Beau's Blog

While talking to my friend Christine last week, she said something that resonated. Something simple that made me smile.

It sounds like you’re planting lots of seeds

Her words reassure me and especially so since she’s someone I look up to. On good days, I have high conviction in my unconventional path. I know my actions today are setting up future Beau. On not so good days, I feel scattered and wonder what it all means. As I’m writing this, it’s a good day so I am fully onboard with Steve Jobs.

“Believing that the dots will connect down the road will give you the confidence to follow your heart even when it leads you off the well worn path, and that will make all the difference.”

Little Seeds

One question that helps me plant little seeds is: what actions never cause me regret? Drinking more water, squeezing in that quick walk around the block, getting out into nature – these are all low risk seeds I enjoy planting. They are great because they’re reliable and their benefit comes quickly. Also, nurturing the habits around these seeds will continue to provide in the long term.

Big Seeds

For bigger seeds though, I’ve been enamored lately with the idea of thinking longer term. Thinking in terms of years and decades. It’s more difficult than focusing on the day or week ahead but there’s so much more opportunity over a longer time horizon… and that EXCITES me.

Currently I’m planting seeds in line with my long term goals.

Physically

I intend to run a 100 mile ultramarathon race within a few years.

I’m doing my best to establish strength and mobility habits in support of this ambition. Last year, I leveled up my running but learned that without strength and mobility training, I’ll injure myself. 

Ever since December, I’ve been stretching daily. This is huge for me. I’ve always been super inflexible and never done anything about it. In the past couple months, I’ve experimented with different routines and am happy to have built one that works for me that I actually complete most days. Initially, the routine was purely mobility oriented but I have recently purchased dumbbells and found strength movements to incorporate too.

While many have inspired and guided me with specific movements, I especially want to I thank Alan, the physical therapist who helped me with my ankle tendon injury, and Kneesovertoesguy.

Professionally

I aspire to help many people in a very Beau way. I don’t have a clear idea of what this looks like.

My current best guess is something related to the 30 Day Challenges I’ve done. To this end, I’ve been organizing group 30 day challenges and experimenting with different variables. For example, in December I recruited 8 friends to stretch daily and we supported each other through a WhatsApp group. Currently I’m experimenting with groups for language learning and waking up early. I’m tweaking all sorts of aspects such as how to recruit people, daily accountability mechanisms, rewards/punishments, group size and more. These experiments are fun ways to leverage my interest in game design, economics education, experience creating fantasy disc golf and past solo 30 day challenges. There is real potential in both creating bigger impact and getting paid for it.

Financially

I aspire to be financially independent at a young age.

I am taking proactive steps to educate myself. This has been through reading Good Debt, Bad Debt, taking an online course, conversations with my accountant and learning by doing with an increasing range of investments. In the past few years, I’ve experimented with cryptocurrency, dividend oriented ETFs, real estate, ecommerce and angel investing. These have been helpful in both teaching and forcing me to reflect on financing, risk tolerance, diversification, time horizon and level of effort.

What Do The Seeds Mean?

Ultimately, all of these seeds are investments in myself. I strive to invest in myself early and often. When deciding what to do, Sahil Bloom’s mental model on Investor vs Borrower actions helps me.

I am grateful for the seeds past Beau planted. I can only assume future Beau will feel the same way about my intentional action today. I’ll keep planting lots of seeds and encourage everyone else to do so too! I’d love to hear about the seeds you’ve planted as well as how I can help you plant more seeds.