Subject: Direct Hits, September Hard, and the Story of Your Life
Hello All!
Welcome to Lipke Letter #2.
The goal for this one is to increase readership from 1 (me) to 5.
What I’ve Been Up To:
I helped set up a rummage sale this week.
Row after row of tables piled high with things that people don’t want or need.
This is what Sisyphus felt like, pushing a boulder up a hill for all eternity.
It has become a bit of a running joke in my family that I’m living in a large, 2-bedroom apartment with almost nothing.
The rummage sale was a great reminder of why I do what I do.
Every single item you own steals a piece of your freedom.
3 Things From Me
A Disagreement:
In Malcolm Gladwell’s book, David and Goliath, he talks about the type of impact that a catastrophic event can have. Basically, you can divide everyone that’s affected into three groups.
Direct Hit – People killed by the event.
Near Miss – People injured or severely traumatized by the event.
Far Miss – People close enough to feel like they went through the event, but not close enough to experience any real adverse effects.
In the Nazi bombing of London, almost all Londoners fell under the Far Miss category. After experiencing 1 or more Far Misses, people start to lose their fear of the catastrophe in general. Malcolm argued that this phenomenon is good, as it helps people to conquer their fears and be courageous in the face of difficult circumstances.
While I would never tell anyone they should live in fear, I think that Far Misses can be extremely dangerous. They allow someone to completely write off a real and sizable risk to themselves. You’re only a Far Miss until you’re not. I believe that in many cases you are better off taking a Far Miss as a warning then as support for your invincibility.
A Challenge:
September Hard is my spin-off of Andy Frisella’s 75 HARD challenge.
75 HARD is 75 days of:
Following a structured diet
Two 45-minute workouts a day (one has to be outside)
Drinking a gallon of water a day
Reading 10 pages a day (of a non-fiction, educational book)
Taking a progress picture a day
September Hard is 30 days of:
3+ tasks that address areas of your life that you want to improve in
Use Andy Frisella’s 75 HARD as inspiration for what these tasks might be, but don’t limit yourself to only that.
I’m not as flexible as I want to be, so one of my tasks will be stretching/yoga.
I have language goals, so spending time on Swahili and Spanish every day is another task.
Write down all your tasks on a sheet of paper and tape it up somewhere you’ll see it often.
We start tomorrow.
Reply with a picture of your September Hard tasks and I’ll send a picture of mine back.
A Question:
“Which option leaves me with a better story?”
Use it if you’re ever having a hard time deciding what to do.
The more challenging option usually wins out, because who wants to listen to a story where everything was easy.
In case you missed it, you can check out my first letter here.
Thanks for reading!
Peace,
Jacob Lipke
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