“We are all born ignorant, but one must work hard to remain stupid.” — Benjamin Franklin
Knowledge is no longer scarce.
Everything you need to know is out there, available for you to consume, for free.
You can learn how to make, sell, or become anything you want.
The only catch is you have to put in the necessary time and effort to acquire that knowledge and put it to use.
Sadly, most people won’t.
Having all the knowledge in the world at our fingertips only changes things for the people who take advantage of it.
Be one of them.
Now, on to this week’s ideas…
1. HOW TO GIVE YOURSELF PERMISSION TO TRY
“The only way to meaningfully change our lives or careers is we have to choose to give ourselves permission to try.”
In order to get what you want out of life, you first have to give yourself permission to pursue it.
Annie Franceschi (a For The Interested subscriber!) has written a book about how to do that so I interviewed her to find out what she learned about how to give yourself permission to try.
She discusses why people are intimidated to try things, how to get over your fear, and why action is more important than talent.
RELATED: 13 life-changing habits to try every day.
2. HOW TO MAXIMIZE SERENDIPITY
“Writing is the best kind of networking. By making it easy for people to find you online, you’ll create a vehicle for serendipity. Call on your vehicle when you want to manufacture serendipity, and you need some activation energy.”
Good fortune can only come your way if you put yourself in a position to receive it.
David Perell explains how to maximize serendipity by doing things like working on multiple different projects at the same time, avoiding boring people, and going first.
RELATED: How to get lucky.
3. 100 MUST-READ BOOKS OF 2018
“We asked you what books inspired you this year. We took your answers and turned then into this list. We hope it proves useful. Onward.”
You’re not going to be able to read all of these this year unless you’re some kind of speed reader, but it’s still a great resource for future reference.
The Do Lectures asked fans to recommend books and compiled the results into this list of 100 must-read books of 2018 that includes books about tech, business, well-being, and more.
RELATED: 20 pictures that will teach you more than reading 100 books.
4. HOW TO TAME YOUR ANXIETY
“We are engaged in a feedback loop with anxiety. Fearing it, and in response, trying to avoid it or push it down, is part of what can make it such a problem for us. It feels like an obstacle because we have been treating it as such.”
Everybody suffers from anxiety on some level, but few people recognize their anxiety can be harnessed for good.
The New York Times breaks down research that suggests three ways to harness your anxiety for good including to think of anxiety as a signal, label the feeling to steer your experience, and recognize it’s often a call to pay attention to something.
RELATED: How to reduce your anxiety about the news.
5. FIVE STEPS TO RECREATE YOUR CAREER
“The abundance of information out there can make it tempting to read about the actual thing you want to do next, be it coding, blogging, creating music, or starting a business. Look deep inside: what’s preventing you from starting your project?”
The ability to reinvent yourself is highly underrated and increasingly valuable as the working world continues to evolve.
Khe Hy shares five steps to recreate your career including to be in service to others, recognize the decisions you make in your 20’s matter (but are also reversible), and favor streams over containers.
RELATED: A five-week plan to start a side hustle on your lunch break.
6. A SEVEN STEP PLAN TO HANDLE EMAIL OVERLOAD
“It takes in average 64 seconds for an individual to return to its work after an email interruption. Considering that an average worker checks its email 15 times a day, that’s already a quarter of an hour gone daily.”
If you feel like you’re drowning in email, help is on the way.
Gwapit shares a seven step plan to overcome email overload including to clean your inbox, avoid reply all, and answer emails with action-oriented writing.
RELATED: Nine email productivity tips.
7. WHY STANDING OUT IS ESSENTIAL TO SURVIVE AS A CREATOR, BRAND, OR BUSINESS
“Anything that doesn’t stand out will eventually become irrelevant, commoditized and ignored. There will always be a faster, better, or cheaper option for everything.”
I’m referenced in this article as an example of someone who’s generous in their work (which is, ironically, a super generous compliment to receive), but that’s not why I’m sharing it.
I’m sharing it because Srinivas Rao’s take on why standing out is essential to survive as a creator, brand, or business is 100% correct.
He offers a number of examples of how people stand out by featuring a bold point of view, demonstrating their mastery, and adding an unmistakable signature to their work.
RELATED: 10 things to understand about how attention works.
8. HOW TO DO LESS AND ACHIEVE MORE
“Consider every project you’re left with after you’ve stripped the nonessentials, and then weigh their value based on their potential for achieving your larger goals. This shift will force you to get comfortable with the fact that you’ll have to say ‘no’ to a few great opportunities.”
It’s counterintuitive, but the less you do, the more you’ll accomplish.
Jen Rubio shares how she’s learned to do less in order to achieve more and suggests you must figure out what’s essential, say no more often, and remember not all essential tasks are actually important.
RELATED: How to get more done by planning less.
9. HOW THE HUSTLE REACHED ONE MILLION EMAIL SUBSCRIBERS
“Email is the only universal platform. We think about Facebook being huge, but it’s the one platform that has more users than Facebook, Twitter, or any of these things. Every single person has an email address.”
If you have a newsletter, there are two things you should do immediately.
First, join my Newsletter Creators group on Facebook.
And second, read this Simon Owens article about how The Hustle reached one million email subscribers.
It details the tactics The Hustle newsletter has used including partnerships, Facebook ads, and an active ambassadors program.
RELATED: Five tactics I’ve used to get 25,000 newsletter subscribers.
10. HOW TO STOP WORKING SO MUCH (AND WHAT I LEARNED FROM DOING SO)
“Our decision to stop working can’t be tied to our completion of work. Instead, we must learn to accept the inevitable — there will always be undone work left on the table whenever we stop working.”
It’s not your company’s fault or your boss’s fault if you’re working too much — it probably has more to do with you than anybody else.
In this post I explain how to stop working so much and what I learned from doing so including that being busy isn’t a sign of success, time spent working doesn’t equal working hard, and work expands to fill the time we give it.
RELATED: How to disappear during work days.
WHERE I FOUND THIS STUFF
I got some of this week’s ideas from Greg Roth, Further, and How It Actually Works — they’re awesome and worth checking out.
Image via Joao Tzanno.