As a few of you may have noticed, I didn’t send an issue of Seeking Tribe last week. After 2 months of delivering every week, I faltered and let a week go by.

The reality is that this happens to all of us in various pursuits.

Many times in my life I’ve had a killer gym routine that I couldn’t imagine leaving (including the beginning of 2020) and now I’m 9 months without entering a squat rack— although I’ve been staying active with the few weights I have.

It’s easy to view the decision to not continue, the moment that breaks your streak, as a big failure and beat yourself up.

But you don’t have to! Instead, it can be an opportunity to ask yourself “Do I want to keep doing this?” and reaffirm your commitment.

Whatever streak you loved and lost, I hope that you’ll take this as a prompt to pick it back up and start wherever you can.

I guarantee that when you look back a couple months from now, you’ll feel more powerful knowing that not only can you keep a good habit but you can choose to pick it back up after circumstances get in your way.

I believe in you.

The Best of my Recent Reads:

• “The magnitude of the effect we saw was about four times larger than what clinical trials have shown for traditional antidepressants on the market,” says Alan Davis, Ph.D., adjunct assistant professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. “Because most other depression treatments take weeks or months to work and may have undesirable effects, this could be a game changer if these findings hold up in future ‘gold-standard’ placebo-controlled clinical trials.” The published findings cover only a four-week follow-up in 24 participants, all of whom underwent two five-hour psilocybin sessions under the direction of the researchers, from Psychedelic Treatment with Psilocybin Relieves Major Depression, Study Shows
  
  This study was partially funded by Tim Ferriss. A key take away from the election results was that drugs are winning the war on drugs. I hope that our policies shift more towards risk-management and that our gov’t will reschedule controlled substances at the Federal level to permit much more research.
  
  How could anyone oppose that in a world where we’re actively emphasizing the importance of scientific research for our public health?
  
  
• My friend, Ethan Bidna, shared this excellent link from 538 titled, ‘How Good Are FiveThirtyEights Forecasts?‘ where they assess their own record.
  
  Just to emphasize, as my last email was certainly polarizing (people messaged me to say thanks! and other people unsubscribed), I think that the 538 project is entertaining and has value!
  
  The bigger issue seems to be that there are issues with [a significant amount of] the polling that their model uses. Garbage in, garbage out. I’m sure there will be great retrospectives to come once every vote has been [re]counted. I also do think that my last email aged pretty well…but it’s easy to imagine the alternate world where I would have to come here and apologize for being wrong. I promise you that I’ll do just that!
  
  
• Are you pursuing your own independent intellectual or creative projects? Looking for a community of people who are also on their grind? 
  
  If so, check out this great personal case study by Jason Simpkin assessing his first year as a member of Indie Thinkers, a private community for ‘Indie Thinkers’. I feel like I have to step up my game after seeing how much Jason has created over the last year.
  
  I am a member of this community. Feel free to DM if you’re interested in learning more!

Just Fun:

• I have been actively avoiding video games for the last 6 months, with the exception of Duolingo (182 day streak!). However, on Monday, I finally broke down and permitted myself to buy and play Hades.
  
  You play as Zagreus and your goal is to escape from hell. Your Dad is Hades and he won’t let you leave. I still haven’t escaped (on hell mode) but I’ve come very close. The game is really fun and has high replay value because no ‘run’ is the same.
  

A Direct Ask:

• It has almost been a year since Lead The Future was published and went live on Amazon. I am currently working on a retrospective about my experience writing, publishing, and marketing the book.
  
  Next Saturday, I’ll be turning 26 and the only thing I want is more honest reviews of my book, preferably on Amazon! If you haven’t read it yet, it’ll probably only take you 3-5 hours. I worked hard to ensure it would be accessible and energizing.
  
• I just saw this review and it made my week:

I hope you all have a wonderful start to your week! As always, please feel free to reply to this email. I appreciate every email 🙂

This post was initially sent on November 15th, 2020 as part of an early prototype of my newsletter Seeking Tribe, subscribe here!