Happy Wednesday, Wise Owl Nation!

It's a new year now, did you know that?

You haven't had that crammed down your throat yet, have you?

The great and powerful 2020 is finally behind us, right?

While I can't speak for the world, I can speak for me, and in some small way, for you.

You can definitely put 2020 behind you and push forward to a better 2021.

And when I say 2021, I do not mean "2020 won."

Just wait until next year when we see the 2022 memes saying something like "2020 too." 🙄

Last week I wrote about setting goals for the new year.

Did you set any goals for yourself?

Even if you didn't set goals consciously, every single one of you reading this has at least some inkling of what you want to accomplish this year, and you are likely more motivated than usual to get started and get going.

However, if you put all of your 2021 energy blindly towards your new goals, what happens when that motivation runs out?

Unless you use that energy to build a system or a routine that automatically pushes you towards your goal, you are going to have a bad time when all of your new year's motivation runs dry.

That is what we are talking about this week. Read on and let's get into it.

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

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🧠 Wisdom Tip of The Week: Focus on the Identity You Want To Build

One of my favorite books ever is called Atomic Habits. It's written by James Clear and it is one of the most helpful bits of writing on forming small habits that compound to dramatically change your life.

I saw a quote from James last week that I had to share with you.

A final thought from Atomic Habits as we start the new year:

"Improvements are only temporary until they become part of who you are.

-The goal is not to read a book, the goal is to become a reader.

-The goal is not to run a marathon, the goal is to become a runner.

-The goal is not to learn an instrument, the goal is to become a musician.

This year, focus on the identity you want to build."

Isn't that powerful? It is such a simple concept when written out like that, but simplicity can be powerful.

We often worry about the outputs more than the inputs. So much so that I recently wrote an entire WoW newsletter about the topic.

The input of running a marathon is becoming a runner.

The input of reading a book is...well...reading. Or becoming a reader.

I am a reader. It is part of my identity and it may come as no surprise to you that I have zero resistance to picking up a book and reading. When I am into a new book I will find time throughout the day to read it.

Because I have internalized "reader" as a part of my identity it makes getting started so much easier. On the other hand, I do not consider myself a "runner" and thus getting outside to run is probably one of the hardest things for me to do.

Identity matters more than we realize when it comes to forming habits and routines.

Think about what you want your identity to be.

🥑 Health Tip of The Week: My Health System

I admitted last week that I am much better about consistently achieving in both the wisdom and wealth categories, and am weaker about achieving success in the health category.

This is because I already have simple, flexible, and automatic systems in place for learning, productivity, personal finance, etc.

My personal health systems are not as strong, especially around nutrition, so that is a key focus for me this year.

The main points of my 2021 health system:

• Continue to get 7-8 hours of sleep (this was my biggest success last year)
• 30-45 minute walk daily to think/listen to audiobooks
• Use the SPAR! app to hold me accountable for doing daily strength exercises (kettlebell swings, Tibetan Rights, pushups, etc)
• Consume more protein on a daily basis by cooking more meals with eggs, because cooking eggs is easy, cheap, and healthy.
• Use my standing desk for at least half the workday, because I tend to move more when I am standing.

All of these inputs are small, easy, and do not require a ton of energy or willpower from me, and the one task that requires more willpower than the others (strength exercises) has a monetary incentive to do it every day.

If you are interested in my personal progress around fitness and nutrition, send me a message via email, Twitter, or Instagram. If enough of you are curious I will share my progress either in this newsletter or via some other medium.

What about you, though? What are your health goals this year, and what systems are you going to put into place to achieve them?

💲 Wealth Tip of The Week: It is never too late to start investing, especially in Crypto

If you have been keeping track of the price of Bitcoin over the holidays, and you don't already own crypto, you might have had the following thought:

"It's too late to invest in Crypto."

Would you like to know when else I have heard people say that?

• When Bitcoin hit $1,000
• When Bitcoin hit $5,000
• When Bitcoin hit $7,000
• When Bitcoin hit $10,000
• When Bitcoin hit $12,000
• And on and on forever

The point is no one knows what they are talking about right now regarding the price of any cryptocurrency. The market is too new and is nowhere near mature enough for "professionals" to make any accurate guesses.

I was able to predict that Ethereum would hit $800 by the end of the year for a few very simple reasons:

1. It is a more valuable asset to the world than Bitcoin is.
2. It generates more in fees on a daily basis than Bitcoin does.
3. The technology ETH2 is built on is new, innovative, and amazing.
4. Ethereum's economic policy is really strong.
5. And most importantly, even now, Ethereum has not hit its all-time-high.

So, predicting that it would go up after the successful initial launch of Ethereum 2.0 was obvious, if you were paying attention.

But not many people are paying attention outside of the relatively small amount of people in the industry.

2021 is setting itself up to be a pretty big year for Cryptocurrency as a whole, and that has nothing to do with the current or future price of the various coins.

This is a newsletter about goals and systems, though, so if you have not set up a system for buying and holding onto crypto, let me share an easy one with you.

1. Download Coinbase or whatever major exchange is available in your country
2. Set a recurring buy order for ETH, BTC, or both in an amount you are comfortable not touching for years.
3. Set the buy order for once a week.
4. Do not sell, especially if the market goes down.
5. Start reading about hardware wallets, mobile wallets, and the future of Ethereum in your spare time.
6. Avoid all other coins. Unless you are more knowledgeable about crypto than I am, you should not invest any of your hard-earned money into anything else.
7. Stable coins like DAI or USDC do not count towards rule 6 if you are using these as your normal emergency fund or savings account.

You really only need to pay attention to 1-4 if you are really trying to keep it as simple as possible.

If you have any crypto questions feel free to email me or reach out on social media.

Side note: When you buy an investment on a consistent and regular basis that is called “dollar-cost-averaging.” Investing this way allows you to ignore the price of an investment. I buy into crypto once a week because of how volatile crypto can be at times, and once a week vs once a month feels more appropriate to me.

Quote of the week:

In honor of the Queen's Gambit, we have a chess-related quote this week!\

As you start the new year, you will try new habits, routines, or ideas, and they will fail. But through the process of self-improvement, you will start a winning game for yourself.

Call it the Wise Owl's Gambit...or something more clever.

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

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