one of the most interesting people i’ve ever come across is my neighbour, Slava.

he’s a 70y/o Russian man who i’ve grown fond of, despite the fact that neither of us can understand each other — he barely speaks English, & the only Russian words i know are ‘cyka blyat.’

but from the little i’ve learned about him, he might have the craziest resumé ever:

& yet:

every time i see him — without fail — he’s got a huge smile on his face, & no matter what he’s doing, he’ll drop it to come shake my hand.

being around him so often is a nice reminder of what life is all about.

i mean, the guy has every excuse in the book to feel sorry for himself & complain about all the problems he’s had to deal with.

but he does the complete opposite.

he lives every moment as if he just got a new lease on life — & i think it’s because he literally did.

i can’t help but wonder what it must be like to wake up every morning after being pronounced dead at one point.

imagine how exciting & beautiful & vividly colourful the most mundane things must seem when you have the very real backstop of ‘i lost all of this for a moment.’

no wonder Slava is so happy.

but is it possible for anybody else to get to that level of happiness without a near death experience?

before becoming Slava’s neighbour, i would’ve said no. but now, my answer has changed:

it’s definitely possible. & it’s pretty easy, too.

one thing i like to do is come up with operationalized (action-based) definitions of emotions, because it helps me figure out what to actually do about them.

so like, it’s one thing to say ‘i feel angry,’ but what does that actually mean?

normal definition:

operationalized definition:

do you see the difference?

the normal definition describes the feeling itself, but the operationalized definition describes the why behind that feeling, which allows you to reverse-engineer it.

if anger is just the result of a boundary being crossed that you can’t communicate yet, the solution is to figure out exactly how to communicate it.

then, if you communicate effectively & whatever crossed that boundary continues, that anger usually becomes disappointment.

but what is disappointment?

normal definition:

operationalized definition:

using the same logic, that means to stop feeling disappointed, you have 2 options:

  1. change reality

  2. change what you want

i’m not here to tell you what the right or wrong option to choose is, but i just wanted to give you an example before i could get to the main point here:

Slava, without meaning to, basically cracked the code to gratitude.

normal definition:

operationalized definition:

when he died & came back to life within the span of a few minutes, Slava did exactly that — only, he didn’t have to use his imagination.

he really did lose everything he liked, & then he got it all back.

by learning what gratitude is, operationally, through Slava, i’ve been going to bed & waking up every day feeling more grateful for my life than ever before.

& a strange thing happens when you feel grateful: happiness becomes the default.

quickly, here’s one last pair of definitions for you:

normal definition:

operationalized definition:

when you realize how little you could have, you become grateful for the things you do have. & when you’re grateful for the things you do have, you realize that you don’t really need anything else.

just by waking up in the morning, Slava feels like he already has enough.

& that’s why he’s the happiest man i know.

if this was ‘enough’ to make your day a bit better, subscribe & i’ll try to do the same for you next week!

some things i learned

  1. “burnout doesn't come from working too hard.

    burnout comes from working hard without seeing results.”
    ~ Sharran Srivatsaa

  2. an interesting difference between men & women
    “72% of women (n = 1018) would prefer to sleep with a person they find unattractive but the person finds them attractive, whereas 75% of men (n = 6576) would prefer to sleep with a person they find attractive, but the person finds them unattractive.”
    ~ Rob Henderson

  3. some nations (including the US) want to build a nuclear reactor on the moon
    i don’t know enough to even pretend i understand the real why’s and how’s behind this, but i just thought it was pretty cool. we’re basically monkeys on a rock in space & yet somehow it’s not *that* crazy to just decide “yeah we’re gonna put one of our magical atom-splitting (almost) infinite-energy-glitch machines on another space rock that’s millions of miles away.”

cool stuff i found

  1. there’s one guy who is currently walking around the entire world
    his name is Karl Bushby, he’s 56, & he’s been doing this for the past 25 years. i’ll be checking in on his progress between now & when he’s expected to finish in the next few years.

  2. a refreshing, cheap, & simple drink for the summer
    my girlfriend just returned from a trip to Austria, & my favourite thing she brought back was soda zitron. it’s literally just sparkling water with a splash of fresh lemon juice, but it’s the perfect drink for the hottest summer days.

  3. i splurged on a 2-person backpacking tent that packs down to the size of a pop bottle & weighs only ~2lb
    it’s called the Nemo Hornet Osmo 2P, & my girlfriend & i have loved it in our limited use so far. it’s definitely snug for 2 people (especially if you’re on the taller side like me), but it’s super lightweight & kept us dry in a full night of non-stop heavy rain. we bought ours at about half of retail price from Facebook Marketplace, too. not sponsored/affiliated in any way btw!

that’s all for this week!

as always, thank you so much for tuning in. just the fact that you open these emails makes me so happy.

i’ve been doing lots of work behind the scenes recently, & i’m super excited for what’s ahead.

go make yourself proud this week!

~ liam

“wow look at how handsome that guy is” ~ everybody