Life Hacks:
Western Heights School
Sahil Bloom’s Most Powerful Life Hacks - a series:
Life is really simple, but we insist on making it complicated.
Confucius
The spirit of this quote rings true: We humans have a tendency to manufacture complexity. We make progress in our lives—personally or professionally—and decide that the best way to celebrate that progress is to sprinkle on a new bit of chaos.
It's a rather frustrating (and hilarious) species-wide trait:
We book the relaxing vacation, only to fill every moment of it with activities that leave us more drained at the end than we were at the beginning.
We get the promotion that will reduce our money stress, so we celebrate by buying the boat that is constantly in need of servicing and repairs.
We feel busy and stressed, so we cut something out of our lives, only to feel stressed about not feeling busy, so we add something back in.
We can all come together and laugh at our "complexification" of life. But after we have that good, hearty laugh, let's talk about ways to simplify it.
Here are some short, timeless insights for simplifying your world—"hacks" for your life, careers, relationships, health, money, and more...
13
As a rule of thumb, don’t consume the news unless you're highly confident it will matter one month from now.
Consuming more news has become a reliable way to understand less about the world. Focus on smaller doses of high-signal content rather than a constant drip of the "BREAKING NEWS" that has become the industry standard.
14
Write down three things you’re grateful for every single night before you go to bed.
Say one of them out loud every single morning when you wake up.
15
Stop trying to be interesting and focus on being interested.
Interested people are prone to paying deep attention to something to learn more about it. They open up to the world, ask great questions, and observe. Being interested is how you become interesting.
Size jeans without trying them on.
Take the waistline and wrap it around your neck like a scarf. If it fits around your neck, congratulations—you’ve found your size! If the ends don’t meet, the jeans are too tight for you, and if they overlap, they’re too big.
Waterproof your shoes with a candle.
If you don’t have special creams or sprays for waterproofing your shoes, no worries, your candles have got your back. Make sure you use a transparent one; otherwise, you might accidentally dye them. The process is simple. Rub the candle on the shoe and then blow-dry it until the wax disappears from the fabric.