Annual Review Questions, Promotion Playbooks and Life's Biggest Question
Avthar's Weekly Wisdom #34 (12/20/2020)
Hello fellow learners, doers and curious people!
Welcome to edition #34 of Avthar's Weekly Wisdom.
🔥 This newsletter is where I share practical wisdom about self-mastery, startups, health and happiness, all to help you live better. My goal is for you to discover one thing that can change your life, in a big or small way, every week.
ICYMI: You can read all previous editions of Avthar's Weekly Wisdom here and find more useful things on my website.
What I'm doing for the next 7 days: I'll be making time this week to reflect and review 2020 from a professional and personal perspective, as well as orienting myself to make 2021 my best year yet. Since I'm thinking about end of year reflection and planning, this edition contains several resources related to that theme. I hope they help you reflect on 2020 and make 2021 your best year yet!
I'm also still making videos everyday for my 30 day TikTok Challenge, so follow along if you're on TikTok.
Here's what I want to share with you this week:
Life-changing Links
🏆 On Self-Mastery —
Tim Ferriss's End of Year Review Questions: This 2016 end of year review by polymath Tim Ferriss is 4 years old but remains one of my favorite podcasts of all time. Here's how Tim describes it: "I haven’t written New Year’s resolutions for roughly six years. Instead, I do a post-game analysis with a series of exercises and odd questions. This episode describes that, as well as a few lessons I’ve learned." I've compiled the exercises and questions from the podcast in the quote below. My hope is that you use some of them to help you reflect on 2020 and make 2021 your best year ever.
(For those who prefer reading over listening, here's the episode transcript)
What 20% of activities, experiences or people produced 80% or more of your positive emotions/outcomes this year?
What 20% of the activities, experiences or people produced 80% of the negative emotions/outcomes you experienced this year?
If we assume there are only two emotions, love and fear, which in this moment are you feeling, or which is causing you to behave in a certain way?
If you could only use a $100 right now to most increase your happiness, how would you use it? What if you had $500? What about $1,000?
Are there 3 things that you would most like to add to your life? What about 3 things you would most like to remove from your life?
What are the most absurd or crazy things you could do next year?
How can you 10x ____? (Fill in the blank with your revenue, audience, happiness, time with family, any thing you care about)
If I had to charge two times more, and couldn’t do any paid advertising, what would I do instead?
I would say think bigger, and if you’re having trouble thinking bigger, think stranger.
🚀 On Career Growth —
How to ask for a raise and promotion in 2021 (and get it): In the corporate world, the end of the year is synonymous with awkward conversations about salary and promotions. Perhaps you got the result you wanted this year or perhaps you felt unjustly overlooked. To help you get the raise you deserve in 2021, I want to share my two favorite resources on getting a raise and a promotion, both by my favorite personal finance guru (and fellow Brown Munde) Ramit Sethi. These are resources that I've personally used and had success with. They contain step by step guides and word for word scripts will help you plan, communicate and negotiate some well deserved extra money.
How to negotiate a raise with ANY job (+ exact scripts):
Step 1: Track the results you get at your job
Step 2: Show your boss your results & ask what you can improve
Step 3: Schedule a meeting with your boss to discuss compensation and ways you can add value
Step 4: Practice negotiating a raise with a friend before the meeting with your boss
Bonus: Ask for perks beyond salary
How to ask for a promotion in 7 steps:
1) Define your value
2) Avoid simply show up on the day of your performance review and asking for a raise
3) Front load your promotion request
4) Determine the timeline for your promotion
5) Set expectations with your boss (3-6 months out)
6) Prepare the briefcase technique (1-2 months out)
7) Practice Practice Practice (1-2 weeks out)
💪 On Health —
The Unmatched Power of Continuous Glucose Monitoring (CGM) to drive behavioral change: After a great response to last week's email about my own journey with glucose monitoring, I thought I'd share another CGM related resource. This is an interview Dexcom CEO, Kevin Sayer on Dr Peter Attia's podcast. Dexcom is a company that develops, manufactures, and distributes continuous glucose monitoring systems for diabetes management. In the episode, “Kevin discusses the remarkable benefits of a continuous glucose monitor for the diabetes population. Peter shares his own invaluable insights he’s learned from wearing a CGM including the impact of sleep and stress on glucose as well as the unmatched power of a CGM to drive behavioral change. Kevin also reveals some of the exciting partnerships and future advancements of their products benefiting not only those with type 1 and 2 diabetes, but also for the growing community of people interested in optimizing health and wellness.”
Here's one of my takeaways from the episode:
Real time feedback as a driver of behavioral change:
Peter is boycotting grapes after being shocked by his glucose reaction. Kevin hasn’t touched yogurt covered raisins since his experience
“I really think that CGM has the potential to change the way people eat more than any other technology I have ever laid eyes on.” says Peter
“I also believe in real-time feedback. I think it’s very difficult to curb a person’s behavior when the feedback loop is too long like the weight on the scale, or the blood test that you get at your doctor every six months.”
🙏 On Happiness —
What Happens When You Only Pursue Pleasure: This video is a snippet from a talk given by one of my favorite thinkers on eastern philosophy: Alan Watts. Watts was a British writer and speaker known for interpreting and popularizing Buddhism, Taoism, and Hinduism for a Western audience. I came across Watt's work when I was 19 years old, during a difficult period in my life, and found it accessible and enlightening.
In video, he tackles perhaps the most important question there is: How should you live? I hope you reflect on this question in the dying embers of 2020 and use it to head into the new year with more presence and purpose.
(PS. The best way to taste more of Alan Watt's playful, direct and engrossing thinking is free: Youtube)
It's important to ask yourself the question: "What do I desire?"
But when we answer that question in a naive way, we figure out that what we desire is to control everything... to get technological omnipotence. If you take time to think about it...you'll soon see that's not what you want. Because the moment you have a situation in which you are in control of things, the future is completely predictable. It's the same as the past.
That's not what you want, you want a surprise and you don't know what that's going to be, because it wouldn't be a surprise if you did.
Wishing you a week filled with happiness, peace and success, (and a Merry Christmas to those celebrating!)
Avthar
🐦 @avthars
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Excellent recommendations 💯