Here’s your 3 insights in 3 minutes.
📋 The “Do Regardless” List
After reading So Good They Can’t Ignore You by Cal Newport, it completely changed how I look at career and passion. (See: Don’t Follow Your Passion).
Most people use a Passion Mindset and ask, “What can the world offer me?”
Cal says to flip it into a Craftsman Mindset and ask, “What can I offer the world?”
Great idea. But honestly? Still a pretty big and vague question.
So here’s what I’ve found to be more practical and actionable.
Take 3 minutes to jot down what you’d do REGARDLESS of your situation (income, job, season of life, etc.).
For me it’s clear.
Regardless what I’m doing, I want to always have time to:
Follow my curiosity and learning stuff → from books, youtube, courses, podcasts, etc.
Connect with interesting people → events, cohorts, my podcast, writing on the internet, writing this newsletter and connecting with you amazing/smart/thoughtful newsletter readers.
Why does this matter?
Because when I make space for curiosity and connection, my life feels more enriched and alive.
But it’s easy to get stuck in our “Due Regardless” list of things we must do each week just to keep life moving.
The “Do Regardless” list is different. It removes the pressure and let’s us play to our natural strengths.
Thought Experiment:
What would it look like to build a career (and skills) around things you’d do anyway?
🎼 Your Goal Isn’t To Get a Job
Currently jamming to my “Energizing Focus Mix” Spotify created for me.
The very first song, Trying to See U has a chorus worth remembering:
"Remind yourself sometimes that
Either it goes well, or it passes"
And it’s spot on.
Regardless of what you do, it's going to go well or it’s gonna pass.
So why not take a shot?
Reminds me of this substack article I loved recently on how Your Goal Isn’t Really to Get a Job.
But rather, it’s to build the skills required to solve the problems that you want to solve in the world.
🎂 I Wish I Was…
IYKYK this album
Wild that “I Wish” came out 30 years ago…
and Skee-Lo never wanted to be a rapper.
He wanted to be a comedian.
So while every ’90s rapper was flexing cars, money, and status… he did the OPPOSITE:
He joked about being short
He joked about not fitting in
He joked about not having a car
Which turned "I Wish" into a global hit. Viral before "viral" existed.
Crazy part is that he also recorded it in a cheap LA studio and laid the whole song in a ONE session.
Here’s what he didn’t need:
The perfect plan.
To pretend to be someone he’s not.
To play the same game as everyone else.
Sometimes the biggest breakthroughs come from simple ideas you almost don’t take seriously.
Ship the thing only you can make.
Even if (*especially* if) it's the opposite of what everyone else is doing.
You never know which experiment will pop.
(And shout out to Leoshi.)
Salud,
Mitchell
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