✨ The Illusion of Choice, 📚 Elon Musk, and 🥊 What Rocky Can Teach You About Ownership
PROGRESSION: January 2024
I hope your 2024 is off to a good start. I continue to make progress on my second book, The Unconquerable Leader. The manuscript is almost completed and I’m excited to share more details when the time is right.
Books, Articles, etc.
The Illusion of Choice by Nick Saban and Trevor Moawad (YouTube)
The Illusion of Choice is a concept my friend Teddy Mitrosilis shared with me. Here’s recently retired Alabama coach Nick Saban discussing it:
“These guys, they all think they have this illusion of choice. Like I can do whatever I want to do.
“You have a younger generation now that doesn’t always get told no. They don’t get told this is exactly how you need to do it. So they have this illusion that they have all these choices.
“But the fact of the matter is, if you want to be good you don’t really have a lot of choices. It takes what it takes. You have to do what you have to do to be successful.” Here’s the full clip of Saban.
Saban learned this principle from Trevor Moawad, a former mental conditioning coach, who discusses it here. Moawad puts it more bluntly: ”Thinking you have an infinite amount of choices is idiotic.”
My takeaway—of course, we have an infinite amount of choices. But once we set a goal, once we create a clear vision for ourselves, our choices shrink significantly. Excellence has a price.
Elon Musk by Walter Isaacson (Book)
Love him or hate him, you certainly have an opinion of Elon Musk. I’d read Ashley Vance’s bio of Musk when it came out 10ish years ago. Isaacson’s biography covers more of Musk’s childhood, and goes deep into his time during the Twitter takeover and recent years at SpaceX and Tesla. Overall this was a really enjoyable, insightful read.
I’ll say this—I have an immense amount of respect for what Musk has built. Yet I found myself feeling sorry for him at various parts of the book. Clearly his workaholism has taken a toll on his health and relationships. His behavior in recent years has been bizarre at times, and I wouldn’t want to trade places with him. But I do think the world needs more people who dream as big and execute as efficiently as Elon Musk.
The Science and Art of Longevity by Peter Attia (Book)
A very thorough read on how to not just live longer (lifespan), but live better (healthspan). Attia dives into topics ranging from nutrition, exercise, sleep, diseases, and mental health.
My favorite concept is Attia’s idea of the centenarian olympics—what can we do now to be healthy and independent by age 100.
If you’re looking to learn more about your body and take charge of your health, look no further.
Observations
What Rocky Can Teach Us About Personal Responsibility
Every two weeks, I teach a youth Sunday school class at church. Last week, we had a conversation about a person in the scriptures who avoided choosing a victim mentality and instead chose an ownership mindset.
The reality is, we can’t fix a problem unless we accept responsibility for our role in the problem. Here’s a quote I shared from Rocky:
“Let me tell you something you already know… Nobody is gonna hit as hard as life. But it ain’t about how hard you hit. It’s about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward… You gotta be willing to take the hits, and not pointing fingers saying you ain’t where you wanna be because of him, or her, or anybody! Cowards do that and that ain’t you. You’re better than that!”
Life can be really hard at times. It isn’t always fair. Problems are everywhere. But we can’t fix problems when we blame others.
When we commit to taking full responsibility—when we own the outcome and stop making excuses—everything changes.
Doing Hard Things is a Transferable Skill
This post is a short story about an experience I had in high school when I had to overcome my perceived limits and do something really hard.
Sometimes life hits you hard and just staying afloat is all the challenge you can handle. But if that’s not the case, I invite you to deliberately seek out discomfort. Find something that will test your limits. Click here for the full post.
Gratitudes
I’ve found power in regularly expressing gratitude so I’ll continue the habit. I’m grateful for my dad and brothers. One of the highlights of January was playing in a pickleball tournament in Palm Springs. While we were gone, a friend of mine lost his father. It was a needed reminder that I can’t take moments with loved ones for granted. I’m grateful that I was able to spend time with my dad and brothers.
If you've read anything worth sharing I'd love to hear about it. And do let me know if there's anything I can do to help you.
Nathan
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