1 Small Favor 🤝🏻

Normally, I ask you to share this someone who you think might like this (you can do that here 🙌🏻). But not this week.

Apple updated their email inbox policies and this email might get labeled as “promotional content.” To prevent that, I just need you to reply to this email.

To make it insanely easy, I have even generated a list of 3 responses to send back to me:

• “This counts as engagement, right?”

• “Replying because I care. Also because you asked nicely”

• “this is my anti-spam love letter”

That is all.

ty

I’m 1/3 Finished

My birthday was this past Sunday.

It’s still surprises me that people think I’m 24 years old. Not sure if this is a good or bad thing. I’ll just let it be for now…

I’ve seen a lot of ways people decide to publicly share its their birthday:

• Write a year in review (I already did that)

• Make a list of 31 things I wish i told my younger self and put it on Linkedin (lame)

• Do a rager trip with some of my friends to Miami for Miami music week (that’s just $4k and a glorified bachelor party)

Which one should I do? The answer is none of the above.

I you’re new here, you might not know yet, but I like doing things my way. So. Let’s do this my way.

I want two simple things for my birthday. To have my “perfect” day and to positively impact someones life.

Lets Tango 🕺🏼

How to Have The “Perfect Day”

Last month at a dinner my friend Erika Bahr hosted, were talking about birthdays. I shared how I didn’t love how everyone does over the top things for their birthday and makes it a huge deal. Then a girl across from me flipped the perspective.

“If you don’t like how birthday’s are celebrated, what would you want to for your birthday”

Me: “I’m not sure, but I’d want to do it my way, a day full of activities I enjoy”

“There you go! plan your perfect day. Invite people to come with you. Then it’s the best birthday imaginable”

Instead of doing what everyone else posts on Instagram for their birthday. I had to ask myself what does a perfect day look like to me?

For me that’s doing a regrettably hard hike and bunch of cold plunges with my close friends. This year, I planned a trip to Pinnacles National Park and booked a day at Refuge Spa in Carmel. I planned it, and asked who wanted to be a part of it.

A perfect day doesn’t have to be elaborate or complicated. It just needs to make you happy. Write down a list of what a perfect day would look like for you. Craft it up and send it.

Here is the link to the hike here if you want to do it yourself too!

Tony Robbins Time

If you’re playing therapist there’s another reason why I don’t want to make a big deal out of birthdays. For me, it is a reminder that I'm on the clock….

I don't know how long I'm going to live, but I do know you and me have something in common. We're both going to die. I don't do public math but I'm estimating I'm now 1/3 through my life. It might seem depressing to you, but it's a reminder that I've only got a limited number of years to enjoy life. Plus I have diabetes, so those odds are stacked harder against me.

It’s up to me to decide what kind of life I want to live. I use my birthday as a check in point and ask myself. Am I following my rules?

My Rules:

1. Enjoy life, do it with people I love

2. Dont die (i.e. don’t run out of money)

3. Build a business that helps others, while abiding to rules 1 and 2

Two years ago I was really only following rule 2. I was pretty unhappy with where I was going. I was at a pretty low point and felt entirely stuck. I felt like I didn't have direction on where I wanted to go with my life. The only three things that helped me get out of the funk were meeting people, feeling helpful, and being physically active.

There was no magic fix to getting out of this funk. Don't let a "life coach" charge you $10k to tell you otherwise. What helped me was pushing forward by literally just doing things that made me happy. That's different for everyone. But for me, I draw energy from connecting with other people, working on business projects, and doing strenuous physical activity. I just kept doing that. Over and over again.

Looking back, those small consistent actions compounded. Each time I forced myself to go to an event, each time I worked on a project that excited me, each time I pushed myself physically – I was building momentum.

I'm grateful to have built up whatever size audience I have here that thinks for some reason you want to listen to me speak and see my opinions as worth listening to. Now I want to complete part 2 of my birthday wish:

If you're feeling stuck and unhappy with your life know that you're not alone. I was right there too. Remember how close you are to dying and let this silly little newsletter be a wakeup call that the only answer to solving your problems is you. Not tomorrow. Not when you "feel ready." Today. Now get up and do something with your life. One small step. Then another. I had this wakeup call 2 years ago and now it's your turn.

Now I'm going to go have my perfect day tomorrow. I'm hiking 13 miles and doing 6 cold plunges with my close friends (this was written the day before I left for the hike).

Life is so rich. Don’t waste it.

Love Ya,

Jared

Things Worth Clicking 👇🏻

A few gems I found on the internet this week - no digging required

• Neville Medora made a website for all his swipe files.

• Justin Mares made me reconsider eating more chicken than beef

• Why you shouldn’t work at Aduril. From Aduril

I Dig So You Don’t Have To

1 Set:

WARNING: Do not listen to this while working

2 IDs: