3 Life-Changing Ideas I Learnt In October 2023

1. Never force your beliefs, opinions, and ideals on someone else

Intermittent fasting? Knees over toes? Delete social media? These are all things that most people don’t really understand.

Why delete social media when it connects us worldwide?

But why we are still lonely?

Why skip breakfast when breakfast gives you energy?

Knees going over the toes? You’re going to get bad knees.

Modern society has imposed a certain set of beliefs, opinions, and ideals so harshly on us that it’s almost like we have lost our ability to think, have free will, and use our common sense.

We don’t really think twice about these things, do we?

But even if you do, and you happen to find out the truth…

Don’t speak the truth, even if you know it

Now this may seem counterintuitive. Shouldn’t you help your friends and loved ones? Well, if you try to challenge their mindset and beliefs, you’re going to have a hard time.

Most people aren’t willing to be open-minded, try something out, or change what they do, and that’s fine. We should accept this, try to understand where they’re coming from, and move on.

It’s hard for people to change their beliefs when they’ve been relying on them for years, or even decades.

It’s rare to find someone with an open mindset.

These days, we just argue all day-long on Twitter (or X).

What’s the better solution?

You don’t have to speak.

In fact, your speaking may just be your ego trying to stroke itself.

This comes from my own personal experience.

You think you’re just trying to educate those around you, but you aren’t aware it’s just your ego trying to make yourself look good.

But forget about speaking about it.

There’s a better way to lead those around you…

Set an example for others by taking action.

You are always more powerful when you speak less.

Taking action is much more powerful than the shallow nature of speaking.

Successful leaders always set an example. A picture is worth a thousand words, so what about real-life?

You can lead by example by:

• Going to the gym

• Cleaning up after yourself

• Holding the door for others

• Waking up early in the morning

• Working harder than everyone else

• Buying whole-foods over junk-food

• Doing the work and not complaining

• Putting the weights away at the gym

If someone doesn’t agree with your beliefs and opinions, just carry on with what you do and what you stand for.

You can’t help everyone.

The least you can do is try to understand them because everyone has gone through the system as well, including you.

If they’re struggling, you can always wait for them to ask for help first, before you go in and grill them (lol).

2. Barefoot and minimalist shoes are amazing for your feet

You have to try it.

When I first wore them, I thought “I should have gotten them earlier.”

It feels like I’m Cinderella and I finally found the perfect shoes for me.

They are a real game-changer.

Barefoot shoes actually fit your wide feet

I have some extra wide feet so most shoes did not fit me.

I ended up wearing my Adidas NMD R1’s for 4-5 years until all the grip on the bottom was gone, making it very easy for me to slip.

However, barefoot shoes are designed with the following:

• Wide toe-box

• Foot-shaped

• Flat sole

• Flexible

With greater width in the toe-box, barefoot shoes allow your toes to splay out like they should to form stability.

This increases your balance, mobility, and strength as opposed to most other shoes which are rigid, narrow, and squish your toes together (possibly leading to bunions).

Barefoot shoes are also “zero-drop” meaning that there is no gigantic, soft foam padding at the heel of the shoe which lifts the back of the foot up relative to the forefoot.

You see heel elevation everywhere, yet we all know wearing high-heels are bad for our feet.

Barefoot shoes also have a thinner sole which places the feet closer to the ground.

This means your feet have a greater ability to feel the ground as if you were walking barefoot but just with the protective properties of shoes.

Don’t worry, there’s still some cushioning at the bottom to protect your feet!

Barefoot shoes can be stylish too

I purchased my minimalist shoes from Lems, specifically the Primal Zen (White Sand) and the Primal 2 (Black).

Both shoes feel great, stable, and allow my feet to do pretty much anything.

I can walk, run, jump, take them to the gym, and even play tennis in them (I played on synthetic grass courts so that’s probably safe).

IMO the Primal Zen is much more stylish than the Primal 2, so if you were looking for shoes that doesn’t make your friends think that you’re wearing clown shoes, then I would recommend the Primal Zen.

However, in terms of functionality, both shoes are fantastic!

There are other popular barefoot shoe brands like Xero, Vivobarefoot, and Vibram which have the “FiveFingers” shoes. Yep, those are the “toe shoes”.

I do not have any relationship to these shoes, so I won’t include any link here.

Just search up the brand names if you’re interested. I just like shoes that strengthen my feet and allow nature to take its course :)

3. Waking up early allows you to focus

It was frustrating to have random things pop up in the middle of the day while I’m trying to focus on writing, studying, training, or reading.

It felt like I had no time to do the things I wanted to do.

However, when I started waking up earlier, I had more time to focus.

Whilst waking up early isn’t for everyone, it most certainly is handy for when we need that extra time to focus in the early hours before things get in our way.

Regardless of your chrono-type, I think everyone can wake up a bit earlier.

Waking up early is fantastic for those who:

• Work 9-5

• Need to study

• Train at the gym

• Want more free time

• Work on a side-hustle

• Want to read more books

However, when you wake up early you must not forget this cardinal rule:

Waking up early requires you to sleep earlier

You cannot consistently wake up early if you keep sleeping later.

I used to do this all the time and I wondered why I couldn’t stay consistent with waking up early.

It was because you need to sleep early when you wake up early. DUH!

Sleep is the foundation for all things performance, learning, memory, and function etc.

99% of people can’t go without it. Even strong tough dudes like Navy seals will eventually fall asleep.

So how much sleep do we need?

The bare minimum is 7 hours of sleep per night.

This doesn’t include the time to get into bed, fall asleep, go to the toilet in the middle of the night, stay in bed in the morning, and get out of bed.

This means, we need to create more time for bed so that we actually get at least 7 hours of sleep, and not just 7 hours of lying in bed where you couldn’t actually fall asleep.

So what do we do?

Just add 1 more hour for bedtime.

That way we have 8 hours for bedtime which is a nice safe margin to get at least 7 hours of sleep.

But of course, 7 hours of sleep does not mean 7 high-quality hours of sleep.

How to get higher quality sleep

You can get higher quality sleep by:

• Regular exercise 2-3x per week

• Eating your last meal 2-3 hours before bed

• Heat and cold exposure like sauna and cold plunge

• Having optimal room temperature, darkness, and silence

• Avoiding alcohol, drugs, light, loud sounds, vigorous exercise before bed

• Meditating, journaling, breath-work, relaxing stretching, reading fiction before bed

You know, the obvious stuff.

When you say yes to something, you are saying no to something else

When you wake up earlier than everyone else, you can say yes to the things you really want to do, whilst still saying yes to other obligations or things imposed by other people (if you’re willing to do them of course).

Otherwise, you can always say no and give the excuse that you’re tired and you want to go to sleep :)

Summary

1. Never force your beliefs on someone else

2. Barefoot shoes are comfortable for wide feet

3. Waking up early is a blessing for good work

That’s all that I have for now.

Laters,

Henry