“You can have everything you love in life as long as you give up what you hate.” – Dan Sullivan
A few years ago, I moved to San Diego for the summer.
The transition from Canada to California was mostly an upgrade — better weather, cool people, ocean across the street, same day Amazon delivery, sign me up.
But there was one unexpected downside:
Working from a laptop.
I’d spoiled myself back in Canada, with a carefully curated and ergonomically-accurate office, an ultra-comfortable chair tuned perfectly for my body, and a big, beautiful Apple monitor sitting exactly at eye level.
Everything was just right, because I’d spent years testing and tweaking and optimizing it myself.
So when I arrived in San Diego, scouted a coffee shop, and sat down to work, I quickly realized there’s no place like home.
The noise was too loud, the chair was too hard, and I had to tilt my neck for hours at a time, looking down at a much smaller laptop screen that could only comfortably display one open window at a time.
Plus, the coffee kinda sucked.
By noon, my body felt like cement, and I dragged myself home to question my life choices:
Do I need to work less just to minimize the time I spend slumped over a laptop, cracked-out on mediocre coffee?
Should I just move here full time and set up a new home office?
Or, do I need to sack up and get used to this kinda-sh*tty setup, and say goodbye to my days as a diva who demands that everything be just how I like it?
Not a chance 🙂
After all:
Why settle for what you don’t want, when you could, with some creative thinking and a little extra effort, have exactly what you want?
In other words (and I really don’t know why more people don’t do this):
Optimize.
First, I found a different coffee shop that was quieter, brighter, and had even better coffee than I could make myself back home.
Then, a friend recommended an awesome portable laptop stand called Roost that props your computer up to eye level, so you don’t jack up your neck looking down at the screen.
I paired that with the Logitech MX Keys wireless mouse and keyboard, and a yoga pillow to keep my back aligned.
Within a week, the problem was solved in full, and I spent the rest of the summer working in luxury, surrounded by friends, with an ocean breeze flowing through the open café.
Of course, we got some funny looks sitting there with our pimped-out laptop setup.
But mostly, people thought it was great and wondered why they hadn’t thought to do it first.
And I still wonder the same thing:
Why doesn’t everyone optimize, like, everything?
Why do so many people settle for sub-optimal when optimal is just a few small tweaks away?
Why drink workplace filter coffee when an Aeropress is just fifty bucks on Amazon? (looking at you, Jackson Kasko…)
My theory?
Most people just don’t think to do it.
So I guess what I’m saying is:
Think about it 🙂
What simple tweaks can you make to your daily life, your workflow, and your everyday existence to get things just how you like them?
Accepting things as they are is great for things you can’t change.
Otherwise, the world is yours:
Shape it as you wish.
– T
P.S. One of the first classes I want to teach in our upcoming membership is “Total Life Optimization.”
We’ll take inventory of your current setup, workflow, habits, rituals, and systems and optimize the crap out of them ’till your world purrs and hums like a precision machine.
Of course, there’s a long list of things I’d like to teach within that membership, and we’ll decide as a group what comes first.
(cultivating and managing sexual energy, productivity systems, psychedelic protocols, financial management systems, movement & qigong practices, etc)
If you’re still interested in joining, hit reply to let us know right away.
We’re very close to opening the doors to a limited number of members, and those who reply in advance will get first grab.
