Fast 5's 👋 #14: The only "Growth" Formula, The Power of Reflection & Rich Experiences
For the Crazy Ones.
Last post we talked about how decisions define our lives' trajectory.
go back and read that before you continue. Yes it’s important this is a small series.
If decisions shape our lives, then REFLECTION refines those shapes.
There is a pure power to analyzing + understanding our choices that will 2x our growth given we take the time to do it.
On a human’s evolution.
Ray Dalio talks about the evolution loop through life.
#1 - Audacious goals lead to…
#2 - Inevitable failures. (problems, mistakes, weaknesses)
#3 - You reflect + identify principles to avoid those failures and doing so…
#4 - You improve your life.
#5 - Then, you go after even more audacious goals.
If you follow the loop above, you’ll see that with each new cycle you “ascend” higher and higher improvement level.
He has a formula for this:
Pain + Reflection = Progress
Here’s the problem:
Most people DON’T reflect when they are in these good/bad experiences of life (or even after the experience )so they miss out on the reflections that provide lessons.
Goals are important but they aren’t everything.
If you’re not failing, you’re not pushing your limits, and if you’re not pushing your limits, you’re not maximizing your potential.
But there is more to life than maximizing your potential.
Goals are important, but if you ONLY focus on your goals, life WILL pass you by QUICKLY.
I have learned this many times with brutal burnout cycles. But I also have this inexhaustible energy to go hard. If that sounds like you - My goal in this last year has been to learn fast but live slow.
Slow down time: Seek Rich Experiences
Fine. You can’t actually slow down time, but you can make it FEEL slow by Seeking Rich Experiences.
Rich experiences lead you to ask the questions, “What just happened? How long has it been?”
They give you more data and footage to draw on.
Think about it like this: You go on a crazy weekend adventure and then you come back Monday and you feel like it was forever since it was Friday.
But if you just have a “head down and grind” weekend … it BLOWS by. You think, “Shit it was just Friday.” There's not as much to write down and so you don't feel that there was much duration that happened.
BOTH are necessary types of weekends.
How to learn fast and live slow.
If you want to learn fast - Your goals will require those sacrificial lamb “head down and grind” weekends. Or “getting lost in a book” type of days.
If you want to live slow - You have to lay down dense memories by experiencing “new” constantly. Go on crazy weekend trips with friends, paraglide over a mountain, seek alternative models of reality.
Both are, and lead to, RICH experiences.
And in order to grow from these rich experiences, you must be paying attention.
How to pay attention: Reflection.
Reflection gets you paying attention.
There’s little gems hidden in the subtleties in our experiences that are life changing but most likely pass us by.
They move so fast that they’re impossible to keep up with.
Reflection helps slow down the speed of experience by giving you a pocket of time that creates a space to reflect on those little moments you wouldn’t have realized otherwise.
It gets you paying attention.
And when you’re paying attention in life, nothing is boring and everything is a teacher.
When everything becomes a teacher: you grow.
So Let’s tweak Ray’s formula….
Rich Experiences + Reflection = Growth
(*Note - Rich experiences are both the “learn fast” and “live slow” types of days/weekends)
Every experience you have is building the “wall of you” - brick by brick.
As you build your wall, laying both red + gray bricks, you have a deeper memory of what each brick represents.
You also start to realize most bricks repeat themselves in patterns.
You spot experiences, lessons, mistakes, & failures as “another one of those”.
You learn how to lay that “dark red brick” better because you did it 30 times already.
Essentially, the higher you build your wall the more effective you become at working with reality to shape outcomes toward your goals and life.
What brick once seemed impossible to lay, becomes simple.
By learning how to properly reflect you become a better “thinker” when you pair that improved level of thinking with action…
THAT’s when you turn 1 year of living into 4 years of knowledge.
Question: “Well…how do I reflect?”
Answer: Journal.
But I talked the balls off a brass monkey enough today.
This week we’ll be diving into a life changing tool that has worked for me: Journaling.
We’ll dive into techniques & tools. I’ll also be giving you a FREE template guide to use.
I just brainstormed the post on journaling tool yesterday and IT’S going to be VALUABLE.
You don’t want to miss it.
I really think it will change at least 1 person’s life (which is all I do this for that ONE person)
If it’s free it’s for me. I hope it is for you.
See you later this week!
Daria
PS - can you respond back to this post with
“Hit” - if you got value
“Mid” - if it was decent
“Miss” - if it sucked
Whatever you write back it helps with deliverability + feedback for me. You won’t hurt my feelings :)
Hit! Loved the analogies