6-Second Sunday: On desire, toxic conversations, and the real purpose of exercise

Happy 6-Second Sunday!

6 ideas. 

6 second skim.

6 minute or less read.

Overview

1. Skill I’m Honing: Sublimating desire for a greater purpose

2. Idea I’m Embracing: The value of unspent money

3. Truth I’ve Forgotten: The real purpose of exercise

4. What I’m Avoiding: Toxic conversations

5. Stretches I’m Doing: Twist it out, Back it up (9 stretches with pictures)

6. Quote I’m Rereading: On having enough

Let’s dive in.

Skill I’m Honing: Sublimating desire for a greater purpose

Entrepreneur and investor Naval Ravikant said: 

“Desire is a contract that you make with yourself to be unhappy until you get what you want.”

Letting desire consume you turns your brain into the Las Vegas strip: the hedonistic chasing of pleasure after pleasure.

How many marriages have been ruined by sexual desire?

How many people have eaten themselves into disease over desire for junk and fast food?

How many people lose irretrievable family moments to overtime in the office for financial desire?

How much time has been wasted and life experiences forgone over the desire for cheap social media dopamine hits?

Desires are instinctual impulses. We can’t prevent them. But we can choose to chase or conquer them.

Chasing them will lead to eventual ruin.

Conquering them is a necessary sacrifice for the purpose of something greater: a healthy marriage, a fit body, a calm mind, and enough money (see Quote I’m Rereading: On having enough).

Idea I’m Embracing: The value of unspent money

Unspent money is more valuable than spent money.

Over time, unspent assets buy you freedom, flexibility, independence, and autonomy.

When you invest money into financial assets, you are buying future options. The option to buy something or not. The option to take a vacation or not. The option to take six months to find the right new job when you get laid off. The option to not panic when everyone else is. The option to retire early.

Money spent makes you look rich. Money unspent makes you actually wealthy.

Don’t buy things you don’t need to impress people you don’t like. Get the basics, spend a little extra on things that make you happy or remove annoyance from your life, and then invest the rest to buy yourself a future state of optionality, freedom, and flexibility. 

Plus, the best things in life are free and can only be made better with more freedom and flexibility.

Truth I’ve Forgotten: The real purpose of exercise

Exercise is not about living longer.

It’s not about lifting heavy weights.

It’s not about optimizing your VO2 max or grip strength.

And it’s not about losing belly fat or putting muscle in the right places.

For so long my brain was hijacked by the scientific optimizers that took the health world by storm. The Attia’s and the Huberman’s. Don’t get me wrong, I love their work and they do a great service.

But for years I unquestioningly wrapped myself in their emotionless study-supported strategies. I assumed they were asking the right questions and telling us the most important truths.

In the fog of optimization, I forgot the one true purpose of exercise…