Week 15 of 2024 has arrived. The outside world is really coming alive in the Midwestern US. Tomorrow I am going to spend much of the day cleaning up the yard. It's a low-leverage activity, but one that I really enjoy.  Productivity Schmoductivity.

Time to walk over to your 4K Weeks poster and fill in another square.  Done?

All thoughts are a form of energy... It isn't clear from a 5 minute Google search what type of energy or how much energy, but there isn't much debate on IF your thoughts are the rudder to your ship. That is pretty settled.  I've been rereading an old favorite book, Three Simple Steps, by Trevor Blake (it's listed below). We all need occasional reminders to make sure we are actively choosing our thoughts and our mindset... consider this your reminder.

Thanks for being here and reading!  Writing this email has become a very important part of my own personal development.  I hope you find value in it!  Send me a note if you have thoughts! Spencer@4kweeks.com

I want something from you.  I want  you to record a quick (10-30 seconds) video of you and your poster (selfie style),  mentioning how it has changed your experience of time. I don't have much creative direction other than that. I will be using these videos to change more people's lives with a 4K Weeks Poster.  If you email me a video (spencer@4kweeks.com), I will say thank you with either a $75 4KWeeks gift card, OR with the The 66 day Massive Action Society. Your choice. 

The 4K Weeks Brightsider... For the colorful among us.

The 4K Weeks Fade to Black - Memento Mori, Anyone?

The Original 4K Weeks... A Striking Visual of Your Life

Remarkable Weeks

Week  15 of 1953, Jomo Kenyatta, Founding Father of Kenya, received a conviction for his association with the Mau Mau rebellion, resulting in a seven-year prison sentence in Kenya. He was Kenya's first president and first indigenous leader. He led Kenya out of British colonialism.He was 3,207.14 weeks old (61.50 yrs). 

Week  15 of 2016, Joshua Wong, together with Nathan Law and Agnes Chow, founded the pro-democracy political party Demosistō in Hong Kong. In 2014, they played pivotal roles in the Umbrella Movement, a massive protest advocating for universal suffrage in Hong Kong. He was imprisoned in 2020, and his original year-long sentence is regularly extended just as the end nears. His family has moved to Australia. He was 1,017.00 weeks old (19.50 yrs).

Week  15 of 2019,  Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks, was forcibly extracted from the Ecuadorian embassy in London by police and subsequently arrested for failing to appear in court regarding US extradition charges. WikiLeaks served as a platform for the publication of classified documents provided by anonymous sources. He was 2,492.71 weeks old (47.80 yrs).

This Week's Quote

These quotes happened to be next to each other in our massive "Quote Spreadsheet" and I felt that they went well together. (Have a quote I should consider? spencer@4kweeks.com)

"Be miserable, or motivate yourself. Whatever has to be done, it's always your choice." -Wayne Dyer

"Be like the flower. Turn your face to the sun." -Kahlil Gibran

What I am Consuming This Week

Three Simple Steps, Trevor Blake This was one of the first books that I read at the dawn of the "personal development chapter" of my life. It was early 2013 and I was 36. My buddy and I had just started an informal mastermind that would be the beginning of our current mastermind group that has met every Friday for the last 9 years.  I really love this book.  I started re-reading it because I wanted to give it to a young man I play basketball with... it holds up.  Simple, actionable ways to change your mentality and a few stories to prove that Blake is the real deal. 5 stars, highly recommend.

Diary of a CEO, with Yuval Noah Harari.  Harari is the author of Sapiens, which, if you haven't read you absolutely should... it comes up regularly in our mastermind discussions. (There is also a Sapiens graphic novel that my pre-teen kids LOVED!) The world has changed since he wrote Sapiens (A.I.) Interesting conversation.

The Ezra Klein Show. "How Should I Be Using A.I Right Now?" I felt Ezra's perspective here. I have used Chat GPT, and Midjourney, but... it's hard to feel like they are game changers in my daily workflow... amazing yes, but...?

"What it's like to view a Total Solar Eclipse. " We were in the path of the totality for the last solar eclipse that passed over the Midwest... It was INSANE.

Nuggets:

• Waxahatchee's new album. My wife loves them, and I really like the vocal melodies.
• Man... Close Calls are strange.

What I am Thinking About This Week

This quote...

Reader Rachel sent me an email earlier this week. In her signature was this quote from poet Iain S. Thomas.  I have been thinking about it all week.

"There are two things everyone has. One is The Great Sadness and the other is How Weird I Really Am. But only some of us are brave enough to talk about them." 

It is from a daily blog post in 2015, you can see it  here.

I think of The Great Sadness as the hole that none of us can fill.  No matter how hard you try... you just can't fill it.  There isn't enough food, enough candy, enough beer, enough money, enough dopamine, enough adrenaline, enough accolades, enough applause, enough stuff, enough love enough religion... to make you feel better. It's something you just have to hold, awkwardly.

And I think that it's an either/or deal. Either you realize that none of it will ever be enough, and you have a fragile truce with The Great Sadness, or you are still somehow trying to fill it. That hole fascinates me and terrifies me in the same way standing on a high balcony with a low railing does... "I mean... I could just jump..." "It's a big, deep hole."

We are all walking around wondering if other people are noticing How Weird I Really Am... You are SO weird. I am SO Weird. Even if you think you are the most vanilla bean pumpkin spice human on the planet...  There are things you do every day that a stranger would look at and say "THAT'S how you do that?!" 

And I think you should lean into it... Not in the "pick me" way every young teenager wants to broadcast their specialness to the world... But in the serious and sincere way of a person who is interested in what they are interested in and will happily share it with you. So, I suppose... we have come back full circle to earnestness...

I don't know if I have done a good job explaining this here, but that quote feels like a law of nature to me.

I want to be brave enough to convince other people to talk about The Great Sadness and How Weird I Really Am.

Have a great week!

Thanks for being a part of the journey with us! Please tell me if you liked/disliked the blog this week. Ask my wife... those are the only emails I like to get!

Spencer, Owner of 4KWeeks.com

Dad Joke O' The Week

If a child refuses to nap, 

are they guilty of resisting a rest?