It's incredible how much emotional baggage humanity places on certain age milestones. When I was younger, I remembered the birthday cards my aunts and uncles would get when they hit the big 4-0. Humorous as they were, the theme was consistent: they were officially over the hill. It's such a powerful visual that reflected what so many often felt. I grew up in small-town America, where many adults would refer back to their high school years as their glory days.

Spend any time on the Internet attempting to discuss any controversial issue, and you'll eventually get a response similar to the title. It's usually followed by a link or two that defends the other person's position.

Now there is nothing wrong with this approach per se. The person can be legitimately wrong on a topic that needs no debate. And rather than allow the other person to absorb and an inordinate amount of time and energy, a link can contain all the facts and arguments you would have made. In short, this approach is direct, clean, and efficient.

You know you are getting to the good stuff in a conversation when you cause the other person to pause, and the next thing they say is, "damn, that was a great fucking question." I was on a call with my mentor, and I could feel his energy rise, and his voice became more animated. He started to reference example after example from his own experience as he weaved down the rabbit hole, attempting to give me as much detail and nuance as he could. I was barely able to keep up, staying present while jotting notes. Again and again, I asked questions that were just beyond my skills and experience.

Imagine a 1-hour task taking 1-week to complete.

It sounds crazy, but it happens all the time. Research from 2016 claims that people are interrupted 50-60 times during an average workday (about once every 7-8 minutes). Worse, distractions tend to lead to more distractions. That "do you have a minute" coworker question becomes a 20-minute discussion about 2-3 other things. And, oh, by the way, one of them is urgent and needs to be done right now. The distraction rabbit hole runs deep.

Remember that feeling at the end of 2019? It wasn't just a brand new year ahead of us. We had a brand new decade to kick off. Such potential! Such hope! So many New Year's resolutions and goals!

Of course, we all now know the joke. WTF was the point of owning a 2020 planner? By March, the world had turned upside down. Nearly every modern society was forced through a series of dramatic changes. I won't bore you with the details because, well, you lived it. You probably had to significantly alter life as you knew it as well as abandon most (or all?) of those goals.

I love writing (to publish externally) and journaling (to keep private). However, things don't always fall neatly in one bucket. I just finished writing something I had every intention of sharing, but then something in me felt resistance. It was a moment of reflection just for me. And while I'm certain others would find it valuable, nobody else would feel the lesson as deeply as me.

I still benefitted by writing it and processing an experience of my life, but that's where the value probably ended.

A decision without action is not a decision.

Call it a goal, wish, or intention. But these are all mental targets.

To decide is to cut away. To decide and say yes to one thing means you are implicitly saying no to other things. Actions are the actualization of this as you move towards the things you decided upon and away from the things you did not. But action is the crucial ingredient of actualization.

On Black Friday, people will sleep in tents in order to be the 1st in line to save 10-20% off a new TV.

If an addict is out of money, they will go to extreme lengths to borrow, cheat, and steal (from strangers, friends, even family) in order to get their next fix.

These are just a few examples of how powerful our wants can be.

When you know the inevitable is about to happen, you know that you have to start sometime and somehow. Let it be now.

For the impatient, my overall recommendation (for anyone with a net worth of over $100) is as follows: buy $100 worth of Bitcoin and do not touch it for 5-years. Seriously, hold it no matter what.

For some people, investing in cryptocurrency sounds big and scary. To make sure they are not making a huge mistake, they’ll want to put in 100s of hours of research before risking $100.

Don’t.

Barking erupts as my dog, Linus, wakes up from a deep slumber to thrash himself off the couch before attempting to sprint to the front door. Of course, we have hardwood floors, so his paws keep slipping as you hear a constant stream of his claws scraping over and over again. Eventually, he gets to the front window to let out his loudest, scariest barks.

All because a mailman ringed the doorbell to drop off an Amazon package.