I just released my free Annual Planning Guide! The printable PDF includes: • Simple goal-setting framework • Four system-building mental models • Strategy for tracking and adjusting (bookmark and share this) This annual planning process has been an immensely helpful exercise to which I would credit many of my greatest achievements. I hope that the free guide will spark you to conduct your own annual planning process for 2024, as I'm highly confident you will get incredible value from the exercise. You can download the beautiful printable PDF ​here​: sahilbloom.com/annual-planni…

I spent an afternoon with the director of the longest running study on happiness. 3 powerful learnings (everyone needs to hear):

If you could write your own eulogy, what would it say? Last week, as my wife and I drove home for her aunt's funeral, I learned that a high school classmate had been taken by cancer just four months after his first child was born. I believe that there are 3 levels of sadness: (1) Abstract Sadness: Sparked by events that you register as being sad, but that occur too far away from your life to impact you. (2) "That Was Close" Sadness: Sparked by events that feel like a glancing blow, zipping by you just close enough for you to feel the impact, but not a direct hit. (3) Painful Sadness: Sparked by events that create a direct impact on your daily life. The loss of a dear family member or close friend, for example. In my mind, the "That Was Close" Sadness often has the most profound impact on how we live—it's close enough to force us to pause and think, but not so direct that we are knocked out of the game. Life is so short. As Ferris Bueller famously cautioned, "If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it." Sometimes we need to pause and force a real reset, to consider the bigger picture and to make changes in how we are living today. Resume Virtues vs. Eulogy Virtues David Brooks once wrote about the distinction between what he called Résumé Virtues and Eulogy Virtues: • Résumé Virtues are the things you put on your resume. Your professional accolades, education credentials, titles, status, net worth, and more. • Eulogy Virtues are the things people talk about at your funeral. Whether you had a clear purpose and worked with meaning, whether you were curious and interested, whether you were kind, loving, and trustworthy, whether you were a loyal friend, partner, and parent, and more. His basic contention was that most of us waste away focusing on Résumé Virtues, but that Eulogy Virtues are (a) more important, (b) more fulfilling, and (c) all that really matters in the end. When I've wrestled with this idea in the past, I've always arrived at the same fundamental roadblock: Eulogy Virtues may be more important, but Résumé Virtues are not unimportant. I want people to remember me for being a loving human and protecting and supporting my family and friends, but I also want to push myself to fulfill my potential on the "Résumé Scorecard" along the way. What I've resolved: We can build both, but only by focusing on the correct directionality. A purposeful focus on Eulogy Virtues will build Résumé Virtues, but a focus on Résumé Virtues will not build Eulogy Virtues. My takeaway: Stop chasing Résumé Virtues at the expense of everything else in life. If we focus on working with purpose and meaning, following our curiosity and interest, and acting as a kind, loving, and loyal friend, partner, parent, family member, and colleague, the Résumé Virtues will take care of themselves. How Will You Choose to Live? Last Friday, I spent some time with a friend battling a brain tumor. We spoke about how he has learned to appreciate the simple joys of life and let go of the silly material worries that used to occupy his mind. More than anything else, he loves to speak about CHOICE. The idea that he gets to CHOOSE what to focus on each morning. He can choose to focus on things outside his control and drive himself crazy, or he can choose to focus on things within his control and let the rest fall into place. To me, that's what this whole piece is really about: Choice. If there's one thing I learned last week, it's that life is so very fragile. But no matter how fragile it is, each day, we have a choice of how to live it. Each day is a fresh start, a fresh choice to make. So, how will you choose to live?