January Update

Monthly wins, misses, lessons and recommendations.

Author

Filipe Macedo
February 01, 2023

Hello, superfriend!

You’re receiving this email because you’re part of my superfriends group and asked to be updated about the progress I’m making, both personally and professionally.

I send one life update every month, and occasionally a small essay or a collection of stuff I’ve found. I’m trying to figure out how being ambitious at work can fit into a life well lived, and how to achieve both success and fulfilment.

January TL;DR: Founders are athletes, which means rest is essential for high-performance. My focus on healthier habits are clearly paying off and I don’t feel like I’m making any sacrifice. I recently bought an Oura ring and that’s also helping by stimulating my competitive side. But I’m still far from adopting the “lazy genius” mindset I mentioned in my last Annual Life Update.

🏆️ 3 Wins

  1. I’m grateful to The Breakfast App for featuring me in an episode. I loved the energy of the interview, the feedback I received was heartwarming and the photos came out great! 🥰

  2. I’m pretty happy with our new Talent Protocol deck, that took only a couple of days to complete (the “lazy genius” mindset is working). 👏

  3. I wrote my Annual Life Update and shared it publicly. 🌱 

🙈 3 Misses

  1. I love driving but owning a car became a source of stress and friction. And I barely use it. I listed it for sale.

  2. I cannot truly rest if I stay home in Lisbon. I should always travel when I take time off to avoid spending the day in front of the computer (even if it is doing personal stuff).

  3. Working on a new whitepaper and professional identity data model for Talent Protocol should’ve been my big priority in January but I made very little progress. 😞 Here’s two possible reasons why:

    • I’m still giving too much attention to what’s urgent instead of what’s important.

    • I struggle with starting big research projects. The perfectionist in me starts panicking a bit.

🦉3 Ideas

  1. Founders are athletes.  

    • Startups are a marathon not a sprint. Startups are a game of who can survive the longest.

    • Always remember that rest is essential for high-performance athletes.

    • And, just like athletes, founders are in constant discomfort. There are more comfortable things to do for work, but we choose the stressful startup path, because we want to push ourselves, because we want to grow and because we want to do meaningful work.

  2. Lazy is the opposite of perfectionism. 🦥

    • A lazy mindset is about being enough, not trying to be perfect.

    • Lazy people aren’t afraid to ask for help or to delegate.

  3. Set an alarm clock to sleep, not to wake up. ⏰ 

    • Let your body rest and wake up when it’s ready to face the day.

    • Learn how much sleep time you normally need, and set the alarm clock to go to bed at the right time.

🔗 3 Links

  1. 📺️ Rick Rubin memes where all over this month, but I really like his idea of “being a reducer rather than a producer”. Very insightful. Watch the full interview, not just the memes.

  2. 🐦️ Product Page best Practices by Eliot Couvat

  3. 🐦️ Async ≠ No meetings by Amir Salihefendić

⭐️ 3 Recommendations

  1. 🎬️ Wildcat was an unexpectedly moving documentary about a former soldier, suffering from depression and PTSD, that develops a bond with a baby ocelot in the jungles of Peru. His openness to showing his vulnerability was a lesson in courage to me. An intimate portrait of both the beauty and cruelty of the world.

  2. 🎬️ Everything Everywhere All at Once was a feast for my brain. There’s a light surface layer of action and martial arts, a creative middle layer of bizarre and hilarious surprises, and a deeper layer of life philosophy. A refreshing movie to watch that reminded me that creativity has no limits and that it’s OK to be a mess.

  3. 📺️ The Foundations of Tea, a free course on Youtube that teached me that tea can be as interesting as wine, if not more. From the intricacies of the Tea Plant, to the role of the producers and all of the processes which can be applied to the leaf, and finally all the details that go into the actual brewing of the tea.

🙌 3 Superfriends

Thanks:

  1. João, for making me feel unconditionally loved.

  2. Eteri and Lisa, for interviewing me.

  3. Elisa, for a good chat and making me smile.

🏁 1 Challenge

  • Giveaway 30 things (select one thing everyday).

🙋🏻‍♂️ 1 Ask

  • Share one of your goals for February with me by replying to this email.

Cheers,

— Filipe