[UP 007] sweet drugs, gestation periods, sliding personality

New week. New UP.

But first a little update.

I’m going to be expanding the topics we talk about on UP. Here’s why.

Though I still hugely believe in the three main beliefs I started this newsletter with,

(That personal growth is essential to a good life…
and the ultimate vehicle for that is entrepreneurship…
and for that, you need an audience and community)

I think it misses the mark. I was a little too zoomed in.

Let’s be real. A few extra zeros on the end of your checking account means nothing if you get out of breath every time you see some stairs.

So health is going to be a focus from now on.

And with the majority of us on this list getting a little greyer, health is something we need to be taking a much more proactive approach with. (Ok, I’m talking for myself)

So that’s why I’ve gone for the ‘Power’ pillar.

Little lessons every week on things to optimize our physical health to allow us to have the energy we need to live our best.

Then circling back around to business and our work lives.

I think it’s key to keep an eye on new strategies and tactics and measure what works etc. But let’s not get so in the weeds that we lose that element of joy and play from our work.

I don’t know about you, but I work best when I’m coming from a place of 'I get to’ rather than ‘I have to’, and coming from a place of ‘what can I give’ rather than ‘what can I take’.

No doubt it’s a fine balance because either extreme doesn’t sustain a living, but I’ll be sharing how we can best dance towards the middle.

Therefore, the work pillar will be the ‘Play’ pillar (or the purposeful play pillar).

This will allow me to hopefully shed some light on how we can be that joyful craftsman who serves but also is able to strategically monetize effectively.

Finally, for me, the whole point of life is not just personal growth, it’s about deep moments. 

Being there in the moment.
Having meaningful connections.
Real-life. Open dialogue. Active listening.

So I’ll be shifting to include a new ‘Presence’ pillar.

This is to make sure I’m sharing lessons to help us get that little inch of progression on all of the above every week. Particularly focusing on the communication, connection, and relationships front.

So to recap:

Refreshed topics:
1. ⚡ Power - all things health
2. 🎨 Play - all things work
3. 💞 Presence - all things people

And shout out if you’re new.

I know. Your reading this like, ‘Errr… did I come at a bad time?’

No, you’re just in time and in the right place. Think of this as effectively the newsletter restart announcement.

So, with that now set, let’s get this show on the road! Ready?

Power - Sweet Drugs

Whilst I’ve been researching making our snack brand come to life, I’ve been diving into the world of nutrition. In particular, I’ve started to take a deeper look at public enemy number one for many of our society’s health problems, sugar.

I knew it was bad. But when I was reading through some of the big ideas on ‘The Case Against Sugar’ by Gary Taubes, an award-winning science journalist, I really was surprised to see just how damning he was.

For instance, saying;

• “Sugar is the tobacco of the new millennium.”

• “Sugar is candy for cancer cells”

And perhaps the most intriguing:

“Sugar: Drug or Food?”

This idea really had me taking notice. In the book he explains how like drugs, sugar has been refined from its original form to heighten and concentrate its effects. Sure, as a nutrient that provides us energy. But also as a chemical that stimulates pleasure in the brain.

Check this image out below.

These three brain scans underline how drugs dull our brain’s sense of pleasure.

Takeaway?

Sugar lights up your reward center just like cocaine, alcohol, and nicotine. So you’ll keep wanting more.

And more sugar? That’s accelerating a downward dark spiral toward disease. From Alzheimer’s to heart disease to cancer, links to sugar are plentiful.

Maybe that happy topic is one to get into another week.

Let’s switch gears and visit a different plant.

(But one more aspirational than existential.)

Play - Gestation periods

Patience.

That’s been the theme of this week work-wise. And it’s a lesson that I keep having to remind myself of just as I think I’m getting it.

A lot of seeds I planted with supplier outreach from a few weeks back have now started to sprout thankfully. Some good conversations have started to take place with more now coming.

But I laugh at myself because at the time, after not getting the types of responses I wanted, I was far too quick to start entertaining plan B options.

Wrong. Everything needs time. Just ask Pandas.

(Pandas eat bamboo. Bamboo takes time. Patient pandas etc. You got it the first time didn’t you.)

What I’m being reminded of here is this:

Time is going to pass until the results show. Sometimes, we don’t know how long that is. So while we can’t control the nature of what we get inbound, all we can do is focus on our outbound.

• Make it better - increase our quality.

• Make more - increase our volume.

• Make it quicker - increase our speed of production.

• Make it stronger - improve our weaknesses.

And don’t be greedy too. I know in the past I’ve tried to improve too many things at once.

Wrong. Again.

Just having one focus from this list and giving that a sustained focus is a great way to sharpen your saw and improve overall.

Let’s wrap with some sliding.

Presence - Sliding Personality

For an expert introvert I know that reaching out and ‘going first’ is something that requires a lengthy warm-up, but thinking about our personality as a debilitating fixed state doesn’t serve us and only makes us more resistant to the demands of the situation.

We need to be fluid in order to thrive. We need a middle ground. We need to be a little more ambivert.

I first heard the term ambivert from Dan Pink, in his book ‘To Sell Is Human’. The term is effectively a place where we are neither extreme, we are in this goldilocks zone of personality. Enjoying both social and solo time.

(And fun fact, one study showed ambiverts generated 24% more revenue than introverts and a whopping 32% more money than extroverts within three months in the same role. So it has that going for it too.)

So I invite you to think about sliding yourself across the scale of personality as and when you need to. Be adaptable and enjoy the best of both worlds.

Right, that’s enough for this week. How was it for you? Let me know with a quick vote below. That’d be awesome.

Until next Saturday. Have a great week.

Always Forward

Utkarsh