I am a loser who has achieved nothing.
Why it’s so easy to forget all that you have achieved. ⚡️ lifetothemax #26 ⚡️
Bet that title got your attention. Don’t worry, it’s not as bad as it sounds.
I have had a pretty terrible day, though. Here’s what was supposed to happen:
Get on a bus to Logan Airport (BOS) at 7:30 AM.
Arrive at the airport at 9 AM.
Take a flight out to Traverse City (TVC) at 10:30 AM.
Land at 12 PM.
Have a nice lunch with Charlotte (my girlfriend).
Instead, it is currently 8 PM and I am at Chicago O’Hare International Airport waiting for a flight out to Michigan in two and a half hours.
Here’s what happened.
I got on the bus at 7:30 AM.
Twenty minutes later, a truck rear-ended us.
Needless to say, the bus couldn’t go any further. They sent us a replacement bus, but since it was coming from where we had left (20 minutes earlier) and the accident had created quite a bit of traffic, we only got on a bus about 45 minutes later.
So I missed my plane.
It was the last direct flight going to my destination for the day, so the American Airlines rep put me on standby for a flight to Chicago. I kid you not, she said, “I’m putting you on a flight to Chicago. When you get there, try and get someone to put you on a flight to TVC.”
Luckily I was first on the standby list and when Mr. Arlen Switzer1 didn’t show up, I got his seat. It was a middle seat, but hey, I was on a flight! Not to the right destination, but I was on a flight!
When I landed in Chicago (after a very relaxing nap alternating between my two neighbors’ shoulders), I managed to get on standby for a flight out to Michigan. Wasn’t as lucky this time, and the flight was full. Instead, they put me on a flight (not on standby this time!) that is leaving, as I mentioned before, in two and a half hours. I think I’ll be about twelve hours late for my lunch date by the time I arrive.
But to look on the bright side, at least I have a whole bunch of time to write my newsletter! Of course, this wasn’t what I was planning on writing this newsletter about, but I thought I would give you some context about my current mental state. I do all of my best writing after twelve hours in air-ports/-planes smelling nothing but my gradually deteriorating breath (the footlong Subway Veggie Delight™ — bread, cheese, and every vegetable option — I just had definitely did not help with this last point).
Anyway, back to the topic at hand — I am a loser who has achieved nothing.
Of course, I don’t really believe this (even after how defeated this day has made me feel). What I am getting at with this statement is that I often tend to undervalue and take my achievements for granted, and I think it is a very interesting phenomenon.
I thought of this topic fourteen hours ago, back when life seemed so easy, back when I had just gotten on a bus, looking forward to seeing my girlfriend in a handful of hours. When I first sat down on the bus, I started listening to the soon-to-be-released Cesar Herrera Podcast #1 that I recorded with my friend Cesar a few weeks back.
In this podcast, I talk about the various projects that I had worked on since I started coding eleven years ago, and while talking about them, I had the realization that I take all of these projects for granted. What do I mean by this?
I think that from the outside looking in, the list of projects, and especially how early in my life I was able to release the various apps/website I released, may seem cool. Realistically, it is cool. I grew up on stories of now-not-so-popular-for-good-reason famous tech people like Steve Jobs, Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg who were able to achieve incredible things (in tech) at a very early age. The story goes that Bill Gates set up a program for his highschool that randomly assigned his classmates to classes to help out his school’s administration (and the program included some code that put him in class with his crush). From the outside, I find it fascinating that at such an early age he was able to build cool useful things like these.
When I first started learning to code (eleven years ago), the idea of building something cool, even just for my school, seemed untouchable and awesome. “I’ll never be able to, but it would be so cool if I too could build something like that.” After years of learning how to code, I eventually did release apps and websites that helped my school and other students (listen to the podcast for more details), but for some reason, when I look back at these projects, it isn’t cool anymore. I tend to forget what it took to get to this point, and so my past achievements are “taken for granted”.
In a way that makes sense. Big achievements seem unsurmountable until the day they are surmounted. And thank god! If things remained as hard as the first time you did them there would be no way to progress in life. If everytime I run a 5K it felt like the first time, I probably wouldn't run ever again.
But what this means is that big milestones that you worked years to achieve can suddenly, overnight be brushed aside for the next one. That constant chase forces us to move forward, which is good, but it also forces us to ignore our past achievements in the hunt for the future ones. It is also important to look back and appreciate how far you’ve come.
This year, I’ve achieved a lot. I’ve read more than multiple previous years combined. I’ve already worked out more than all of last year (and have started training for a marathon). I’ve written 25 newsletters (that my mom says are really well written). I’m eating healthy, meditating, and being creative. I’ve achieved a great amount.
But not all days are good. And on bad days, when I’m tired and I sleep in, and I end up not reading or working out, and then I miss another thing, and then one day leads to another… its impossible to think of the positive. On bad days, my mind always reverts back to the destructive intrusive thoughts like the title of this newsletter. “You’re 23 years old — what do you have to show for it?” “You’re not even able to keep up a simple habit, how are you going to do anything of substance with your life?” “You’re a loser.”
It’s on days like these that you need to take a step back and appreciate how far you’re come. Remember why you wanted to do these things in the first place, and what you got out of them. Know that if you’ve done it before, you can do it again, and then do even more.
Anyway, my plane is boarding soon. I’ll have to come back and read this when I do have a bad day.
I hope you’re having a good one.
I think I’ll leave it at that for now. Thanks for reading ❤️ Appreciate you.
💪 Goals
Year Progress: 64%
Publish one newsletter a week.
Read 30 minutes a day. (182 hours total)
✅ Work out once a week.
Post 52 videos on TikTok.
Consume less, create more.
Meditate daily.
Paint two paintings.
✅ Get a tattoo.
Make music.
Starting July 18th, work out 4 times a week, including 2 runs.
📥 Input
Newsletters posted: 26 📈 +1
Hours read this year: 119 📈 +5 (on schedule)
Workouts this year: 78 📈 +3 (45 ahead of target)
Workouts since July 18th: 19 📉 +3 (1 behind target)
Runs since July 18th: 13 📈 +3 (3 ahead of target)
TikToks posted in 2021: 9 (@maxzechef) + 17 (@maxlascombe) = 28 📉 +0 (5 behind target)
Screen time this week: 18h31
Number of times meditated this week: 3 📉 (4 behind schedule)
📤 Output
Newsletter subscribers: 49 (thank you ❤️)
Books read this year: 17
Number of abs: 1.3
TikTok followers: 127 (@maxzechef) + 51 (@maxlascombe)
📚 Reading
Currently reading:
“Money Master the Game: 7 Simple Steps to Financial Freedom”, Anthony Robbins.
“Homegoing”, Yaa Gyasi.
“Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind”, Yuval Noah Harari.
Please leave any book recommendations in the comments and add me on Goodreads.
Thanks to all my subscribers and readers new and old. Really means a lot that you read this week after week. If you’re not reading from your email inbox, please consider subscribing below:
See you next Sunday ❤️
In the meantime, you can read last week’s newsletter:
That wasn’t actually his name, but for the sake of the story, I randomly generated a name.
Well written and thoughtful note Max. You’ll have to miss planes more often:)