Happy Wednesday, Wise Owl Nation.

It's a new week and I have started a new routine.

I do this from time to time to shock my system and to trial and error concepts.

Doing this helps me become more self-aware.

For example, if I want to exercise at all during the day, I now know that I have to do it during my morning routine.

If I let it slide, it won't happen.

This knowledge of myself has allowed me to hack my own weaknesses so that I can make sure I get the minimally effective amount of exercise each day.

The routine looks something like this:

• Wake up at 6 am (I used to wake up at 5 am, but that never allowed me to get enough sleep)
• Make coffee
• Meditate using Sam Harris' "Waking Up" meditation app (this is new too and I like it a lot so far)
• Stretch out my legs and back - I am starting to notice my lower back getting tight when I don't stretch daily. Stretching daily helps me avoid injury.
• Next is kettle bell swings! Doing a full kettle bell exercise routine is relatively fast, it just kind of sucks so I will avoid doing it if I don't sandwich it between other parts of my routine.
• Now I go for a 30-minute walk around my neighborhood. It's summertime in Texas, so if I don't go for a walk early in the morning, there will not be any other time to go if I don't want to drown in sweat.
• While I walk I listen to an audio book to really maximize this time
• I will pause the book if I need to take notes and dictate my thoughts into my phone
• After my walk I make another cup of coffee and sit down at my desk to write. This is where I am at in the routine right now as I write to you! Typically I write about what I listened to.

This specific routine has taken me several years to work out and it is specifically made to counter my own weaknesses and make sure I meditate, exercise, read, and write every morning.

Are you self-aware enough to know your own blind spots?

If not, that's cool, this weeks newsletter may help!

Let's get into it.

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

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Quote of the week:

Self-awareness is much harder than looking at yourself in the mirror.

It is about understanding the person staring back at you.

Knowing your own strengths, weaknesses, and bias.'

The circumstances of your life, and how you react to them, will help you learn more about yourself, and can make you more self-aware.

Normally, advice like this is almost useless because you cannot know what someone else has been through. This year in particular makes this advice far more effective, because so much of the world is hurting.

What will the circumstances of 2020 help reveal about you?

Tips or Tools of the week: Wisdom, Health and Wealth

Each week I share either three tips or three tools that will help you become wiser, healthier, and wealthier.

Wisdom tip of the week: How to actually be more self-aware

Since practicing and learning self-awareness is inherently a mental exercise, that is what we will talk about in this section. Entire books have been written about this subject so I will try to keep it brief.

• Do you know what your top three pet-peeves are?
• What phrasing do you most commonly use when you run out of words to say. Is it "um" or "uh" or "ya know?"
• What political figures do you dismiss based on personal feelings?
• What news do you blindly accept because the news source is part of your "team?"
• What time of the day do you have the most energy?
• How many hours of sleep do you need?
• What negative thoughts do you start to get when you are anxious or stressed?
• What foods work better for you than others?
• What are you most likely to overspend on?

Each of these questions will challenge how well you know yourself.

Your friends and family can probably answer some of these questions better than you can, because it is always much easier to observe someone else than it is to observe ourselves.

Ask them a few of these questions and seriously think about their responses.

Try to learn more about yourself.

Challenge your preconceived notions.

Change your perspective on some of these topics.

Talk to someone different from you and try, REALLY try to see their point of view and what their life is like.

Health tips of the week: Know your body

Strength training is tricky.

Nutrition is tricky.

Weight loss can even be tricky.

Why are all of these things so hit or miss?

Because each of us is different and most of this advice cannot be written to account for everyone.

Some people can eat a vegan diet and thrive, while others will dramatically decline in health.

We. Are. Different.

Until you take ownership of your own body and start paying attention to what foods make you feel the best, or what exercises actually increase your strength, you will repeatedly fail to learn from the mistakes you make with your health.

It took me almost 30 years to realize I am mildly allergic to fruit.

When I was a teenager I remember not wanting to eat watermelon or cantaloupe because I didn't want my throat to itch.

I would still mindlessly eat bananas and would not realize they too made my throat itch.

I have eccentricities like this with weight loss and exercising too.

The knowledge of these things allows me to sidestep the procrastination or issues associated.

Wealth tip of the week: Know your wealth triggers

Ramit Sethi, author of the first book we reviewed in this newsletter is sort of a money philosopher.

He has a concept called "money dials" that I find really interesting.

Basically, the way you spend money can be categorized into one or several "money dials."

Knowing what these psychological dials are can give you a lot of insight into your expenses and can help you improve your wealth by improving your spending.

The money dials are as follows:

• Convenience
• Health
• Experiences
• Freedom
• Travel
• Relationships
• Generosity
• Luxury
• Social Status
• Self-Improvement

Do any of these money dials scream as being "your spending language?"

For me a few of them do.

1. Convenience
2. Self-Improvement
3. Health

Knowing this is empowering. I literally struggle to spend money on luxury or social status. My fiance and sister constantly bug me about buying new clothes.

But show me a way to automate my house or life in any way and suddenly the money magically manifests itself.

So, need to find a motivation to get a project done, a book written, a course completed? Set a money dial reward for yourself.

If you finish your project, you get to book travel, or a spa day.

Whatever your heart desires. Hack your desires to move your life forward.

Book Of The Month - June: The Obstacle is the Way

April's book of the month.

May's book of the month - coming soon

In April we worked on wealth.

In May we worked on health.

Now we turn our focus to wisdom.

Introducing "The Obstacle Is The Way" by Ryan Holiday.

What better way to work on mental and psychological freedom than to read one of the best books I've ever read on dealing with the bullshit of life.

if you want to learn how to overcome life's bullshit, let stress wash away from you, and to become better because of the struggle, this book is for you.

The book is broken into three parts, so I will be covering each of those three parts over the rest of June.

Part 1 - Perception: Read it Here

Part 2 - Action - June 17th

Part 3 - Will - June 24th

Read along with me!

Get "The Obstacle Is the Way" on Amazon

** The links above are affiliate links. If you purchase the books with the links above, I receive a super tiny commission, which helps support this newsletter. Thank you! **

Resources

Welcome to the new Resources section.

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

*** If you’re interested in my upcoming Crypto course for beginners you can pre-order it now. ***

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