Edition #23

Hi All!

Here is your weekly serving of practical guidance and inspiration to ensure you live your life with purpose. Feel free to forward this along to friends and family. Enjoy!

I wanted to give a quick shout to the 2 amazing individuals who have joined us since last week. Thanks for being here and welcome to the Never Idle team!

Read Time: 7 Minutes

Master Your Mindset

How to Find Happiness While Navigating Life’s Twists and Turns

*Ring* *Ring*

There I was, sitting at my desk.

Another day in the same office I had worked in for the last 5 and a half years when I suddenly got a call from my wife (long-term girlfriend at the time).

I stepped away and answered.

“Hey, what’s up?” I asked her curiously.

We usually just texted throughout the workday so a call was unusual.

“I got it,” she replied.

I knew at that moment my life was going to change.

“Wow, really?!” I blurted out.

‘It’ in this case was a job my wife had applied for in Austin, Texas.

We had lived our entire lives in New Jersey up to this point.

All of our immediate family lived in NJ as well.

“Yep, I got it. Are we ready to do this?” she asked me.

We had talked about relocating out of NJ for a while now but deep down we never knew if it would actually happen.

Here it was. The opportunity right in front of us.

I paused for a few seconds.

• “What will happen with my job?”

• “Is this what we really want?”

• How will we tell our families?”

All these questions rushed through my head but I knew the answer.

“Are we ready? I don’t know. But let’s do it anyway. We have always wanted this. Here’s our chance,” I said more confidently than I actually felt at the moment.

We exchanged thoughts for a few minutes. Hyping each other up about taking the leap. Then we hung up.

From there, wheels were in motion.

• Notifying my job

• Telling our families and friends

• Informing our apartment management

• Securing movers

• Booking flights to find a new apartment in Austin

• And all the rest

A month later we were moving my wife in down there.

I would join her a month and a half later after tying up loose ends in NJ.

Once I did, BOOM!

COVID erupts worldwide.

All our anticipation of exploring our new city was cast aside by the uncertainty of a global pandemic.

In a moment like this, it would have been really easy to allow doubt to creep into our minds.

To question whether we made the right decision leaving friends and family behind in what had just become the most uncertain period of our lives.

And I won’t lie. Those thoughts did come up. But instead of getting lost in that doubt and negativity, we did something else.

We chose happiness.

We chose not to allow things out of our control to determine our state of mind.

I mentioned a couple of editions ago that my wife and I have recently made another move from Texas to Florida.

Looking back on our situation when we moved to Texas and now acclimating to life in Florida, I have found 3 seemingly simple tools that have helped me to navigate my ever-evolving story and maintain perspective and ultimately happiness along the way:

1. Reflection

This is a tool that can be used really at any moment of anyone’s life and yet I feel it is often neglected. Too often we get stuck looking forward, always focused on ‘what’s next’ rather than taking a step back to reflect.

As we were stuck in our new Austin apartment during quarantine, I reflected.

I thought about how we were both able to pay off our student loans within 5 years of graduating.

Giving us the freedom to live where we want.

I thought about our desire to always want to live somewhere new and why we wanted that. Cheaper cost of living, warmer weather, and a fresh environment.

This was really a 10-year journey to reach the moment we were living in that near-empty Austin, Texas apartment. Even longer if I looked further back to the start of our relationship.

We often underestimate what we are capable of over long periods of time. Using reflection, whether you look back a month or many years can bring perspective to your journey and your progress.

Don’t forget to reflect once and a while.

2. Anticipation

Now, I don’t want you always living in the past. Anticipation is sort of the flip side of reflection and I think it comes a lot more naturally to most of us. Because we like to look ahead.

Anticipation is a powerful tool in choosing happiness.

Ever planned a vacation that you aren’t going to take for a few months?

Deciding where you’re going to go, what you’re going to do, and counting down the days until you head out.

The actual trip itself is amazing. But allowing the anticipation to build, visualizing how you expect certain moments to go — this process is incredibly rewarding too. It builds suspense and we tend to thrive off of it, often making anticipation of a big event half the fun.

Anticipating life in Texas after COVID and our new life in Florida more recently brought joy to those situations before they ever happened.

Use anticipation to be happy before the actual excitement arrives.

3. Purpose

Doing things purposefully is a nearly surefire way to be happy with the outcome regardless of what happens.

It gels the power of reflection and anticipation together, allowing you to live fully in the present.

Take our move to Texas for example.

We only lived there for 3.5 years and then decided to move again.

This could be seen as a failure from an outside perspective.

“Why would they move again so quickly? They must not have made the right choice.”

But we had a purpose for moving to Texas AND a purpose for moving out of Texas.

My wife had gotten a great job opportunity in Texas plus all the reasons I previously mentioned for wanting to move out of NJ.

Unfortunately, my wife got laid off at the tail end of our time in Texas.

Our desire to live in a big city had dwindled.

So we opted for a slower pace in Florida.

All these choices were made with a purpose at the moment, even if every single choice didn’t go according to plan.

Consistently acting with purpose will help you be proud of your choices and allow you to see life as a continuously developing journey rather than a specific destination you are trying to reach.

Hone Your Habits

Master Your Morning

I used to hate mornings.

I’d always have trouble getting up and getting going.

By changing my sleep pattern and my habits, the morning is now my favorite part of the day.

I have the most mental energy and clarity.

I am not going to advise about sleep today. If you want that, you can read the ‘Hone Your Habits’ section of this edition or for a deeper dive, pick up the free resource at the bottom of this email.

But understand sleep is vital to getting your morning going the right way.

The habit I want to focus on is prioritizing deep, focused, challenging work early in the morning.

Assuming you are getting quality sleep, the morning tends to be the time when people are most alert. This primes you to tackle those difficult tasks that require deep focus.

Since I refined my habits about 9 months ago, I have been prioritizing deep work early on in my day.

Things like writing this newsletter, building my personal brand on Twitter/X, and creating resources like The Sleep Diet.

Aside from the actual results I have gotten so far:

• 23 editions and 260+ subscribers

• 27k followers

There is also a psychological benefit to the rest of my day.

When you make progress on a project early in the day, your mood is lifted because you feel productive.

The opposite is also true. If you waste time or are constantly distracted, your mood tends to become one of frustration and angst.

I understand everyone has certain things they need to get done in the morning and everyone’s circumstances are different.

But we often tend to waste a lot of time that could be used productively. I have been working on these projects alongside a 9 to 5.

I don’t always have the same amount of time but I always aim to make some progress.

Whether you have creative ambitions, you want to perform at a high level in your 9-5, or you want to be the best damn stay-at-home parent you can be, use your vital morning mental energy towards these pursuits to get the best results.

The tactics to achieve this will vary based on your goal.

If you want to create, have a project you are pursuing and build an environment that is quiet and distraction-free. The same might go for a 9 to 5, especially if you work from home.

The key is to understand what you want to make progress on and get it done as early as possible to not only deliver your best output but also experience that mental lift for the rest of your day and week.

Master your morning to master your life.

Words of Wisdom

You can complement this weekly newsletter with short reminders, ideas, and thoughts about personal development by following me on 𝕏.

Thanks for reading! And always remember…

Slow and steady. Never Idle.

Until next week,

Austin Sargent