I didn't eat for five days. Here's what happened.....

 

For five full days, I didn’t eat a single piece of food; I consumed only water, coffee, and electrolytes. I don’t do intermittent fasting, nor have I ever done a 24-hour fast. Here’s the story.

Every year, I do a “Misogi.” A misogi is a challenge that pushes the limits of what you believe is possible. It’s a challenge that pushes the edge of your potential. It’s hard. It’s a grind. It’s pure suffering. But you ultimately come out at the end a stronger, more resilient person.

I’ve been practicing misogi for years. I went on a 10-day silent meditation retreat. I completed Month to Master where I mastered 12 skills in 12 months. I also biked 500 miles from SF to LA. I started my own business.

The Call

In 2017, I read Nat Eliason’s blog post on 5-day water fasting. Not eating for one day was unfathomable, so not eating for five days felt completely impossible. But that blog post planted the idea and sat inside my brain, taking years to eventually sprout.

Fast forward to 2024, I began dating my current girlfriend. She was the first person to not writhe in horror when I told her about my misogi challenges. In fact, she attempted to do a 7-day juice fast before, but had to break it at 5 days since she began getting cold shivers.

She was the final push I needed, and we both decided to take on this challenge together. I’d do a five-day water fast, and she'd do a five-day juice cleanse. 

The Rules

The rules of a five-day water fast are simple: don’t eat anything for 120 hours. I can only consume zero-calorie liquids (usually water). Some practitioners don’t recommend consuming black coffee. Some say it’s fine. I’m a coffee addict and needed to be productive at work, so I allowed myself to drink black coffee. My girlfriend only drank only home-squeezed juices.

Aightt, before we dive into this, this is the part where I tell you that I’m not a healthcare professional. If you want to do this, do your own research and if you have doubts, talk to a professional.

The Benefits

Fasting has a ton of health benefits.

Of course, there are a lot of studies showing fasting could also harm you such as increased inflammation and higher cardiovascular death risk for some specific types of people, so it’s important to also think about your personal situation.

Preparation

Fasting literature recommends following a ketogenic diet five to seven days before the fast. This way, your body gets used to fewer carbs, preventing a blood glucose crash. 

Like the good student I am, I did none of that and ate ramen with a few friends for my final meal. But I did purchase a blood prick, glucose/ketone testing monitor: 

When doing a water fast, you want to measure two things: blood glucose and ketone levels. The blood glucose measurement is important for making sure your blood sugar doesn’t drop too low, as you could pass out. Diabetics are typically at risk. The best way to measure this is through a Continuous Glucose Monitor (CGM) as you’d get constant readings

The purpose of ketone testing is to monitor how deep into ketosis you are. When you’re eating carbs, your body will first use the carbs you ate for energy, before using fat stores. But during a fast, you’re not eating, so you’re body will directly use fat stores to energize your body. This state is called “Ketosis.”

Day 1

When I woke up on Day 1, I felt…….. normal. My girlfriend was on a work trip, so we’d have to start our fast separately. I decided to work from home the rest of the week since my office would have too many tempting snacks. Day 1 figured to be the easiest day. 

My ketone levels were at 0.1 mmol/L. I need at least 0.5 mmol/L for mild ketosis and 2.0 mmol/Lto be firmly in ketosis. My glucose level was 69mg/dL, which is a bit low, but I felt fine. Ideal range is 70 to 120mg/dL. I made a cup of black coffee, drank a cup of electrolyte water, and began grinding away at work.

By 11 to 12 noon, I started feeling pangs of hunger in my stomach. I drank a bit of water, ignored the hunger pangs, and continued grinding on work.

My girlfriend was arriving home from a work trip at Penn Station at around 4pm. So at 4pm, I walked to the train station to pick her up. I noticed myself feeling lightheaded and the stimulation from the NYC streets was overwhelming. The combination of the gridlocked, Penn Station traffic, and the aroma of the halal street carts, overwhelmed my senses. Breathe. I felt like I was smelling in high definition.

After getting home, I worked for a few more hours. For dinner, I had a five-course serving of water and electrolytes. The nice part was that I had another two hours of free time since I didn’t need to spend the time eating. By this point, electrolytes were the only thing stimulating my taste buds, so I loved drinking electrolyte water. 

When you’re fasting, your liver begins secreting more sodium as it works to supply glucose to your body. To make the fast easier, supplementing with zero-calorie electrolytes helps replenish sodium deficiency.

I noticed that despite hunger pangs, I was in a really good flow state the whole day. I didn’t have my usual post-lunch carb crash, so my focus never waned in the afternoon. I felt clear-headed and a slight pinch of euphoria. But it’s only day one?

I tested my ketone levels: 0.6 mmol/L. I was in “mild” ketosis. Didn’t expect to reach ketosis so fast. My guess, it was because I worked a lot and had burned through all my energy stores. 

Day 2

When I woke up on Day 2, I didn’t feel too hungry. I walked gingerly out of bed feeling OK, but whenever I picked something up or did something remotely strenuous, I’d feel lightheaded. The cure was to drink electrolyte water. I felt some brain fog, but the coffee washed it all away.

My girlfriend and I meditated and then we started work. Ketone Level: 0.8 mmol/L. I had an important presentation to give on Friday, so I was locked in. I felt locked in. The combination of an urgent deadline with ketosis easily tipped me into a flow state. I felt clear-headed, productive with a twinge of euphoria.

The hours raced by. I felt like I was playing life on 1.5X speed. I crushed through my analysis and by the end of the day, I actually didn’t feel hungry. I felt amazing. My girlfriend and I decided to take a night walk, which caused me to feel lightheaded again. Chugged another electrolyte and then felt fine.

Before sleeping, I took another ketone reading: 2.5 mmol/L. Holy shit, I’m in ketosis. It made sense since I was feeling so good. My girlfriend was reading a 0.6 mL/L which meant she was in baby ketosis. But overall, I reached ketosis pretty quickly and I was feeling incredible. 

Day 3

I woke up on Day 3 feeling like complete ass. My lips felt like shriveled grapes. My dry taste buds on my tongue felt like sandpaper. I noticed that my stomach kept growling all night. My digestive tract was doing a ton of work. Oh, and I no longer needed to shit on Day 2.

As I crawled out of bed, working a full day felt insurmountable. I hobbled to the kitchen and poured myself a cup of water. I chugged the water like a lost desert scavenger. Like magic, I instantly felt like a new person. The water revitalized every muscle in my body. I guess I was dehydrated but found it crazy how much of a difference a single glass made.

I tested my ketone level again 3.1mmol/L. A range of 3.0 to 5.0 meant you were in deep ketosis. It’s still safe but you’re body is an accelerated fat burning state. I drank another coffee and was ready to crush the day.

I whipped open my laptop and fell back into a flow state. Though I felt ass in the morning, I again felt extremely focused and locked in for work. If I didn’t feel like ass, my mind felt clear. We crushed the presentation. We had expected our stakeholders to push back and request more work, but they agreed to our proposal, which meant we hit our Q4 goal two months early.

Mixing ketosis with the euphoria of accomplishment made me feel on top of the world. I spent the rest of the night chilling, watching TV, and giggling to myself about my win at work. 

Each time I felt shitty, I downed another electrolyte drink. But I was getting sick of drinking these damn electrolytes. And gradually through the night, the stomache rumbles grew louder and louder. WTF

Probably TMI but I do it for the story. I went to the bathroom and needed to shit? It was liquid-y, but I realized that I had been drinking too many electrolytes. My body was rejecting it and it was coming out the other way. Oops.

Day 4

I woke up in the middle of the night feeling even more ass than Day 3. This time, I had a glass of water on the nightstand, so I chugged it and immediately felt better. 

When I woke up in the morning, I felt the worst out of all the days. My muscles felt drained of energy and I felt lightheaded. And since this was a Saturday, I didn’t have work. I took another ketosis reading: 2.6 mL/L. Work was great for distracting my mind from hunger but it also required me to expend energy, allowing more ketones to be created. When I didn’t have work, it was easy for my mind to revert to feeling hungry. 

The takeaway, is during a fast, it’s important to engage your mind in something. For the past few days, whenever I felt hungry, I redirected my focus to work. But with nothing to engage my mind, I missed the sensation of flavors like a child misses his mommy.

I began counting down the hours until we could eat: 36 hours. To engage our minds, my girlfriend and I began planning our November trip to Mexico. We furiously clicked and typed away, scurrying through hotels. Anything to avoid the thought of hunger. Two hours flew by. We hung out on the rooftop of our building, basking in the sun, just talking about life.

Oh look, it’s time for lunch again. Time to have… more water. 

At night, we made plans to watch “The Conclave” with friends. Mentally, it felt like a massive effort to get out of the house, but we had to do something to occupy our minds.

At around 6pm, we put on our coats and stepped out of our home and gingerly walked to the subway. We scurried through the human traffic jam aka Time Square. 

We stepped into the theatre, where a wave of warm, buttery popcorn flavors flowed into nostrils. Drops of saliva flowed down our tongue’s but we quickly snapped out of it. During the fast, we started making a list of all the food we wanted to eat after the fast. Making a list for myself actually made me less hungry. I jotted down a mental note to eat buttery popcorn.

When our friends came, I felt a surge of energy. I don’t know whether it was distraction or if it was interacting with other humans, but it gave us energy. I focused on the conversations, not on our hunger. We ignored the popcorn aroma and watched the movie in peace.

Day 5

Day 5. 12 hours left. Ketone Level: 5.1 mmol/L. I’ve surpassed “deep ketosis.” According to ChatGPT, “it may be a sign my body is in unusual metabolic stress.” But apparently, it’s still safe. Above 8 you put yourself at risk of ketoacidosis. This is when your body is creating too many ketones to where your blood becomes acidic.

 
 



Day 4 was our toughest day. Day 5 was a celebration. We felt like we were about to hit the finish line. At this level of ketosis, apparently you shouldn’t have as much of an appetite, but i was so damn excited to eat.

I drank another glass of water. It was also the day of the NYC marathon. I don’t usually get FOMO, but I definitely had FOMO. I wanted to be out there to celebrate my friends' running and be a part of the celebration in the city. But alas, I need to finish this. I opened up my laptop to track my friends times. 8 hours left.

Since it was football Sunday, the fear of losing in fantasy football completely distracted me from my hunger. 5 hours left. I kept refreshing the Sleeper fantasy football app. Touchdown Chuba Hubbard. Touchdown Terry McLaurin. Let’s gooo!!!!!

My girlfriend flipped on cooking shows and surprisingly, watching cooking shows didn’t bother us. 3 hours left. 

We actually felt less hungry than Day 4. And as the clock ticked away, it finally struck 6pm: time to eat. 

How to Refeed

Refeeding is the process of steadily introducing food back to your body. The key is to have easily digestible foods that don’t spike your blood sugar. Typically, people will break their fast with bone broth, then move to unsaturated fats and then protein. Supposed to avoid vegetables for a few hours as it’s more difficult to digest and avoid carbohydrates (especially sugar) as it’s going to spike blood sugar.

I’m a good boy, I followed the rules right? Nope. We ordered chicken soup but the congee came first, so we had congee for our first bite. Immediately after having a few slurps of congee, the carbs spiked our blood sugar. It felt as if we were on a natural “high.” Like an overworked computer, our bodies were on overdrive. We needed to give our bodies a break every few sips.

 

Photo of us eating our first bite of congee!

 

When we scanned through the menu, we couldn’t resist. We ordered roast duck and fried shrimp. The roast duck bite was one of the best bites I ever had. Roast duck is fatty, high in protein, and has a lower glycemic index, so we felt like we could keep eating it without overworking our bodies and it was significantly more flavorful than the other dishes we had.

After eating, we felt full. I no longer felt light headed, hungry. That night, I no longer woke up in the middle of the night dehydrated. My sleep went back to normal. Everything went back to normal…..

Reflection

I get the same question: did you feel lasting health benefits from the fast? Many people who’ve done this say they felt incredible.I felt incredible during ketosis.  I lost 11 pounds, but I felt the same as I did before the fast.

But mentally, I felt unbreakable. The health benefits were nice, but the biggest change for me was the impact on my confidence.

Growing up, many of us dealt with feeling “not good enough.” I definitely did. On my first day at USC, I was surrounded by peers who scored 2300+ on the SAT, compared to my meager 1860. When I took my first data science class, everyone had degrees in Math, Statistics or Engineering, compared to my business degree. When I first broke into tech, I was surrounded by colleagues with Ivy League or PhD pedigrees. Even now at Netflix, I’m the only Data Scientist in the company, with no Master’s or PhD.

At each stage of my life, there was a reason to feel like I wasn’t good enough, that I was an imposter, that I didn’t belong. But the counterintuitive solution is to run toward the challenge, not away from it. While sure, there were health benefits from the fast, more importantly, it further reinforced the belief that I could take on any challenge in front of me. 

Seven years ago, not eating for five days was completely outside my reality. It’s now an infinity stone, tattooed into my arm, that I keep for life. Now the question is, what’s next?

Q4 Goals - What should I do with my life?

 

What do I want to be when I grow up? When we hear this question as kids, we say things like "become an astronaut," "become a pro athlete," "become a firefighter," etc…

When I hear this question as an adult, I realize that it’s not binary. It’s a question I have to keep asking myself. It’s not a question of becoming but of reinvention. 

I’ve become a Scientist. Now, what do I want to be next year? In five years? Ten years? Even kids who achieved their dreams of becoming a pro athlete. What’s next? 

During the past quarter, I toyed with many options, such as starting my own consulting company, building my own product, getting promoted, going back to school, or becoming an athlete. 

There are pros/cons to all of them:

  • Starting a consulting company would give me full control over my work. But I’d be basically doing the same thing as my job, but with less pay and more hustle.

  • Getting promoted would give me a big boost in pay and responsibilities. Getting promoted faster would require more effort.

  • Building my own product is the most fun. But I’d have to be okay with less pay.

  • Becoming a high-level athlete also seems fun. But would it be at the cost of career growth?

Tradeoffs matter. Starting a company would mean I’d have to give up my athletic pursuits, and pursuing athletics may mean my career won’t grow as fast. It’s possible to do both, but just not at the same time.

If I made infinite money, what would I do? If I had infinite money, I’d spend the money to enable the activities that fulfill me: surfing, snowboarding, long treks, coaching others, and learning languages. I want to be able to do this until I’m old.

I’m lucky. I have a great job at Netflix that pays well. I can work from home from (almost) any location. I enjoy my work. Netflix’s culture gives me a ton of freedom. My job can support all the activities that fulfill me. 

The Path Forward

The path forward is two-pronged:

  1. Continue to grow at Netflix: I’m motivated by progression. I can’t rest and vest. If my skills aren’t growing, I disengage. I’m confident that continuing to grow my skills will open the door for future promotions and $$$ increases.

  2. Pursue High-Level Athletics: Outside of work, I pursue athletics at a high level. I’m 32. My athletic prime is closing and I’m not going to get it back.

When picking the path forward, it’s just as important to identify what I’m giving up:

  • I’m giving up my entrepreneurial goals for now. Entrepreneurship isn’t age-dependent.

  • I’m choosing income over status. I could join an earlier-stage startup to get a better-sounding title, or I could go back to Spotify to get a higher-up role. However, I’m choosing to get paid more rather than have a cooler-sounding title.

Netflix Growth

There are explicit and implicit expectations for getting promoted at any company. If you directly ask your manager, “What do I need to do to get promoted?”, he will tell you the explicit expectations. In most tech roles, it’s basically “make more impact, with more scope, without my help.”

I call this the skillset loop. First, you need to execute well (technical skills). This builds trust. You then spend some of the trust to influence your stakeholders and team (influence). This opens up new opportunities (more scope). Repeat.

At junior levels, all you need to focus on is executing this loop well. At more senior levels, you’re also required to execute this loop well…..but opportunities are finite. This means, there could be three very qualified candidates for a single role. Or the org doesn’t have the scope to support that position.

So despite meeting the explicit expectation, there’s the implicit expectation that you need to shine in some way, relative to the rest of the team/org. And on top of that, the opportunity needs to be there.

If your technical skills are levels above your team, it’s going to be easier to get promoted. If you know the business better than anyone on your team or org, it’s going to be easier to get promoted. Luckily, Netflix doesn’t have a competitive culture. You’re valued for being helpful to others. The stronger your skillset, the more you can be helpful, which is how you shine.

Netflix hires the best in the industry, so it’s much harder to stand out. To grow in position and salary, it’s a given that I must execute the skillset loop well…..but I need to clearly shine in some sort of way. And even then, promotion isn’t guaranteed.

The highest-leverage items will be to execute the skill loop as effectively as possible. 

  1. Influencing via Written and Verbal Communication: Netflix has a heavy written communication culture via memos and messaging. Well-written memos are how people influence at scale. A well-written memo for a data scientist requires three skills: strong writing, business acumen, and technical ability.

  2. Advanced Forecasting Skillset: My core area of focus is forecasting. While other topics such as optimization or causal inference are important, I’ll want to double down on forecasting before venturing into a new area. At some point in the future, I’ll want to solidify my expertise by teaching a class on forecasting.

Focusing on these two topics could take at least another six months. But for this next quarter, I’ll be taking two courses that focus on each area. Once I finish these courses, I’ll focus on applying them to my skillset. 

For written communication, the form of deliberate practice will involve providing feedback and rewriting past pieces of communication using what I’ve learned. This can be a Slack message, memo, email, or discussion topic.

The amount of time I can dedicate to skill development will depend on the skill I focus on. It will also vary depending on how much work I have and whether I can spend work hours on skill development.

Athletic Pursuits

If I want to continue growing in my career AND performing as a high-level athlete, I need to work on a sport that requires very little willpower. 

The sports I enjoy the most tend to have most, if not all of these qualities:

  • High Cardio or minimum Zone 2 cardio

  • Adrenaline

  • Suffering

  • Social/Community

  • Adventure/Outdoors

  • Progression

  • Little intellectual effort

  • Competition

  • Easy to do

Potential sports that fit (while I’m in NYC):

  • Hyrox

  • Running/Trail Running

  • Road biking

  • Ski Touring/Splitboarding (limited accessibility)

  • Surfing  (limited accessibility)

Surfing hits all five buckets for me. It’s great cardio. I get an adrenaline rush. I can do it socially. I get to explore new places around the world. I never have to force myself to surf. However, surfing isn’t regularly accessible living in NYC.

I love snowboarding, but I’m questioning whether it’s worth it to pursue park progression. I’m not looking to become a pro and hitting my head against comes with long-term risks. 

This winter, I signed up to become a Level 1 AIASSA Snowboard Instructor. This gives me a great, concrete goal to strive for this winter without needing to grind on park. When I live in a location that enables me to surf, I’ll also aim to get my Level 1 Surf Instructor certification.

Given my current living situation in NYC, my top two options are:

  • Hyrox: I loved BJJ for the competition and workout intensity. The problem is it required too much mental commitment. It required me to study complex movements. And me leaving every winter to snowboard would throw a wrench in my training. Hyrox gives me a similar level of workout intensity, without the mental effort.

  • Road Biking: Cycling seems like a great complement to surfing. It primarily focuses on legs, it’s excellent zone 2 cardio and can be great v02 max workouts. It’s also an adventure, allowing me to see a lot more of my area and it should fit seamlessly into the longevity workout program. There is adrenaline on the downhill.

Luckily, both of these slot naturally in the longevity workout structure.

  • 5 hours of Zone 2 Cardio (3 hours minimum) ~ Road Biking/Running

  • 3 to 4x strength 

  • 1 to 2x V02 Max Workout ~ Hyrox, Road Biking

  • 10 to 20 minutes of mobility before each workout.

Since surfing will be my long-term sport, a sport that works on opposing muscles or introduces a different type of cardio will be an excellent complement.

Goals for Q4

The last few pages really helped me clarify the goals for Q4:

  1. Implementation of learnings from the Communications Course & Forecasting Course

  2. Explore Hyrox and Cycling as potential long-term sports. There are races for both which adds some level of progression.

  3. Build a plan for my relationship future.

Grandma's Death, Crushing the Half Marathon, Q3 Goals

In January 2024, I went snowboarding in Niseko, Japan. Flying back to NYC was a looonnggg flight, so it 100% made sense to make a pit stop: Honolulu, Hawaii. More importantly, I got to spend time with my grandmother.

She was 98. We couldn’t do much, but we did the simple things. We ate chinese food. We watched TV. We had simple conversations. When I left to head back to NYC, I gave her a kiss on the cheek and she’d say in chinese: “such a good boy.”

In May 2024, she had a heart attack one day after mother’s day. I miss you Grandma.

Q2 Review

Become as clean as my girlfriend.

I’ve noticed myself adopting small habits, such as putting my clothes away right away, wiping the tables when Ie’m finished. I still think there’s room for me to improve my cleanliness, but it’s trending in the right direction. And when I do leave things out, she’ll remind me. 

Build an initial draft of a financial/investment plan for my dream life (Shaping).

Here were the results of the initial financial plan I set up for myself. I’d target a $2.5 million in net worth as minimum net worth for “retiring” myself. $5 million is the target for myself and spouse. $10 million minimum for an entire family and two kids. If we wanted to live large (fat fire), we’d likely need more than that.

Of course this is dependent on inflation, the period of time and a number of other factors. However, this gives me a good proxy to aim for, which is all I need. I’ve outlined three paths to retiring early:

  1. Earn at least $1 million per year through job promotion. This would likely take another 5 to 7 years.

  2. Earn at least $10 million through a one-time liquidity event. This would likely take 7 to 10 years to accomplish.

  3. Earn at least $400 to $500k in net income on minimal working hours through a lifestyle business. Looking at others, this took them ranging from 3 years to 10 years.

The takeaway here is that it’d be a good idea to do some research into the different paths, their pros and cons, and what’s required to get there.

[Career]—Build an initial development plan for myself (Shaping). There are too many goals, so this one is slotted for this quarter as the financial/investment plan is a good context for my personal development plan.

[Health] - Brooklyn Half-Marathon Prep - Run an 8:00 minute mile. I crushed this goal as I paced at 7:30 for the half-marathon, totaling a time of 1:39. This project was a massive success and I can attribute it to a few things.

  • Pre-Determined, Doable Schedule: I use intervals.icu to track my workout performance. And my coach basically added my workouts into this app. Each workout was scheduled for the week so I wasted no time “deciding” whether I should workout or not.

  • Progression: Seeing myself progress is a self-reinforcing motivation loop. The great thing about running as a sport, is its clear whether you’re improving or not.

  • Performance: Since I had actually signed up for a half-marathon, there was a “final performance.” I basically had to perform on a larger stage, which pushed me to execute my plan effectively.

Q3 Goals

Find a new place to live in NYC. This is the most important as any new apartment I move to is going to dictate my lifestyle in NYC. A new apartment is going to subconsciously influence how I behave, my habits and my schedule. I also didn’t renew my lease, so I’ll be homeless if I don’t get this done.

Career Decisioning Research Post. Given the paths I outlined, I’ll need to research the different paths, read through examples, the pros and cons, and evaluate my own strengths/weaknesses. If I spend more time thinking about this upfront, I can go into the decision with full conviction that it’s the right one. Especially if some of these paths will take multiple years, it’s probably worth the three month investment to think through whether it’s the right path for me.

Reset my habits by beginning daily meditation. Whenever I meditate consistently, I scroll on my phone less, more conscious of what I eat, more present with others. Meditation is an anchor habit that makes me more aware of my behavior throughout the day. 

Moving to a new environment is also an opportunity to reset habits. So it makes sense to focus on meditating consistently, as it will improve everything else.


Complete Eight Dates. I’ve finished four out of eight dates with my girlfriend. This book has been great for prompting us to talk about important issues and for helping us learn more about each other. It’ll be key for us to talk through these important issues sooner, rather than later, to help move our relationship forward.

Pursuing Mastery (2024 Q1 Review)

 

Imagine yourself sitting on a canoe in the middle of the ocean. You feel a slight tint of wind, grazing the skin hairs on your cheek. As you stare out into the large, blue abyss, you can see the force of the current gently rock the side of your canoe, as the current pushes you north.

The question then becomes, do you let the ocean just keep pushing you north? Or do you grab the oar, stick it in the water, and decide where you want to go?

If we imagine life as the ocean, most people don’t decide where they want to go. They let life push them in whichever direction it wants to go. I want to decide where I go. My annual reviews serve that purpose. But to make sure I’m on track, I’m experimenting writing quarterly reviews as well.

Personal Learnings

Achieving high performance in anything requires minimum 6 to 12 months of dedicated effort. A while back, my performance coach asked me: “Have I ever mastered anything?” No. My problem wasn't whether I was dedicated enough. It was that I was interested in too many things and did them all at the same time. I have improved here. This year, I focused exclusively on snowboarding, then running, then surfing (rather than multiple in parallel). 

But it’s not quite there. To fully maximize performance, I can only pick one thing for the whole year. That’s it, which brings me to the second learning…..

I probably shouldn’t live in NYC. I want to maximize my performance in surfing. In order to do that, I need to live near a location with consistent and quality waves to practice. In NYC, it’s very difficult to become a better surfer (or snowboarder) and this kills me inside. Doesn’t mean I’m moving but it just means NYC is not the long term fit for me.

Don’t write to build an audience. Write for myself. Many years ago, I wanted to be a writer. It didn’t work, because I spent too much time thinking about how to build an audience. Kinda like how I’m doing with this quarterly review, I should not write for an audience. I should use writing as a tool for myself. That’s what going to keep me writing more often.

2024 Objectives

A slight tweak I made to my annual goals is to stop setting goals and to start setting high-level objectives. Objectives are better because they’re more general and they give me flexibility into the concrete outcomes I want to achieve, while still providing me direction. The key is to limit this to 4 to 5, so it’s easy to memorize.

My 2024 objectives are:

  • [Career] - Crack the code at Netflix

  • [Relationships] - Build and learn how to create a thriving romantic relationship

  • [Health] - Become a Renaissance Athlete

  • [Finances] - Build a Financial/Investment Plan for my Dream Life

  • [Misogi] - Complete a 5-Day Water Fast

2024 - Q2 Goals

There are two phases toward achieving goals: shaping vs. execution. Most people will decide on a goal and immediately start executing. The typical process people will take is “I want to learn Spanish.” Then, they sign up for duolingo and just start playing with the app. They’ll have an initial burst of motivation for a few weeks, and then as life comes along, their motivation keeps dwindling until it hits zero.

I’ve done this countless amount of times, which is why shaping the goals are so important. The goal in shaping is to define the goal and the plan. It typically involves gathering information, researching the best paths to achieving the goal and playing with different formulations of the goal until you arrive at a plan you feel good about, before you begin executing. Without this, you likely will lose motivation OR set the wrong goal (which I’ve done too many times). 

An execution goal is one where you already have the plan and you just need to execute on the plan. For example, if I’m learning spanish and my plan is to practice duolingo 3x per week, all I need to do is execute on the plan to know if I’m successful. I’m not spending any mental effort to update the goal, since I did that in the shaping phase. 

From my own experience, I only have room for the following:

  • 2 execution-based goal (in different life areas)

  • 2 shaping-based goals (in different life areas)

[Relationship] - Become as clean as my girlfriend (execution).

I’m not a complete mess, but my girlfriend definitely has a higher bar for cleanliness. It’s an area I do feel like I’ve improved in over the years, but I want to use this as a forcing function for me to improve in this area. My belief is that whenever I see someone operating at a higher level in any area, I should raise my level to match theirs. Not bring down their level to match mine. 

[Finances] - Build an initial draft of a financial/investment plan for my dream life (Shaping). Right now, I just have a bunch of cash/capital accumulating in my bank account. The money is not intended to be used for anything. Money should not be an end, it should be a means to an end to realizing my dream life. So the key steps are to (1) define what that dream life is and (2) build out the financial plan to realize that dream.

[Career] - Build an initial development plan for myself (Shaping). My thinking here is that first, I need to think through the direction I want to take my career. This is tied to the dream life exercise & financial plan, as it’ll tell me how much more I need to earn and give me a why behind earning more. Then, given the dream life I want to build, what direction would I need to take my career? 

[Health] - Brooklyn Half-Marathon Prep. The goal for this is still TBD, depending on the results of my mile test. But since I signed up for this, this’ll be an easy for forcing function for cardio/health. 

Key Dates/Upcoming Plans

Wedding in Cabo [April 20]

Friends Wedding in Cabo

Brooklyn Half-Marathon [May 18]

For the next six weeks, I’ll be in NYC prepping for the Brooklyn Half-Marathon. As for the goal, it’s TBD, as I’ll be taking a baseline mile test to see where I’m at on a cardiovascular level.

El Salvador Surf Trip [May 19 to May 24]

This will be a mostly guys surf trip but now that winter season is over, we’re shifting to surf season! This will likely be a five-day trip where I work as well.

California <> Hawaii Surf Trip [End of June/July]

I have a wedding in July in California and I want to take my girlfriend around Hawaii & SoCal. I’ll be planning to venture through both SoCal, NorCal and Hawaii.

End-of-Year Asia Trip [December/January]

Toward the end of the year, the initial plan is to hit Niseko, Japan for more snowboarding. Maybe visit China, TBD on the details.