Dead Week, Favorite Books of 2023, The Ultimate Sunday Reset, and More
Friday, December 29, 2023
Happy last Friday of 2023 everyone!
Here are 10 things I found interesting from the last week or so.
Dead Week
To start off this week’s newsletter, I have something to confess. I did a whole lot of nothing this week. The good news is maybe that’s exactly what this week is for. I came across an article by Austin Kleon referring to this time as Dead Week (he actually wrote it in 2022). He stole it from an article by Helena Fitzgerald in The Atlantic. And she explained it like this:
“Dead Week… is a week off from the forward-motion drive of the rest of the year. It is a time against ambition and against striving. Whatever we hoped to finish is either finished or it’s not going to happen this week, and all our successes and failures from the previous year are already tallied up. It’s too late for everything; Dead Week is the luxurious relief of giving up.”
Thus, although it was one hell of a year, Dead Week was a success. I don’t have a big 2023 reflection to share (minus the list of books below). That said, I plan to do a big reflection next May, which will be one year of writing this newsletter every Friday since graduation.
Stay tuned!
How Writers Die
Ernest Hemingway provided a simple explanation for why writers become finished or, in other words, die:
If a writer stops observing, he is finished. Experience is communicated by small details intimately observed.
Stop Observing = You Got No Chance.
Never Stop Observing = You Got A Chance.
Note: Much of what I write on here is me looking around for things I find interesting throughout the week and mostly me giving advice to myself. I don’t have it all figured out. I use this newsletter as a means of discovery and reflection. I share what I find valuable so that others may find value from it too. I hope you do.
Favorite Books of 2023
Last week, I mentioned I finally finished Art and Business of Online Writing by Nicholas Cole, so I figured this week I’d share my favorite books from 2023 (in no particular order):
What I Talk About When I Talk About Running by Haruki Murakami
The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
Snow Leopard by Christopher Lochhead, Eddie Yoon, and Nicolas Cole
The Pathless Path by Paul Millerd
Mastery by Robert Greene
HCMC DECACITY Project by Richie Fawcett + an article I wrote about it
The Mountain in the Sea by Ray Nayler + an article I wrote about it
Plan for 2024: Read more books.
Love Letters
Much of Dead Week is thinking about the year’s successes and failures. Reflecting and planning. Reflecting and planning. Reflecting and Planning. Mitchel C. Clark has a great quote that I think ties in here:
“Staying committed to healthy daily habits is like writing a series of love letters to your future self.”
Don’t write one next year. Write daily.
Prepared / Present
In light of planning and writing letters to your future self, remember Thich Nhat Hanh’s wisdom on life:
“We are very good at preparing to live, but not very good at living. We know how to sacrifice ten years for a diploma, and we are willing to work very hard to get a job, a car, a house, and so on. But we have difficulty remembering that we are alive in the present moment, the only moment there is for us to be alive.”
It’s good to be a prepared soul. Don’t forget to be a present soul, too.
Doing and Not Doing “The Thing”
The advice I need to hear again and again. A clip from an interview with Steven Bartlett on Modern Wisdom Podcast by Chris Williamson:
"Preparing to do the thing isn't doing the thing.
Scheduling time to do the thing isn't doing the thing.
Making a to-do list for the thing isn't doing the thing.
Telling people you're going to do the thing isn't doing the thing.
Messaging friends who may or may not be doing the thing isn't doing the thing.
Writing a banger tweet about how you're going to do the thing isn't doing the thing.
Hating on yourself for not doing the thing isn't doing the thing.
Hating on other people who have done the thing isn't doing the thing.
Hating on the obstacles in the way of doing the thing isn't doing the thing.
Fantasizing about all of the adoration you'll receive once you do the thing isn't doing the thing.
Reading about how to do the thing isn't doing the thing.
Reading about how other people did the thing isn't doing the thing.
Reading this essay isn't doing the thing.
The only thing that is doing the thing is doing the thing." — Strangest Loop
Whether you’re an artist, an athlete, an entrepreneur, or all of the above, the same is true: to not do the thing is to escape from life and to do the thing is to escape to life. Do the thing.
Maslow On Why We Must Make
Continuing on that thought, here’s Abraham Maslow:
“A musician must make music, an artist must paint, a poet must write, if he is to be ultimately at peace with himself.”
Do The Thing = Be At Peace
Don’t Do The Thing = Don’t Be At Peace
Gaiman On Screwing Up Your 20’s
And here’s Neil Gaiman continuing things further:
“That’s why the twenties are formative. You do things, fuck up, deal with the consequences. That’s what forms you. It’s also how you learn and how you grow and how you change. You aren’t meant to go through your twenties (or indeed through any of your life) with it all figured out. Get out there, do stuff, choose the wrong things, fuck up, fix what you can, don’t hurt people if you can avoid it, be kind, and fuck up better and more interestingly next time.”
Nin on Risk
And finally, here’s Anaïs Nin getting to the root of the root:
“And the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom.”
Stay observant. Write daily letters. Be present, not just prepared. Do the thing. Make stuff. Make mistakes. Step in the box and take a swing.
The Ultimate Sunday Reset
To end this week’s newsletter, I want to remind you of this Sunday’s ultimate reset. New Day. New Week. New Month. New Year. New You? Let’s see.
Thank you for reading. Enjoy the weekend and see you next year.
—Garrett
P.S. “and More!”
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Happy New Year!
Happy Dead Week/New Year. I had not heard of this Snow Leopard book. Snow Leopard by Peter Matthiessen is one of my favourite travel books I've read so I will add the other to my pile of to-read