August; holidays, reinvention, and life as an emptying battery šŖ«
Hello,
It feels like forever since I last wrote to you. Since my last missive, Iāve become an Australian citizen, moved house, had a gross head-cold (along with everyone else), went on a group snowboarding trip, came back home for eight days, and now Iām back in sunny Sydney again to run a three day client offsite.
I said to a friend that I very much feel like I need a holiday. And yes, before you point out that Iāve had seven weeks of holiday over the last three months, I mean I need the sort of holiday where you lie down and do nothing for a week. Please.
On my most recent not-doing-nothing holiday, I was āat the snowā as the Aussies say, with 15 great people. (I wrote this LinkedIn post about the experience and my reflections). The event came at the perfect time. Having just moved house, I definitely feel like Iām in ārecreationā mode and getting to enjoy the exciting and uncomfortable phase of feeling like a gooey caterpillar digesting and rebuilding itself in its chrysalis. Funnily enough, over dinner last week, a friend said that I was a master of reinvention. I like to think of it more as channelling my inner Bowie š©š»āš¤.
Anyway, according to James Clearās Atomic Habits, moving house is one of the best times to start new habits because you get to reimagine your environment from scratch. Iām feeling very conscious of not squandering this prime opportunity for change, and therefore am thinking a lot about what I want to do more, and what I want to nix before it follows me to my new place.
āI don't know where I'm going from here, but I promise it won't be boringā
ā”ļø David Bowie ā”ļø
Something Iāve been thinking about a lot this year is how I want to live. I feel like a lot of people I talk to at the moment are in the phase of wanting to do less. Some, maybe even a lot, of this is because of the pure exhaustion caused by what it takes to be an human in the world in 2023. Especially true for people who are parents and/or carers. At times I find these conversations hard because I am itching to get back to living. And to me, living = doing more.
Whilst āat the snowā, we were discussing the book Die With Zero by Bill Perkins. The premise of the book is that every dollar you die with represents an experience you didnāt have when you were alive. (Thereās a lot more nuance in the book, but this is the underlying theme). Some of us downloaded the app Countdown to Zero, which represents how far through your life you are as a battery image and percentage (based obviously on some averages and assumptions).
Iām at 57%. Which is the sort of level of battery power that starts making me nervous about whether Iāll get through the day without a recharge.
The app also allows you to count how many āthingsā you have left. Again, based on some averages, Iāve got 290 gigs, 193 holidays, and 2,518 weekends remaining.
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Whether those are generous or conservative estimates is irrelevant. The point is that theyāre all finite. Itās why I have a memento mori tattoo on my left arm, and why 2023 for me is about getting changing things that arenāt working and getting back to living.
Since returning from that trip, Iāve mentioned this idea to a few people and have had a range of responses from intrigued to horrified. Itās confronting, sure, but so is screen time data. And the news. And lots of other things. All confronting, all unavoidable.
We are often forced to do this thinking when we lose someone or we receive a medical diagnosis that will change our lives. So maybe you donāt need a daily reminder of your own demise, but thereās a lot to be said for spending some time thinking about what you want (and who) you want to spend your wonderfully limited time with.
Embracing the gift of time,
Steph
PPS. To borrow from Austin Kleon, this newsletter and the podcast are 'free but not cheap'. You can support their ongoing creation and keep me in books by buying me a coffee as a 'thank you', recommending it to a friend, using one of the affiliate links in the email, or leaving a podcast rating on Apple or Spotify. Thanks!
The it list
Hereās a few other things Iāve been obsessing over, enjoying, or doing recentlyā¦
Podcast - Nobody Panic: A friend got me onto this podcast and Iām really enjoying it. Tess and Stevie crack that sweet spot of being funny, relatable, smart, and a bit irreverent. I really enjoyed the two-part episode on ADHD and found this helpful to understand the experience of before/during/after going through the diagnosis and medication process. The episode where they learn how to play poker with Ken Cheng really made me laugh. Spotify | Apple
Podcast - Search Engine: Another new one for me, Search Engine answers some interesting questions about the world. The episode about Why Canāt We Just Turn Empty Offices Into Apartments gets into the realities of commercial real estate, offers some surprising ideas, and explains that no, itās not just a zoning problem. Obviously the next episode Iāll be listening to is How Do I Find New Music Now That Iām Old and Irrelevant. Spotify | Apple
Podcast - Fear and Greed: A recent recommendation from a client that Iām enjoying for daily doses of whatās happening in the Australian business world. Their weekly wrap ups are a useful and entertaining way to catch what you missed during the week, and I appreciate the good questions they ask in their interview episodes. Cheaper and more entertaining than an AFR subscription for sure. Spotify | Apple
App - 1 Second Everyday: A couple of friends have been using the 1SE app for years, and Iāve finally jumped on the bandwagon. You add a one second video every day, and at the end of the month/year it creates a little video of all those tiny moments you had. I love tiny videos/live photos because I find they take me straight back to a time/place more than a photo does.
Playlist - Weeknight Dinner by Gemma Leslie: Food For Everyone founder Gem Leslie shared this playlist on Instagram last week, and Iāve been listening to it non-stop ever since. Listen
Bank - Up: Not a category I usually cover, but I switched banks to Up a few months ago and I am delighted with everything about the experience. Opening the app brings me much joy and has clearly been completely rethought from the ground up on what customers want/need from a banking app. I love how you can organise your money into different buckets, the functionality, and the fun interface. Such a breath of fresh air from the ubiquity of boring banks. You can get a whole $5 if you sign up with Up. (Obviously this isnāt financial advice, make sure it fits what you need, donāt run with scissors, eat your greens etc etc etc)
Documentary - Keeping Hope by Mark Coles Smith: I caught this at the Melbourne International Film Festival (MIFF) last week. It follows Mark Coles Smith, a proud Nyikina man, travelling around the Kimberley to investigate the impacts of an epidemic of indigenous youth suicide in the area. Itās thoughtfully presented, sad, challenging, frustrating (at the lack of respect and care shown by state and local governments), and at times, hopeful. Itās broadcasting on NITV on 10 September as part of World Suicide Prevention Day, and on SBS on 13 September. Find out more here
Documentary - Squaring the Circle: The Story of Hipgnosis: Another MIFF watch, this documentary is about the creative partnership of Aubrey āPoā Powell and Storm Thorgerson. Between them, they created some of the most iconic album covers of the 1970s. I loved it, and summarised some of my favourite takeaways here.
Film - The Adults: Iām a sucker for anything involving Michael Cera, so this was an easy choice when choosing what to see from the extensive MIFF catalogue. Itās an awkward, sweet, funny, sad, uncomfortable film about the relationship of three adult siblings as they navigate their own relationship in the absence of their parents. Well worth catching.
Video - Glastonbury 2023 coverage: As you know, I love live music. But I find the live music experience in Australia to (mostly) be quite soul destroying as people justā¦ stand and watch a band? I caught up on some good crowds when I was in the UK in June and saw Arctic Monkeys, IDLES, and Pulp. This video of the Courteeners is a slice of the energy ~50,000 people singing and dancing to the same song can create. Goosebumps. (Glasto is still on the bucket list).
[Side note: this video from the Green Day concert at Hyde Park when Bohemian Rhapsody came on the speakers between the bands and 65,000 people sang along was the thing that me cry during lockdowns].Video - The Kiffness x Lonely Cat: Sometimes I think thereās nothing original happening in the world, and then I see things like this.
What have you been reading, listening to, watching, or enjoying? Hit reply or leave a comment and let me know āļø