Happy Wednesday, Wise Owl Nation!

Wednesday is always my favorite day of the week.

It's the day I get to monologue to all of you about some seemingly random topic that's been rattling around in my brain. It's the day I host my weekly online poker night with friends.

Today also happens to be the (in)famous 420, or International Cannabis Consumption day for those that are unaware. I found a useful article discussing the holiday and how it started. Always be learning, and all that.

So I raise a "toast" to all of my friends and readers that celebrate this auspicious day 😂. Have fun and be safe.

This week though I wanted to briefly write about a topic that everyone faces at various points in their lives. The struggle between commitment and choosing something new.

Let's get into it.

You can find all past issues (including this one) here. 

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🦉🧠 Wise Owl Thought(s) of The Week: Choices vs Commitment

We live in a world of abundant information.

This means we also live in a world of abundant choices.

So many choices, in fact, that researchers have learned about the idea of decision fatigue. A mental fatigue that sets in when there are too many choices.

This abundance of options and information has lead to a blossoming of a phenomenon called FOMO or Fear of Missing Out. This FOMO leads people to constantly chase after things or people they wouldn't normally care about. For whatever reason, a sudden sense of urgency compels people to make poor impulsive decisions.

In the world of dating, we have tools like Tinder, Bumble, or Hinge that offer a literal slide show of potential dating options.

In the professional world, we have people job-hopping every two years to avoid salary compression, the phenomenon of your market value increasing far faster than your salary increases while staying at the same company.

So this week I am here to warn you to be careful.

Many awesome opportunities are ruined by dreams of slightly better ones.

Read that over and over again until it sinks in.

Now think about this for a second. In all of your prior relationships, which are the ones that you learned the most from? It is always going to be the relationships that lasted long enough where you and your partner got to see each other at their worst multiple times.

You committed long enough for the real flaws in both yourself and your partner to showcase themselves. If you didn't commit long enough for those flaws to be exposed, you would have continued going through life without ever being able to course-correct.

Growth requires a level of commitment to an area that you will never get to if you're always quickly moving on to something new. The modern take on this is "the grass is greener where you water it."

Remember, consistency is the primary determinant for success.

Sticking to an investment strategy will always beat switching strategies frequently.

Sticking to a workout routine will always show results faster than switching it up every few months.

You might be 10% happier in a new relationship or at a new company. The keyword is might. You will definitely be less happy in the life you have if you spend all of your time agonizing over what else is out there.

This is why I advise you to be careful. This topic is less about avoiding choices and more about avoiding the trap of dwelling on what else is out there while still familiarizing yourself with what you have right here and now.

Don't give up on something before you've had a chance to be grateful for it.

🦉🥑Healthy Owl Thought(s) of the Week:

You get a bonus section this week.

Fitness and nutrition is a minefield of misinformation and random claims. The more you learn, the more chaotic the industries built around physical health really are.

I recently found an Instagram post from Daniel Rosenthal that shared "22 facts about weight loss" that felt really well done. Good enough and motivating enough to share with all of you. I generally agree with everything written below.

1. You won't lose any fat unless you're in a calorie deficit
2. There's no such thing as a fat-burning workout
3. There's no such thing as fat-burning food
4. Hitting your protein goal of [your target weight in lbs x1] grams per day will work wonders for reducing hunger. (it's also kind of hard to pull off)
5. You can eat carbs and lose body fat
6. You can drink alcohol and lose body fat
7. Getting enough sleep reduces hunger and makes it easier to make good decisions
8. Strength training 2-3x per week is VITAL while losing body fat to prevent muscle loss, which is important for looking toned
9. Ketone supplements and fat burners are worthless for body fat loss
10. 1200 calories is too low for most people. Target weight in lbs x12 is a much more appropriate ballpark daily calorie goal
11. Cardio is overrated for weight loss, but is underrated for health, so you should still do it.
12. You need to eat fruits and veggies
13. Getting 7-10k steps daily OUTSIDE of workouts is vital
14. Weighing, measuring, and tracking food is the most accurate way of knowing how much you eat
15. Carb cycling and HIIT are not required
16. You might be thirsty, not hungry. Drink more water
17. Fasted cardio won't lead to more fat loss
18. You don't need to be perfect with your habits, but you do need to be on point with them 80% of the time
19. Intermittent fasting is not required
20. Undereating during the day often leads to overeating at night
21. Losing 0.5 - 1 lb per week is AWESOME progress
22. Mastering the fundamental habits - strength training, walking, protein, nutritious food, sleep, drinking water, tracking food - are the keys to long term success

But don't just take my word for it, keep learning about the world and your body.

Just don't forget to exercise and strengthen yourself.

Quote/Meme of the week:

Have a great week!

This concludes our issue this week, I hope it gave you some perspective or injected a little motivation into your life!

If it helped, let me know! I read every newsletter response I receive, and I absolutely love hearing from all of you. This newsletter is for you, so I need your help to make it as great as possible.

If you'd like to show me some love for writing all this free stuff, you can always buy me a coffee.

More Resources

I will be adding to this section over time as we find resources that will help you all.

• Check out the Wise Owl Store
• All Wise Healthy Wealthy Articles on Medium
• Start your own Sendfox Newsletter
• Free products to help you level up

Crypto Resources

The Bankless Podcast: This is a link to the bankless podcast on Spotify. Start from the very beginning and learn why I am so positive about the power of Crypto and Ethereum in particular. You can find the podcast easily on the internet, but I am linking to episode 1 on Spotify for your convenience.

Buy your first ETH or BTC:

• On Coinbase - this is the easiest starting place for the newest beginners
• On Gemini - Another great option founded by the Winklevoss brothers. They are based out of New York.
• On Kraken - Kraken has a bit of a harder user interface, but they already have ETH staking enabled with the push of a single button.

Earn interest on your crypto

• BlockFi - Currently, you can earn 4% interest on BTC, 5% interest on ETH, and a whopping 8.5% on stable coins like USDC. Use the referral code b09f24fd to support the newsletter. BlockFi is currently not accepting new customers from the USA for its Crypto Savings Account. International customers are still welcome!

Other tools:

• Argent Wallet - This is the best mobile wallet for Ethereum, Defi, and all things on the Ethereum network, including staking. They even have plans to implement Layer 2 to remove network fees.
• Ethhub - this is a weekly newsletter that lists out all the interesting news, articles, and tweets that have happened in Crypto that week. It's free and awesome.
• Ethdashboard - A simple dashboard to look at various metrics in the ethereum space. I mainly use this as a quick tool to check ETH gas fees.
• Cointracker - this is one of the better tools for tracking all of your various crypto across all of the various wallets, exchanges, etc. You can also use them to do your crypto taxes each year.
• Metamask - this is a crypto wallet that you can access from your browser and allows you to easily interact with blockchain apps online.