I'm running 100KM in 4 days

Hey,

Welcome back to Stay Curious — a newsletter I write once(ish) per week month to riff on a few things keepin’ me curious. I cover startups, tech, personal habits and dumb running activities I feel peer pressured to sign up for

I usually write once per week, but due to some beautiful summer weather that rolled in — I traded my normal Tuesday night laptop typing for some personal adventures.

But now that we’re back,

Here’s some things I wanna dig into today:

• My 100KM race in 4 days

• Taking 1 month off writing

• Over-indexing on intensity, under-indexing on frequency

• The 25-year-old who built a cabin and made $500K in year 1 revenue

• Sleepovers > coffees

1) Prepping for My 100KM race in 4 days

In 96 hours, I’ll be joining a few hundred runners from across the world to try and complete what’s coined as Canada’s most beautiful ultramarathon run.

Its name? The Fat Dog.

• Am I scared shitless? Yes

• Do I have my bags packed yet? Kinda.

• Will this be a decade forming memory for the years to come? 100%

Time will tell how the big day goes. But if there’s anything I could share from the last 8 months of planning it’d be this:

“Don’t set goals. Instead, pick bigger-than-life projects that force your life to organize itself into mini daily, weekly, and monthly habits to crush that project.”

It’s way more fun and 100x easier to stay on track.

2) Taking 1 month off writing

Every once in a while, I try to remind myself life to get off the laptop.

Our writing projects, emails and to-do lists will always be there.

But time with friends, moments by the ocean and tasty summer BBQs are ever so fragile.

So that’s why I’ve skipped the last 4 weeks.

Sorry not sorry.

3) Over-indexing on intensity vs frequency

Something I always notice when I’m busy is that tasks that take me 1 hour quickly turn into 5 minutes.

• 5 emails back and forth with a colleague turn into 1 quick call

• Dragging my feet on a house project quickly turns into a 10min sprint

• A 90 min workout turns into a 18 minutes before my next call push up, pull up, sprint off

And I love it.

So it’s a framework I’ve been trying to practice more.

4) The 25-year-old who built a cabin and made $500K in year 1 revenue

Cool story of the week award goes to Isaac French from texas. We recently connected over text and I’ve been inspired by his work ever since.

Give this a read when you have a chance. He’s doing cool stuff.

5) Sleepovers > coffees

hot take: a weekend away with a friend is worth more than 10 coffee catch-ups.

Don’t get me wrong. I love a good cortado.

But since hosting friends/family at our Bowen Island Airbnb, I’ve been amazed at how special it is to catch up with a quality friend while doing “life together” vs just sharing a 45 min distracted coffee hangout

It’s way more organic

it’s way less filtered

And it’s just the way I prefer to do life with friends

What was your favourite riff from today’s newsletter?

Reply to let me know.

Or just tell me your top highlight from the summer

Also, if you liked today’s deep dive, forward it to a friend.

Stay curious,

Joel

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