🍞 How To Give The Best Gift Ever
You win every day but don't realize it, the best gift you can give is free, & you can become Alicia Keys.
This is Bread Crumbs - the newsletter that makes learning so fun it’ll give you 2nd-grade recess flashbacks.
Today’s estimated read time: 4 minutes & 24 seconds.
This is written by the St. Giles grade school basketball team MVP, Luke.
One Tiny Habit
Less than 5 minutes a day can change your life.
The best results come from tiny improvements over time. On the flip side, the worst mentalities come from tiny declines over time. It’s really hard to notice those changes - each day feels so similar to the rest. But they could add up into something good or bad.
In my experience, it’s easy to focus on the negatives of life. I often think about my tight shoulders, my uncompleted tasks, or my YouTube addiction. In general, human brains are really good at focusing on the negatives. It kept our ancient ancestors alive.
To be clear, negative thoughts are valid, should be acknowledged, and can be a signal for an underlying issue. But, thinking about them too much can make my quality of life shittier. To combat this, I started a daily habit to think positive thoughts:
I write down one win every day.
It takes 20 seconds and definitely boosts my motivation and confidence. I have noticeably more energy, find it easier to focus, and it feels like I'm rewiring my brain to focus on positive things.
As we talked about in our first issue, your brain is like a dumb dog. If you train your brain to focus on positive things, it will start to think more positively. And if you do it for long enough, you will become a positive person.
To get started, you need two things:
A reminder
A place to write your win down
The goal is to make it as easy as possible for you to do. That will help you continue to do it over time. For me, I have a daily alarm @ 6pm to write down my win in Notion (an app on my phone).
As the modern-day philosopher DJ Khaled once said, “All I do is win win win, no matter what.” Let’s all start winning!
One Insightful Question
Stop unconsciously floating through life & start thinking about things that really matter.
What is the best gift that you can give someone? Is it a fancy dress? A nice dinner? Or (my personal favorite) a gift card to Chipotle?
It’s none of those things. It turns out the best gift you can give someone is free. It costs no money or extra time. And it will make you happier too!
What’s the gift?
Your presence. The best gift you can give someone is being fully present & authentic with them.
Humans all want the same thing - to feel connected & appreciated. Being present and authentic is by far the best way to do that. It sucks when someone else doesn’t give you the time of day. So, whenever I am with someone (whether it’s a stranger or my best friend), I try to ask myself one simple question:
Am I fully present with this person?
That means listening to what they are saying & asking thoughtful questions.
It means not checking my phone or thinking about other parts of my day.
Honestly, it’s easy for me to fall into these tricks with the people I am closest with (like my family). Ironically, these are the people that I want to share the most moments with. And I can’t share a moment with them if I am not present.
There are some easy hacks to being more present - like putting your phone away & turning your shoulders towards that person.
But to be honest, being fully present takes effort and intention.
Next time you are with someone - take a second to reset, be present, & make some memories!
One Guiding Principle
Use principles to guide you towards a better life.
LeBron James is a Hall of Fame basketball player (GOAT?). Alicia Keys is an incredible singer. And Jamie Dimon is a revered businessman.
How did they achieve such great success? We can trace it back to one simple principle:
You are what you repeatedly do.
LeBron plays basketball, Alicia sings songs, & Jamie reads business ALL THE TIME. The reason they are so successful is because they did those things consistently over a long period of time (& got lucky).
If you think about it, this is an inspiring principle. There's no reason you can't become who or what you aspire to be. If you want to be like someone, you just have to do the things that they do consistently.
Want to become a great philosopher? Read, think, & write about the meaning of life every day.
Want to be a great painter? Paint every day.
I want to be a great writer. So I write every day.
In the long run, habits are the great differentiator. Nothing will change your future trajectory like your habits.
It doesn’t matter where you start. It just matters that you keep going.
5 Great Resources
A curated list of content to help you explore your curiosity.
Learn how to cultivate the most important relationship in your life.
An 8 minute video that will break your brain & make you grateful.
Figure out your life’s north stars & purpose.
Check out this dope music discovery app - it’s like Spotify Wrapped on steroids.
A better alternative to traditional work - working for the internet.
Meme of the Week
See y’all next Sunday. Btw, Steve Jobs, Serena Williams, & Pablo Picasso all love their carbs.
- Paul & Luke
Can’t get enough & want to read more? Check out our previous newsletters!