No. 503 — December 18th, 2022 — Read on FS

Brain Food is a weekly newsletter with ideas and insights you can use in everyday life.

FS

Food as Culture:

Cooking changes your relationship with food. Instead of consuming something, now you’re making it. Meals become achievements, expressions, discoveries, and relationships.

— Source

TKP Insights

My conversation with social psychologist Emily Balcetis.

This episode is full of actionable tools that you can use to set and achieve goals, maintain motivation, and overcome setbacks.

“What is your personal commitment to this goal? And if it feels low to you, then looking backwards, you might be motivated in that middle ground. But if it is something that you’ve always wanted to do, you’re passionate about, and you’ve already shown interest, looking forward might be a source of motivation.”

— Listen on FS, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube or read the transcript.

Insight

“Sometimes the hardest decisions a person can make will most likely lead to the best outcomes.”

— Colleen Hoover in It Starts with Us: A Novel

Tiny Thought

Do not confuse effort with results.

Just because you put in the effort does not mean you'll get the desired result.

A lot of effort gets undone long before results are felt. Going to the gym is undone if you eat poorly. Focusing only on work gets undone by the inevitable health and relationship issues that come from under-investment. When we try to speed up the outcome, our lack of patience undoes the result.

Results are accumulated in drops but lost in buckets.

Make sure you're not undoing the things you're trying to accomplish.

(Share this Tiny Thought on Twitter)

Etc.

What I'm reading:

This book is a fascinating tale of how the Koch family became one of America's most private and influential families. The book has everything you want in a good story: fortunes, fine wine, revenge, clandestine operations, decades of petty legal battles between brothers, political influence, and a host of lessons that apply to anyone in business.

Let me share two of the lessons I took away from the book. First, the whale that surfaces to spout off gets harpooned. Second, SBO: Situation, Behavior, Outcome — a framework that helps you diagnose why you aren't getting the results you want. I've started using it on the kids and it's very effective.

— Sons of Wichita

The Royce Funds. Small-cap specialists.

Cheers,
— Shane

P.S. How to react when things don't go your way.

P.P.S. If you're looking for the perfect last-minute gift, you can give the gift of knowledge with a one-year membership to our community.