My 3 Year Journey
The past, the future, and some lessons for you along the way
Hey friends,
Today I wanted to share some of my story with you.
I’ll talk about where I’ve been, where I’m going, and give you a few lessons I learned along the way.
I recently consumed some life-changing content. Be sure to stay until the end to see 4 quick tips which might make you money and improve your life.
Let’s go.
Where I’ve Been
About a month ago, I made the scariest decision of my life.
I left college as a 4.0 student.
You probably know that, but here’s what you might not know:
I played hockey for 14 years. I was a good player, but I didn’t believe in myself. I was too afraid of making mistakes. I feared coaches yelling at me or benching me.
I knew I had more potential, but I was too afraid to come out of my shell.
But then everything changed in 2020:
January: shoulder separation, out for the season
May: graduated high school remotely
As the hockey season ended and high school was over, I needed to make a decision: should I stick with hockey or go to college?
I had a 4.5 GPA in high school. I was an incredibly strong student, but I didn’t know what to study. So I took a gap year.
Lesson: follow your intuition and only do things that are a “fuck yeah!” (credit to Derek Sivers for this idea).
College wasn’t a fuck yeah at that time. I didn’t know what I wanted to do. During the lockdown in 2020, I healed my shoulder and decided to play hockey.
I went all in on being the best hockey player I could be. Without school, I had time to prioritize recovery and do video review of my games.
After 4 months of PT, I finally reached my potential and came out of my shell.
Here were two secrets to my success:
You can’t be great at two things at once. You have to find one thing, one desire, and go all in on it. Having a backup or safety net doesn’t work because that means you're not 100% into it. No professional athlete has a backup plan.
The biggest thing that crippled my performance was being afraid to make a mistake. Once you stop giving a fuck about making mistakes and you take some risks, things will go better. It also makes life more interesting.
I was feeling super confident in for the New Year, but then I got dealt another shitty hand:
January 2021: torn ACL and MCL
March 2021: girlfriend dumps me 2 weeks after surgery
It stung.
I was at another crossroads in my life:
Do I continue with hockey after PT or go to college?
After surgery and other injuries, I decided I wanted to be a doctor. I chose physiology and the pre-med track. I enjoy science, blood doesn’t gross me out, and I’m a great student.
Sounds like a good fit, right?
Well, I loved the challenge. At first. But soon, I was sick of classrooms. They felt rigid.
Memorize. Forget. Repeat.
After I discovered ex-doctor Ali Abdaal on Youtube, I realized that I value independence and optionality in my career.
Something medicine wouldn’t give me.
I thought: spending 4-10 years of my life and $250K in med school tuition would help me make a great living as a doctor. But my money would still be tied to my time, and I’d be working a shit ton of hours (and others reasons too, of course).
(PS, if you haven’t heard of Naval Ravikant, he’s a genius when it comes to wealth, happiness, and more. See more on this in my “Favorites” section below).
I’m not criticizing doctors either. Just saying that it’s not the lifestyle I want.
So then last month, I realized my past-self made the decision to be pre-med.
But I needed to stop and think...
And eventually I reflected in my journal:
“I don't think I want this anymore.”
So I left college.
Where I’m Going
So that was 2020 - 2023.
A recent illness reminded me that having your health is a true blessing. Since my knee surgery in 2021, I’ve come to understand health on a much deeper level.
I’ve become obsessed with learning, self-improvement, and exploring the limits of human potential. I broke many bad habits and rediscovered my love for reading.
I completely reinvented myself.
I also did a few wild, life-changing experiments:
Meditation that altered my conscious experience
Consuming under 10g of added sugars
Cold showers and ice baths
Deleting social media
Fasting
And much more. But that’s for another time.
I’ve found that striving to improve myself and prioritize my health are both fun and deeply fulfilling. Through my personal collection of injuries, I firmly believe that the pursuit of health and treating it as number one has completely changed my life and could change yours, too.
So that’s what my focus for the blog is in the future: reflecting on my past health and development journey, and sharing the best things I’ve learned to live a happier, healthier, and more fulfilling life.
While the concept of being healthy to live longer appealed to me, what shocked me the most was that many of these habits and experiments made my quality of my life so much better.
This blog has yet to be named, so I’m open to any suggestions if you ever have one.
So that’s the blog. When I’m not working, I’ll be reading, writing these posts, and building my audience on Twitter, where I post most of my ideas and stories.
If you haven’t followed me yet, come say hi!
Don’t worry, I’m not into Twitter for politics or any of that bullshit. As I’ve discovered lately, Twitter has some pockets of some of the smartest people in the world. It’s also made me a better writer.
If you choose carefully, you can learn anything you want through Twitter and other social media.
If the algorithms are designed to capture your attention, why not reverse them so that they’re helping you become the best version of yourself?
That’s all for today. If you made it this far, thank you for reading! Please enjoy some of my favorite tidbits from the week below.
❤️ 4 Favorites
🤑 Money Tip: Take Advantage of High Interest Rates
I’m not a financial advisor, but you can make 4% interest by doing nothing but buying U.S. Treasury bonds. In one year, you can make 4% of whatever you put in, and you can pull out any time. I put my savings into SNSXX. Learn more here. (Cheers TPB!)
✍️ Quote of the Week
“A person who won’t read has no advantage over the person who can’t read.”
- Mark Twain
😴 Tweet: The 321 Method to Fix Your Sleep
🎙️Interview: Naval Ravikant on Joe Rogan
A mindblowing interview. They discuss wealth, happiness, the future of humanity, and much more. A few interesting insights that really resonated with me:
You can’t get wealthy renting out your time
Anyone can be wealthy
Happiness is a choice
I’ll be listening to this at least 3 more times. Highly recommend you check it out for yourself…
You’ve now officially reached the end of this week’s post. If you made it this far, I really appreciate your time and attention (your two most valuable resources).
Have a great week,
Baxter
P.S. Thank you for reading! If you liked this, you might enjoy my Twitter feed, where I share most of my ideas.