Following the CGP Grey Theme process I am declaring my next theme. My last theme was Bentley 2.0. This is partially a continuation. My hope is to take what I have learned about myself and move to a sustainable way of life.
As I get older my body seems less tolerant of neglect and abuse. It seems the body functions most efficiently when it has rhythms of exercise and recovery. If you rest too much you atrophy, If you exercise too often you get injured and efficiency goes way down. If you eat too often or too infrequently it is less efficient.
I have been experimenting with the way I eat and I have learned a lot, but I have more experiments to go through to find sustainability. Eating very few types of foods is important in an experiment to eliminate variables, but for sustainability it is best to increase the variety. It must be done slowly and with tracking to make sure any introduced foods do not cause harm
Exercise has always been hard for me. I feel that it is really due to a poor diet for most of my life that I didn't have the energy to exercise and when I did it felt awful and took several days before I felt normal again. When I eat properly I have energy that wants to exercise and after the exercise I sometimes find myself with more energy or better sleep.
I have learned a lot about the good and bad on how my mind works. The main point here is to make habits so that my brain will last a long time and provide consistent outcome. as I corrected the way I eat I found I could focus for longer. Much like exercise, I had the energy to exercise and focus my mind. I could work much longer and had energy left over to figure out what. But the brain needs rhythms of exercise and recovery as well. I plan to explore meditation more for relaxation. I am learning how the stoics limit uncontrolled stress by framing. With the stoic processes and meditation I hope to reprogram my subconscious on what it focuses on and what idease it brings up to my consciousness.
This past year I have mostly been living off of my earning from my last startup sale. My experiment to launch a sustainable bootstrapped startup off the ground has been unsuccessful so far. The main issue was I wanted to solve a larger problem that does not have a market. I knew this up from but there were some experiments that would prove out the idea. As my runway runs out my risk tolerance decreases and I will focus on more likely sources of support. I will likely start contracting again focusing on working on projects that benefit the world with people I like while learning new skills. I will continue to bootstrap business or non-profit ideas that benefit the world myself. I will try and save some runway for when I find an idea with traction but will require some time investment to get off the ground.
Let me know what your themes are for this time of your life.