SOAK #15

Returning, Regretting, and Restarting

Apr 28, 2024

⏱️ Read time: 5 mins (grab some coffee)

(Read this on the web browser if you prefer)

an image representing the emotion of a person coming back to a place where she was once happy

Hey beautiful people!

Danny Oak here, returning once again to your screens. 💪

This is what, the 5th, maybe 6th time? I almost have more returns than SOAK editions! 🫣🤣

But I always feel it was worth the wait, I hope you do too!

Let’s go! ⤵️⤵️⤵️

🧽 What I’m Soaking In

Times have been kinda harsh.

This year I've been sick more times than I've been in the last decade!

I blame it on Covid. In my layman's opinion, group immunity has been greatly affected by the couple of years that we've 'stayed at home', so viruses are much harder to beat now, and I feel less resistant to them. 🤒

Lately, I've also felt the need to correct course in terms of what I want to do with my life because, well, things weren't looking good...

I'm already in my 40's and haven't accomplished most of the stuff I planned when I was a young adult, so looking back I can't help but regret some decisions I've made, and others that I didn't.

I want to feel professionally fulfilled, I want to be the best example I can for my son, I want to be the partner that his mother deserves, and I want to be able to do a thousand things across the world with them. To achieve this, I need time, freedom, money, and health—resources that I currently have in varying degrees, but nowhere close to the amount I need. I realized that I would never have them living my life as I did until now, so I decided to restart.

“Restarting” your life is tricky. You can't take back the time and start fresh as a teenager, or delete the mistakes you’ve made throughout the years, but you can sit down and honestly analyze who you are and decide if you wish you were different.

I did that, and I've identified all the traits that I wish I didn't have, and all the traits that I want to have, and I've implemented actions that are representative of who I want to be in my new life.

I know this sounds woo-woo (or lame, or naive), but I believe I've hit bottom so hard that something cracked and I was able to leave all those bad traits behind while I'm bouncing back from the deep.

I've been working out daily (hitting the gym at 6:30 am with my girlfriend ❤️), eating healthier, focusing on my writing career, writing and publishing regularly, and developing my freelancing gigs.

I do feel like I'm living a new life, and I'm starting to see some results. The vibes are good, so I believe this is sustainable.

So yeah, this is what I’ve been doing lately.

The best part is that this "new me" is someone who can keep a publishing routine, so expect to get SOAKed regularly!

To help you decide if you want to stick around, the topics I'll write about here will be:

Writing (how do I craft my essays and copy)
Freelancing (how am I monetizing my writing)
Productivity (not the latest hack or tool, but what is working for me)
Frameworks / Mental Models (the secret for better and faster thinking)
Personal development (without boring you to death)
And all the stuff that's going on in my life that I find worthy of sharing (the wins and the ~~losses~~ lessons learned)

If this interests you and you want me to write about something in particular, just drop some comments and let me know.

💭Something to Think About

"In any moment of decision, the best thing you can do is the right thing, the next best thing is the wrong thing, and the worst thing you can do is nothing."
-Theodore Roosevelt

I need this quote often, maybe some of you might need it too.

🦉 Soaking Up Knowledge

Now for those of you who enjoy a more practical approach, here's a framework related to the previous quote:

The OODA Loop (developed by Colonel John Boyd).

How often do you hesitate to decide on something because you think you don’t have all the information you need, and then you end up not making any decision at all?

Yes, ol’ friend Analysis Paralysis used to make herself noticeable whenever relevant decisions were to be made.

Something that helped me get better at this was the OODA Loop.

Colonel John Boyd advises us to embrace the idea that it's better to make an educated guess based on the data and information we have at the moment than to wait for the complete assessment of the whole situation.

As he puts it:

Observe: Gather relevant information from your environment.
Orient: Interpret the information gathered to see how it aligns with your goals or needs.
Decide: Choose an action based on your observations and orientation.
Act: Implement the decision confidently, knowing you've made the best choice available at that moment.

While this was used in combat scenarios, we can use it in our everyday battles against inertia, right?

For instance, I’ve recently used this framework when deciding what topics to focus on in my writing.

The options are plentiful: listicles, productivity manuals, how-to’s, long-form essays, motivational messages, personal stories, Buzzfeed-like articles, and the list goes on.

For someone working to earn a living with his writing, choosing the right style that adapts to my skills is crucial, as well as writing stuff that people want to read.

Decisions had to be made, so I used the OODA Loop approach.

I couldn’t accurately say what topics my audience prefers to get from me, however, I observed that every time I write about something deeply personal to me, I receive meaningful feedback from many of you. This feedback oriented my decision to focus more on sharing personal experiences. Consequently, I decided to double down on these topics. So this is the action I’m taking, sharing my traveler’s notebook, instead of just the map.

Can you think of a recent situation where applying the OODA Loop might have led to a quicker, more effective decision? Let me know in the comments! 🤓

🏁Finish Line

Despite my long periods of absence, I truly enjoy this newsletter and what it represents. I like it so much that it's incomprehensible why I didn’t do it regularly. 🤯

If you’ve enjoyed this, please let me know in the comments, and share this with your friends, don’t keep the good stuff only for yourself! 😜

Thank you for doing this with me, I hope to see you next week!

Share SOAK

-Danny