Disconnect to Connect
Saks Snacks 38 | Metabolizing Life Experience | "Why do you..." | Quality over Quantity| Disconnect to Connect
Hello from SF 👋. Welcome to Saks Snacks. If you’re a curious human interested in mindful tech, you might like this newsletter.
My goal for 2023 was to write every single day. I’m 187 for 188 so far, but I’ve only shared a tiny fraction of these thoughts with you.
In my push for more bite-sized newsletters, I’m planning to convert these personal reflections into digestible pieces for you.
My goal? To offer you relatable insights from my daily life, hoping to spark thoughtful introspection in your own journey.
💭 This week's topic: Disconnect to Connect
We've all heard about the importance of unplugging and disconnecting from our devices, but how often do we truly practice it?
This week, let’s dive into the concept of "metabolizing" your life experiences.
Here's a shower thought after a Saturday run that ties this all together:
My train of thought started from some “truths” that I know:
Experience = accumulated time spent in the present moment.
Wisdom = “metabolized experience”, adapted from Chip Conley
How to metabolize experience? I think writing is the best tool to do so but open to any other suggestions
If you’re constantly plugged in, you're not giving yourself the time and space to metabolize the information and experiences you accumulate. This essential process of digestion allows for intuitive genius to strike down from above.
A fulfilling life for me comes from engaging in various experiences while being present and mindful. This mindfulness fosters wisdom. However, I must continue making time for reflection to fully comprehend these experiences. I worry that our digitally-dominated lives often rob us of this crucial reflective time.
✍️ Reflection of the Week
Alex Banayan's "30-day challenge" was an insightful, powerful part of my May. If you’ve wanted to take one step step towards more reflection, I challenge you to just do it.
Each day, I opened my writing Google Doc and answered the same 3 questions:
What filled me with enthusiasm today?
What drained me of energy?
What did I learn about myself?
I was 28 for 30, a 93% success rate. I’ll take it. When in San Diego last week, I finally had the chance to reflect on the 30 day challenge of reflections.
To nurture the themes that emerged during this challenge, I plan to:
Invest in meaningful connections and communities.
Nurture my positive mindset. As I wrote about in Mental Gardening, the quality of your life depends on the seeds you water. I’ll continue planting intentional seeds, and encourage you to do the same.
Embrace solitude and personal space. I’m an outgoing extrovert, and protecting my solo time is essential to create the communities, business, relationships, and impact I desire to.
🥑 Snacks of the Week
Here are a few themes that emerged in my reflections from the past 2 weeks.
Quality over quantity. By surrounding myself with high-quality people, I've found that every downstream decision, from the coffee I sip to the conversations I have, is impacted positively. Cherish your self-worth, protect your time, and be selective with the people you allow into your life.
Finding friends (and community) that raise the bar. As my college coach used to say, “iron sharpens iron”. Running as a transformative practice: I recently developed a 12-week digital “New Runner Journal” for RunWithMe’s runners, offering forced reflections along each point of their runner journey. It was hypocritical that I didn’t know the answers to the questions I was posing, so I sat down and wrote about “Why do I run?”
Challenge for you : Sit down and think or write about 1 activity you’ve been doing for years… “why do you ___?” How has that changed over time? I started running to conquer new distances and prove my physical endurance to myself. Now, I run to spend time to be with others in my neighborhood/community, balance of community time, spend time with local run clubs, and foster introspective solo time to tap into my favorite podcast, music, or silence. Looking forward, I cherish how running lets me explore new cities, countries, and practice mental discipline.
Green Lights: Lex Fridman discussed Matthew McConaughey’s concept of 'Green Lights,' which he describes as either 'Engineered' or 'Mystical.' His surprising discovery? Most of his successes weren’t engineered, but came from serendipitous moments where he simply "trusted it." There's magic in openness to serendipity instead of always being overly practical.
Mastering Mini Meditations: McConaughey also incorporates “mini meditations” into his daily routine. This reinforced the importance of mindfulness in our hectic lives. If Google’s CEO leverages NSDR (non-sleep deep rest), shouldn’t we all take some time to relax?
💥 Spark Moment of the Week
This week’s spark moment goes to Sahil Bloom's Instagram post.
It reminded me of my deepest yearning that underpins any of my entrepreneurial and professional dreams… freedom.
Freedom of time. Freedom to live life on my terms, freedom to spend time with loved ones, and freedom from the confines of a 9-to-5 that might not fully resonate with my inner being.
As I looked around in my work bedroom on 1 of my 2 “Work from Home” days, I wondered how I can create this freedom and make my life decisions accordingly. I am determined to find a way.
✨Endnote
This week, disconnect. After you’ve finished reading this newsletter, put your phone down. Be present in your next interaction.
As always, my goal is to provide you with "food for thought" and moments to ponder.
If you enjoyed this edition, would you mind giving the heart below a click?
Wishing you a great week ahead.
Adam