Hello there! It’s Nik! Been a minute, but still alive and kickin’! I hope life has been kind to you in the last 14 months.

When I hit pause on the Empty Your Cup newsletter early last year (again), I wrote:

When life throws an interruption your way, know which kind of disturbance you’re facing: Is this a hair in my soup or a bowl of soup in my face? Don’t be afraid to do a 180, and remember that giving up is also giving.

As it turned out, the problems I had with my business Four Minute Books were more like an entire ship crew’s weekly meal plan in my face. I probably could have fought tooth and nail to add up the scraps from various income streams and keep going it alone, but ultimately, after 10 years of self-employment, I decided to try something different: I got a job.

It’s my first “proper” one at 34 years old, but it has allowed me to stop trying so hard to squeeze money out of what is actually a labor of love: writing. Now that I’m three months into the gig (as a Business Course Writer for the Cardano Foundation, btw!), I’m starting to settle in, and the creative freedom I have in my (albeit reduced) spare time is utterly liberating.

Of course, the Empty Your Cup book was first on my list to get back to—and I’m happy to say that I have! I’m trying to dedicate 30-60 minutes each morning. Slow and steady wins the race I hear!

Here’s a quick recap:

• The book will work just like the newsletter, with short, daily chapters, based on 7 different themes, like Monday Zen, Gratituesday, Forgiveness Wednesday, and so on.

• My goal is for each chapter to fit on just one page and include 365 chapters for 52 weeks of balance, inspiration, and great ideas.

• Bruce Lee’s philosophy and ideas will still form the frame of the book and appear on a regular basis.

So far, that last bit has been the hardest part, and that brings me to today:

Can I ask you to read the first mini-draft and tell me what you think?

I found a cool tool that lets you give feedback as easy as 1-2-3, and completely anonymously, too. So far, I have prepared...

• The intro

• The "How This Book Works" section

• The 7 chapters for the first week (each of which is <300 words so it could fit on one page)

If you're up to read some or all of it, just hit the button below. You can do it on your phone or your computer, and there are some brief instructions as well.

Beta-Read the Mini-Draft »

If you've been around since 2019, thanks for waiting, staying, and helping bring this book to life! And if you haven't, watch this—I don't know how long it'll take, but I know the end result will be worth it.

Thank you, and don't hold back—any and all comments welcome! I’ll keep sending updates about the book through this newsletter every now and then. I hope the next time will be sooner rather than later. :)

-Nik

Kung Fu Panda 3 opens with Master Oogway meditating in the spirit realm. “Inner peace,” he repeats his mantra. When a leaf from a cherry tree lands on his nose, he sneezes the disturbance away, then returns to calm.

Suddenly, the sound of glass and steel whizzing through the air. “Now what?” the master sighs and, without even opening his eyes, catches the jade sword thrown right at him.

By the time he deflects the second blade speeding his way, he spots his longtime adversary, and he knows what he must do. “I’m ready for a rematch,” his nemesis claims. As if he had only been waiting for it, Master Oogway simply responds: “Took you long enough!”

I, too, have had a jade sword flying towards me. I’m not proud that it took me four months to catch, but today, it’s time to finally address it — and if I want to deal with my challenge head on, I must once again hit pause on Empty Your Cup.

I’m very fortunate: I’ve been making a living from writing ever since graduating from college. And while many platforms and products and projects have come and gone, Four Minute Books is the one that remains.

Since starting as a side project in late 2015, it has now grown into a collection of over 1,000 book summaries providing the bulk of my income via ads, affiliate marketing, and a few digital products. It’s my day job, if you will. I write the summaries. I send out the newsletter. I try to find sponsors, schedule the Youtube videos, and answer the support tickets.

For the first time in a while, I fully dedicated myself to this little business in 2023. I worked hard, the income came back up after a massive post-pandemic drop, and after eight months of publishing tons of new pieces, traffic was finally trending up again as well. I was very ready for “Readcember,” where I intended to only read books after 4 PM each day. Ready to use the last quarter to plan the next year and carve out time to work on Empty Your Cup.

Then, Google updated its algorithm, and my traffic dropped 30% overnight. Uh-oh. Can you hear the sound of steel and jade zooming through the air? SEO can be unpredictable. Better yet, once an update ripples through the industry, it takes weeks, sometimes months, to figure out what happened why, and which knobs to turn in order to get back on track.

For the next eight weeks, I watched my traffic continue to drop like a rock, and while I wrote down more ideas than I could execute in a year, no clear solution or path forward emerged — so I simply stuck to the path that I was on. I relaunched Empty Your Cup, worked on the book in the mornings, and spent my afternoons on Four Minute Books.

Two months later, I must admit: It is not working. The situation has changed, and if the plan doesn’t follow, Four Minute Books, too, might soon be meditating in the spirit realm — and I’m not quite ready for it to retire just yet.

The World Weightlifting Champion Jerzy Gregorek has a saying:

“Easy choices, hard life. Hard choices, easy life.”

I don’t want to write this email. I don’t want to stop sending out daily messages in hopes of inspiring you, learning from you, and gathering feedback. I don’t want to send my book draft back to the digital shelf where it’s already been gathering dust for years. I don’t want to spend all my writing energy on creating book summaries and other content that, while fun and interesting, often lacks the depth and challenge of working on something bigger, like a book. Most of all, I don’t want to look like a quitter, or inconsistent, or unprofessional.

But there is one thing I do want: sleep. I haven’t had a good night’s sleep in a while, and this week, I finally realized why: I have a business that, right now, is asking for 100% of my effort, care, and attention — and I have been ignoring it. The fix is as obvious as it is painful: drop everything else and get back to work.

For every day I’ve made the easy choice, my life has gotten a little harder. It’s time to reverse that cycle. To make the hard choice today so that tomorrow will be a little easier. So as of tomorrow, Empty Your Cup will go on indefinite holiday.

There are two paths to inner peace.

The first is letting noise be noise and continuing to meditate. Sneeze away the petal blocking your nose, and return right back to calm! Often, this path is wide open to us, and the only reason we don’t take it is that we allow our minds to get lost in petty distractions when we could just tune them out.

Every now and then, however, only the second of the two paths will give us back any inner peace at all: Opening our eyes, facing our biggest challenge, and giving ourselves fully to the situation at hand. That, too, requires mindfulness. To shift our mindset quickly, adjust to a new reality, and even daringly invite it: “Took you long enough!”

Just like Master Oogway as he begins his fight, I don’t know if I’ll succeed. I don’t know if another year of focus will lead to the results the last one couldn’t provide. All I know is that this is what life is asking me to do, and it is the right choice to say, “Yes. Okay. Let’s walk this path for a while. If this is the road to inner peace, then so be it.”

Thank you for reading. Thank you for voting. Thank you for liking, sharing, and commenting. It was an honor to serve you these last two months, and we shall meet again sooner rather than later. Until then, you can find me at Four Minute Books.

When life throws an interruption your way, know which kind of disturbance you’re facing: Is this a hair in my soup or a bowl of soup in my face? Don’t be afraid to do a 180, and remember that giving up is also giving.

Your last fight may not yet be behind you, but you’re a master — so no matter what it takes, you’ll always find your way back to inner peace.

-Nik

Despite my guiding force in life being annual themes, I do choose one goal to pursue at any given time.

Usually, it’s a big one, but I don’t think about it every day. I set the intention once, then let my subconscious take over. The goal is always there, somewhere in the back of my mind, quietly steering my actions toward the right ends. I don’t care if I achieve the goal in a year or five or ten, but often, the mere act of choosing it makes it happen a lot faster.

Overall, my life is already fairly goal-less, and yet sometimes, I can’t help but feel tired of goals altogether. I get goal fatigue. I think that’s okay, and I want you to know it’s okay for you to be tired of goals as well.

Life used to be inherently goal-less. Survive! That was our ancestors’ only motto. Will you make it another day? Great! Now go out and play. Paint a cave or something. Whatever you feel like.

We’ve come a long way since then. We can choose where to bundle our intelligent energy, and it’s an absolute marvel to see what that can do.

Option, however, does not equal obligation. It’s perfectly fine to take six months off from “Achieve!” and make “Survive!” your new, intermittent motto – for if survival is easy, there’s a lot you might want to do just for fun! You could play video games for hours, read lots of books, or paint a cave (or a canvas), and it wouldn’t matter how well you do any of them. You could hike more, organize weekly pub nights for your friends, or simply be more available as a parent or partner.

Instead of dictating your life’s direction, you’d listen. Life would tell you what it needs and what it wants you to do, and you could decide individually for each request: Is this reasonable? Or should this be a hard no?

Eventually, you’d pull the strings (and yourself) back together. Maybe life provided a new, clear direction on its own, and if not, chances are, your previous goals are waiting right where you left them. You’d dust them off, look at them – with some new perspective, of course – and decide whether they’re still worth keeping. Some won’t be. Others might glow even brighter than before.

You’d pick one of those shiny orbs and insert it back into the machine. Your blinders would fold forward, gears subconsciously click into place, and you’d be back on track in no time, back to “Achieve!” the fun, honorable, and empowered game most of us get to play these days – just don’t forget to take another break when you feel goal fatigue.

-Nik

About Forgiveness Wednesday: No matter how the week starts, by Wednesday, we’ve had enough time to kick ourselves. We’re human. We make mistakes, we regret them, and we blame ourselves. But the only way we can keep moving on is if we forgive ourselves and those around us. So every Wednesday, forgiveness is what we’ll practice.

Let’s be kind to ourselves so we can succeed.

That’s what you are. Not figuratively – literally. When the Big Bang spat out incomprehensible amounts of matter and energy, some of the initial elements fused into other elements, eventually LEGOing themselves into stars, planets, and now, only a few billion years later, you.

The next time you see Peter Pan and wish you too had a Tinkerbell, remember: You are Tinkerbell. Rearranged stardust. Magic is your precinct, alchemy your vocation. You turn nothing into something every day, and you don’t need permission to fly. All you must do is spread your wings.

-Nik

About Gratituesday: By Tuesday, we're deep into thinking about what we seek. That's why it's a great day to remember what we’ve already found. Gratitude has many benefits, but, mostly, it's an exercise in shifting our perspective. Instead of focusing on what's missing, we can focus on what we have.

And we'll be much calmer for it.

“In case of emergency, keep calm.”

That’s what it says in the elevator, because it must be the first step. It is always the first step. Often, it is the only one.

When you oversleep, keep calm. When your power goes out, keep calm. When your boss calls, keep calm.

Everything feels like an emergency when we have a habit of panicking. But what are we panicking for? Is panic a requirement for our project’s success? Did it say “should panic more” in your performance review?

Panic and action share four letters. That’s why we associate the two. Actually, panic mostly keeps us in place. Calm is what resets the cycle when we receive new information, no matter how far out of left field it may come.

Breathe, accept, orient, choose, go.

And when the elevator gets stuck, you do it again.

-Nik

About Monday Zen: Most people hate Monday. Why? In a good life, it’s a day like any other. At the very least, it shouldn’t be worse by default. That’s what Monday Zen is for: To make sure you start the week with calm, poise, and determination.

Let’s not derail our trains of thought before they leave the station. Let’s enjoy the journey.

In Spider-Man 2, Peter Parker loses his powers. One minute he’s swinging from skyscraper to skyscraper, the next he’s flat on his back in some dirty alley. His webs won’t shoot, his eyes won’t focus, and the whole superhero gig seems out the window.

Ultimately, Peter’s powers return when MJ, his great love, is in danger. Even before, however, he tries various things: He deliberately renounces being Spiderman, attempts to win MJ back from another man, and tells his aunt the truth about his failure to save his uncle years earlier. Despite failing, these were acts of empowerment – made with the power Peter had at the time, aimed at growing his resolve.

After releasing my first book, I dove right into the next one. It was slow. I spent over a week on a single chapter. I redid the structure. Something felt off. Suddenly, two months were gone, and I was starting to drift, just like I had with book number one (which was written across a scattered three months out of twelve).

One day, I decided to start a daily blog. At first sight, it seemed like yet another distraction. Actually, it was the act of empowerment I needed. A grounding exercise to combat the limbo of book-writing, ensuring I show up, practice, and ship every day.

Take your power back first. Use the room and resources you have. Confidence can come in small doses. It could be a cup of coffee, a t-shirt with the right slogan, or a song. Sometimes, it’ll have to be slightly bigger – a new computer, a different job, or hanging up the mantle you loved to wear so much.

Mostly, it’s about changing the momentum: switching from passive to active, from reactive to focused, and from tiptoeing backwards to taking a step forward and looking ahead.

You might not return immediately in full force, but swing or no swing, at least you’ll be on your way.

-Nik

About Slow Down Sunday: Life is fast. If we don’t stop and turn around once in a while, we might miss it. So on Sunday, let’s stop and turn around.

Let’s slow down so we can experience all of life — not just parts of it.

When we find ourselves in a state of ecstasy, we want it to become the new normal. Of course, new and normal are opposites. As soon as the novelty turns into a routine, the ecstasy disappears. The first time was a happy accident, but now we’re unhappy until we get to repeat what can’t be planned. A vicious cycle begins, and one day, years later, we scratch our heads, wondering how we ended up on this witch hunt for something we weren’t looking for to begin with.

Hedonism’s sneakiest trick, however, is when ecstasy doesn’t make us ecstatic at all. It might be a moment of serenity while overlooking the mountains at dawn, or a wave of gratitude for a privileged dining experience. “I should feel this more often.” Unfortunately, the path to more good feelings is rarely more of the same.

It is a rare commodity, the ability to stop eating before you’re full. But it is a skill you can learn. Drain the bath before the water gets cold. Let the fading tide expose your skin to the air. Inch by inch, you’ll return to your non-elevated state. Grounding, I hear it’s called.

That’s where we must return. The ground. One day it’ll be in a box, but until then, let’s practice it many times over – first with our feet and then with our minds – so the only ones left wanting in the cold will be the fallen angels of pleasure in excess.

-Nik

About Surprise Saturday: In the long run, the only good pattern is breaking our patterns. That’s why, every once in a while, we need a shock to the system. An unexpected idea. A creative surprise. That’s what we’ll unwrap every Saturday.

Picasso said he didn’t seek. He just found. Let’s keep exploring.

I hate buying groceries. I’m thrilled to pay someone to deliver them. We constantly trade money for time. We value convenience. We choose more hours over more dollars.

Why don’t we do the same when time is the thing we have to give up? The side project is a distraction, but it looks to be a quick buck, so we jump in with both feet. Writing the book will take forever, but adding a week up front to think about how to compress “forever” into six months? Nu-uh. No dice.

For the first four years of writing, I did not feel compelled to make an online course. Then, one cold September morning, I woke up and it was easy. I had a complete outline in my head. All I had to do was write it down, refine it, make bullets for each lesson, and hit record. Did it take effort? Of course. But the initial inspiration and structure carried me all the way.

When the result is more money or more time two years from now, don’t do it the hard way. Pay for convenience by abstaining. Refuse to start until it’s easy. Wait until downhill is obvious. Then, get on your sled and enjoy the ride.

-Nik

About No Sense Friday: Most people live for Friday. Relaxing on the weekend is fine, but we can’t just waste it away every time. That’s why Friday is the most important day to call out things that make no sense. Because in a way, the concept of ‘Friday’ itself makes no sense.

A good life is lived every day, not just once a week.

This week, I’m playing a stupid amount of a racing game called Asphalt. Why? It’s Ferrari season.

I have loved Ferrari since I was five years old. More than two decades later, I’m still a long way from driving my own. I can, however, virtually test-drive all kinds of Ferraris — and that may be just as satisfying. It definitely feels good enough for today.

Sometimes, you need a halfway goal. A little milestone along the way.

The best thing about halfway goals is that they’ll feel halfway even if you’re a good distance from the 50%-marker. If I were to spend 200 € on owning a virtual Ferrari (or waste several dozen hours playing the game to get it), that’d still be 1000th the price of a real one. Would you spend 0.1% of your dream budget on gaining renewed inspiration to achieve it for a week, a month, or even a year? That could be a decent deal.

When you can’t travel the world, plan a local weekend trip as a reward for doing well this quarter. When you want to lose 20 pounds, buy a pretty blouse after you’ve lost five. And when you want to save six figures, take $100 and treat yourself after you’ve invested $10,000.

While halfway goals are fun to celebrate, they also provide a chance to check in with yourself: Why do you want to reach this goal? Is it still the same reason from when you started? Have you outgrown your destination on the journey, or does the finish line feel as meaningful as it did on day one? There’s no shame in letting go of goals that no longer serve you.

Even in those cases, halfway goals will be worth it. After all, they’ll now have to stand in for the real thing! You can’t achieve it all, and that’s okay. Thanks to your halfway goal, you’ll move the finish line closer, say farewell with a ritual, and be at peace with the steps you’ll never take.

For now, however, it’s still Ferrari season. The game isn’t over, and you have both real and virtual races to win. Now if you’ll excuse me — I think it’s time to play.

-Nik

About Thought Experiment Thursday: We can’t solve our problems with the same thinking that created them. Science estimates we have 7 thoughts per minute. That’s a lot of chances to change our thinking. So, on Thursdays, that’s what we’ll practice.

A question opens the mind. A statement closes it. Let’s keep ours wide open.

It sucks to be en route. The goal is the destination. But there is choice in how we arrive.

You can run a marathon in shoes below your size. It won’t make finishing feel any better, but it might prevent you from running the next one.

It hurts to realize you have a few pounds too many. Can’t the image in the mirror just…change? No, but you can loosen your belt. Let it out a notch, and get on with your diet.

Huffing and puffing won’t make the bike go faster. Breathe calmly, and arrive with something left to give.

-Nik

About Forgiveness Wednesday: No matter how the week starts, by Wednesday, we’ve had enough time to kick ourselves. We’re human. We make mistakes, we regret them, and we blame ourselves. But the only way we can keep moving on is if we forgive ourselves and those around us. So every Wednesday, forgiveness is what we’ll practice.

Let’s be kind to ourselves so we can succeed.

“I love it when they’re soggy,” I said. “You know, a little chewy from the juice of the tomato, or the cold cuts, or whatever you put on.” I was talking, of course, about the rolls. One hand on the steering wheel, the other on an aluminum-foil-wrapped “Brötchen,” as we call them in Germany, my friend agreed – and sunk his teeth into the delicious mix of dough and salami.

You’d never make soggy rolls at home. You don’t bake them fresh, garnish them with mortadella and cheese, then wrap them in foil and put them in the fridge. The only time you have soggy rolls is when no other kind is available. They’re a sign of adventure.

Back then, my friend’s mom must’ve made at least eight rolls for us, a little overkill for a one-hour drive. I was just tagging along – mental support for his job interview. The car we drove in was a blue jeep. His interview happened in a grocery store. He said it went okay and shared all kinds of details on the way back.

Eventually, he got the job: A coveted spot in a work-and-study program at one of Germany’s biggest retailers. It was a great opportunity, especially given his grades. He would go on to make the most of it, and I’m happy I played a small role in his story.

Whatever I can remember about this day, it all spools off from that moment I see him biting into his mushy sandwich. We all have memories like this, minted not from pleasure or extreme emotion, but from the details along the way – details which, ultimately, stand for something much bigger.

Cherish your soggy rolls.

-Nik

About Gratituesday: By Tuesday, we're deep into thinking about what we seek. That's why it's a great day to remember what we’ve already found. Gratitude has many benefits, but, mostly, it's an exercise in shifting our perspective. Instead of focusing on what's missing, we can focus on what we have.

And we'll be much calmer for it.

A man seeking wisdom entered the monastery. He was tasked with fetching water. Every morning, he walked to a well, let down the bucket, and came back with what he found.

On his first day, the man returned with half a bucket. He said: “I’m sorry, master.” The master nodded in silence.

On his second day, it was hot. The man returned with a quarter bucket. Once again, the master nodded in silence.

On his third day, it rained. The man returned with a full bucket. He was excited. The master, however, nodded in silence.

Then, a drought came. Soon, the man returned with an empty bucket. He said: “Master, should I go to the river instead?” The master shook his head.

The drought continued for a while but, eventually, it passed. Soon, the man returned with a full bucket again.

After one year, the task of fetching water was passed on to a new monk. Having completed his duty, the man asked: “Master, why didn’t you let me go to the river when the well was dry?”

The master replied: “If you do not let down the bucket, how can you know the well is dry?”

At that moment, the man was enlightened.

Ernest Hemingway looked at creativity like a well: as long as he left something in it, he could always return the next day.

Love is a well too. It springs eternal from deep inside your heart — but only if you go fetch water.

Even life itself can be thought of as a fountain: it flows from the inside out, and what we find within is what we carry into the world.

Like the man in the story, however, we first have to realize it’s making the effort that matters.

What the master knew, and what he could only teach the man through rigorous practice, is that life isn’t about how much water we find, or if any, for that matter. It’s about becoming the kind of person who walks to the well every day regardless.

Whatever you do, whatever your challenge, your job, your obstacle, focus not on where the answers are. Just remember to let down the bucket. You’ll find water soon enough — and life will always keep flowing.

-Nik

About Monday Zen: Most people hate Monday. Why? In a good life, it’s a day like any other. At the very least, it shouldn’t be worse by default. That’s what Monday Zen is for: To make sure you start the week with calm, poise, and determination.

Let’s not derail our trains of thought before they leave the station. Let’s enjoy the journey.

Really? Would the world have stopped spinning if you’d sat on the throne in peace? Are you the president? In fact, I think even the president won’t take meetings on the toilet. So why would you?

Perhaps it’s not arrogance. Perhaps it’s impostor syndrome. Are you so small a cog in the machine that you’re afraid you’ll get fired for being irrelevant if you pause to pee? Neither one is a good look, but really, it’s your mind you should worry about.

My dad says the gears crunch when someone leaves the company — but whether the crunch is long and loud or short and quiet, the gears will keep moving.

This might have sobering implications about your retirement, but at the very least, it means no one is too important to take a break. At the same time, no gear leaves the culture unaffected, no matter how small it may be.

Someone will always miss you when you’re gone — but I think they’ll survive while you’re running to the loo. Don’t tinkle and talk.

-Nik

About Slow Down Sunday: Life is fast. If we don’t stop and turn around once in a while, we might miss it. So on Sunday, let’s stop and turn around.

Let’s slow down so we can experience all of life — not just parts of it.

No one reads Eat, Pray, Love for the itinerary. Liz Gilbert could have spent her post-divorce year in Milwaukee, Dortmund, and Birmingham instead of Rome, India, and Indonesia, and the book would have been just as riveting. Why? Because we read Eat, Pray, Love to feel.

What does it feel like to go through divorce? What does it feel like to be lost? And to find yourself? Invent yourself? Maybe we already know some of these feelings. Maybe we don’t. Either way, we want to stew in a can of emotional romance soup, and boy, does Gilbert deliver. Naturally, we’ll learn something along the way – but that’s not why we came. Not really, anyway. At least if we’re being honest. The same applies to Hamlet, The Da Vinci Code, and Ready Player One.

They dynamic of “we read to feel” seems to be obvious and well-accepted when it comes to fiction titles, but for non-fiction? Not so much. I wonder why. How could one set of books have such a different societal standing than another when all books are written with feeling? As an author, it’s impossible to do anything else.

Reading non-fiction solely for information is like reading fiction only on Wikipedia: You get the plot but not the story, the map but not the adventure – a body without a soul.

Essentialism is not about asking a few smart questions for better productivity. It is about feeling at peace with your work. That’s not something a book summary can teach you, but a few quiet hours with Greg McKeown at your own leisure just might.

The next time a book’s idea or summary speaks to you, ask why. Does it emit the kind of feeling you seem to need right now? If so, pick up a copy. You may not land on Mars, but you’ll still emerge with much more than you expected – just like Liz Gilbert in Eat, Pray, Love.

-Nik

About Surprise Saturday: In the long run, the only good pattern is breaking our patterns. That’s why, every once in a while, we need a shock to the system. An unexpected idea. A creative surprise. That’s what we’ll unwrap every Saturday.

Picasso said he didn’t seek. He just found. Let’s keep exploring.

You can choose any problem you want, but you’re gonna have a problem. I can write the book where I might need months to figure out the structure, but once I do the writing will be easy. Or I can write the book for which I already have an exact structure, but where I know each chapter will have to be painstakingly assembled with lots of research. Which problem do I want?

It’s the essentialist – and therefore more honest – version of our default response to any conundrum: “How can I do all of it?” Usually, we can’t, and if we try, we’ll do half of everything and do it poorly.

Life consists entirely of tradeoffs. Why not make them deliberately?

-Nik

About No Sense Friday: Most people live for Friday. Relaxing on the weekend is fine, but we can’t just waste it away every time. That’s why Friday is the most important day to call out things that make no sense. Because in a way, the concept of ‘Friday’ itself makes no sense.

A good life is lived every day, not just once a week.

As a teenager, I had a phase where I listened to Europe’s The Final Countdown every single day. I couldn’t put my finger on it, but there was something about it. The melody, the high-pitched synthesizer noises, the guitars – it was just epic, despite being basically five minutes of repeating one riff and line.

Nowadays it’s mostly a New Year’s song. It barely plays on the radio during the year. I annoyed a good amount of people with my Final Countdown frenzy. “How often can you listen to the same song?” my parents would say. Especially since on most days, there was nothing to, you know, count down to.

Looking back, I think I was on to something. There is a final countdown, and it’s ticking away for each of us – not just on New Year’s Eve but every single day. Maybe we should all listen to the song more often. It creates a sense of urgency.

10, 9, 8… What will you do today? How will you spend your good hours? 7, 6, 5… Will you choose the work that matters? The people you care about? 4, 3… Or trifles that won’t make a difference? 2, 1… Boom! Time’s up. Life goes fast, doesn’t it?

“Will things ever be the same again?” the song lyrics ask. They won’t be – at least not once you realize your final countdown has already begun.

-Nik

About Thought Experiment Thursday: We can’t solve our problems with the same thinking that created them. Science estimates we have 7 thoughts per minute. That’s a lot of chances to change our thinking. So, on Thursdays, that’s what we’ll practice.

A question opens the mind. A statement closes it. Let’s keep ours wide open.

Covid did something for Germany that I was afraid would take another 50 years: It bumped the share of people working from home from 4% to 30%. Finally!

The flexibility is great, but it also puts our work in flux. Suddenly, there’s no physical separation. When are we supposed to work? When is it okay to rest?

Companies get a new set of rules in the form of more remote-friendly laws, but our personal rulebooks we’ll have to write ourselves.

There’s a lot to be said about pretending you leave the house every morning: You shower, dress properly, and walk to your office – even if’s just the next room over.

Yet, not everyone has an entire room to spare, and so where physical space wanes, we must get creative. I can do a lot sitting on my bed, if only I comb my hair. The feeling of the bristles on my scalp, the magic realignment from chaotic to straight – whatever does the final trick, it works. My vision narrows, my mind calms down, and I can do some work in my pajamas.

Probe your routines. Which elements feel most empowering? Focus on those. Sometimes, brushing your teeth is all you need.

Working from home can be wonderful. Don’t let the blur of boundaries get to you. You can straighten them, you know? Just like you do with your hair. Use your power. Pick up a comb, and go from there.

-Nik

About Forgiveness Wednesday: No matter how the week starts, by Wednesday, we’ve had enough time to kick ourselves. We’re human. We make mistakes, we regret them, and we blame ourselves. But the only way we can keep moving on is if we forgive ourselves and those around us. So every Wednesday, forgiveness is what we’ll practice.

Let’s be kind to ourselves so we can succeed.

Are you? People rarely use that phrase if they aren’t. Why go out of your way to pretend when you can just state your name and occupation?

“Happy to be here” means you got the joke. You realize it’s a privilege. That the connection is not guaranteed. When you do an interview, are you happy to be there? Do you look forward to the meeting? What about the group assignment discussions? In the realization lies the choice.

Everyone who’s happy to be here remembers a place where they weren’t. They thought it was the wrong crowd, the wrong date, the wrong company they interviewed for. Until, one day, they chose to be happy to show up for the people right in front of them.

-Nik

About Gratituesday: By Tuesday, we're deep into thinking about what we seek. That's why it's a great day to remember what we’ve already found. Gratitude has many benefits, but, mostly, it's an exercise in shifting our perspective. Instead of focusing on what's missing, we can focus on what we have.

And we'll be much calmer for it.

Once upon a time, a lamb was drinking water from a mountain stream. A tiger came to drink the water a few yards above him, saw the lamb, and said, "Why are you muddying my stream?"

The lamb said, "How can I be muddying your stream? I'm down here and you're up there?"

"But you did it yesterday."

"I wasn't even here yesterday!"

"Then it must have been your mother."

"My mother has been dead for awhile. They took her away."

"Then it must have been your father."

"My father? I don't even know who he is!

"I don't care. It must have been your grandfather or great-grandfather who has been muddying my stream. So I am going to eat you!", the tiger exclaimed.

And with that he pounced on the lamb and made a meal of him.

One of my favorite scenes in The Dark Knight is when Alfred tells Bruce Wayne the story of the jewel thief:

“A long time ago I was in Burma. My friends and I were working for the local government. They were trying to buy the loyalty of tribal leaders by bribing them with precious stones. But their caravans were being raided in a forest north of Rangoon by a bandit.

So, we went looking for the stones. But, in 6 months, we never met anyone who traded with him. One day, I saw a child playing with a ruby the size of a tangerine — the bandit had been throwing them away.”

“So why steal them?”

“Well, because he thought it was good sport. Because some men aren't looking for anything logical, like money. They can't be bought, bullied, reasoned or negotiated with. Some men just want to watch the world burn.”

What Alfred is trying to explain is that Batman’s enemy, the Joker, isn’t your average criminal. The Joker is the tiger. He shows up at the river and picks a fight. Just because he can. It’s who he is, and there’s nothing you can do to change it.

Some people aren’t looking for anything when they torpedo your life with toxic words, bad ideas, and terrible habits. They can’t be healed, appeased, or convinced to change their minds. Some people just want to tear others down.

Their pain sits so deep you can’t get to them, and it’s not your job to try and do so. Your job is to realize it before they pounce and get out of the way.

Life is better when you’re a lamb. You can mind your own business, be calm and happy, and you’ll get along with almost everybody.

But don’t be naïve. Don’t trot into an obvious trap. Go through the world with open eyes. Stay aware of real danger. Watch out.

And when a tiger is making excuses to attack, run like hell.

-Nik

About Monday Zen: Most people hate Monday. Why? In a good life, it’s a day like any other. At the very least, it shouldn’t be worse by default. That’s what Monday Zen is for: To make sure you start the week with calm, poise, and determination.

Let’s not derail our trains of thought before they leave the station. Let’s enjoy the journey.

I want to read three books a day. Besides the obvious challenges with this goal – time, money, limited concentration – there’s a more subtle dynamic that makes it both unfeasible and unnecessary: When I hit a certain level of reflection, I can no longer breathe in. Before I can continue, I have to exhale.

It took me 18 months to finish The Inner Game of Tennis, a short book with a succinct premise – but one that was so densely packed with insight, at least for me, that I had to put it down whenever I got hit over the head again.

When you continue reading after a profound aha moment, you bulldoze it. It’ll be a piece of gum sticking to a random patch of the ever-unfolding tarmac that is your memory. Don’t! Let it sink in. When the plants have enough water, you stop watering. So don’t drown important lessons with a torrent of more information.

Sometimes, exhaling means a day or two of mental distance. Sometimes, it means kneading the dough with a new ingredient. If you’re a creator, it might even mean shipping a new idea, one that’s powered by your latest realization.

Whatever your way of exhaling, don’t forget to do it. Breathe in, breathe out. No matter which side of the road you walk on, you’ll always stay on Living Avenue when you remember breathing is a two-way street.

-Nik

About Slow Down Sunday: Life is fast. If we don’t stop and turn around once in a while, we might miss it. So on Sunday, let’s stop and turn around.

Let’s slow down so we can experience all of life — not just parts of it.