, and 100s niches, and 100s of countries and languages. And within one idea, there are 100 more different ideas that branch off of it. 

If you look at it this way, there are literally thousands of opportunities that can stem from one idea.

Even if your exact idea has already been done before, chances are it has been done very poorly. You just need to look under the covers. Then you can make something better simply by caring.

This little internet community of makers is so small. Smaller than we think. It is going to explode. This is just the beginning.

As each day goes by, I get more and more excited that I’ll be along for the ride.

I don’t care who to vote for. I don’t care about being current on the news. I don’t care what city I live in, or the car I drive, or having nice clothes, or what food I’m eating. 

I don’t care about impressing others. I don’t care about hiding my flaws. I don’t care about being right.

But there are two things I really do care about.

These things are:

To me, these things are 100x more important than anything else.

Just as they are important, they are 100x harder to get right.

I care so much about these things that I’m constantly suffering over them. They occupy my mind so much that I can’t care about anything else.

I’ve spent 29 years figuring out what to work on, and I imagine I’ll think about this for the rest of my life. I switched careers 5 times, did a coding boot camp, started 5+ businesses - all to better understand what I should be working on.

Most people don’t like their career or what they work on. But they stay because of convenience. To me, that is unacceptable.

The other equally important thing in my life is who I spend time with. And even moreso, who I’ll spend the rest of my life with. It’s why I’m still single at 29.

Most people settle in unhealthy relationships. They stay because of convenience. To me, again, that is unacceptable.

I’m willing to suffer for the rest of my life in hopes of getting these things right.

(These are just the things I care about, of course it's different for everyone. Shoutout Harry Dry for the inspiration.)

me: “Why is only 10 people on my website right now?? Did google just de-index me from search results? I'm screwed!”

also me: “Oh, it’s Saturday night, right...”

I want to live my life with more intention.

I try to make plans with people ahead of time, like playing tennis on Monday morning or planning a dinner on Wednesday evening.

Having a plan is awesome. It builds structure around your day and your life.

Sometimes, I don't want to do things with other people, and when that happens, I'll set aside time to do things with myself, like writing, or reading a book, or watching a movie.

But even with these solitary activities, I try to do them with intention. I set a plan to write for 2 hours, undistracted. Or I turn my phone off and watch a movie I've been meaning to watch.

The same goes for work. If I plan properly and work with intention, I can do the same work in half the time. So I can have a four-hour workday, instead of the usual 8 hours.

The opposite of this is being a reactive person. Letting other people make the plans, going with the flow, and not being present.

Happiness happens after being present. Being present happens after taking action.

Taking action can be as simple as choosing to read a book for an hour, or meeting with a friend for coffee, or coding a new feature.

The key is that these actions are proactive, not passive.

Passive actions, like watching TV or scrolling Instagram, will not put you in the present, and therefore will not lead to feeling happy.

I try to follow this four-step process:

Hypothesis

Showing the reader their progress in a table of contents on the right side of the article will increase time on site and decrease bounce rate.

Why do this? Because search engines care about dwell time. The more I can keep visitors on the page, the better.

Here's a GIF of what it looks like in action.

Since this table of contents only appears on desktop screens, I'll create a custom report in GA that cuts the data by the AB test, and also filters the results down to Device=Desktop:

Side note: Anybody have any idea how I can make a table of contents also work on mobile?

Once, I'm in the report, I'll put another dimension in called "Landing Page" because I want to look at the metrics at the page level and for users that landed on that page (usually from Google Search).

Results

The table of contents performed significantly better than the control group in terms of time on site.

For this test I ran two control groups, control and control2, so only 33% of users saw the table of contents.

It's so obviously better that I don't even need to plug the data into an AB test calculator.

Here are the results for three popular pages on Starter Story:

As a whole, it also increased the likelihood to subscribe to the Starter Story email list, which was an unexpected benefit: