February 15th, 2024 | #1
Hello Friends,
In my pursuit of bettering myself everyday I come across many cool and interesting things that I would like to share. Here are the things that I discovered this week. I hope this provides a little bit of entertainment and enlightenment into your life.
New Meditation App I’m Trying:
“The Way” with Henry Shukman. I heard about this new app on a podcast and decided to sign up to beta test the app (It is now live on the app store). There is a plethora of meditation apps that exist in the app store. I was intrigued by this one because it is different from all of the other platforms. It is different in the fact that The Way consists of only one path, a spiritual guiding practice to what we hope is enlightenment. It’s a simplistic interface where you are not bombarded by all of the different meditations that are possible. Henry Shukman is one of the few Zen Masters in the whole world and is also an accomplished author and poet. A worthy teacher of the practice of meditation and I have enjoyed so far.
You can pair this with a more traditional meditation app but what I believe to be the best on the market, Sam Harris’ “Waking Up” app. I’ve been a subscriber of this app for the last five years. It is also where I first discovered Henry Shukman.
Books I’m Reading:
Book I just Started - “Principles” by Ray Dalio. From Amazon, “In 1975, Ray Dalio founded an investment firm, Bridgewater Associates, out of his two-bedroom apartment in New York City. Forty years later, Bridgewater has made more money for its clients than any other hedge fund in history and grown into the fifth most important private company in the United States, according to Fortune magazine. Dalio himself has been named to Time magazine’s list of the 100 most influential people in the world. Along the way, Dalio discovered a set of unique principles that have led to Bridgewater’s exceptionally effective culture, which he describes as “an idea meritocracy that strives to achieve meaningful work and meaningful relationships through radical transparency.” It is these principles, and not anything special about Dalio—who grew up an ordinary kid in a middle-class Long Island neighborhood—that he believes are the reason behind his success.”
Book I’m finishing - “Outlive: The Science and Art of Longevity” by Peter Attia, MD. This was a book I was very excited to read as I have been waiting for it for years. I’ve been following Dr. Attia for a few years now and is one of the people that have inspired me to pursue a career in medicine. In his book he discusses what the future of medicinal care looks like in what he calls Medicine 3.0. This is preventative care which requires more work on the patient and less reliance on the healthcare system to save you. Different from his podcast “The Drive” where he goes deep into a medical topic with a guest and often at times at a level that is not accessible to the layman, this book is much more accessible and very informative.
Book I’m reading before bed: “The Bomber Mafia: A Dream, a Temptation, and the Longest Night of the Second World War” by Malcolm Gladwell. I've never really been a big history guy, but I am a big fan of Malcolm Gladwell. His books are always an enjoyable read and written in a style that is informative and entertaining. While reading this book it has been fun to learn a little bit about World War II and enjoying the writings of one of my favorite authors.
New Workout Program I Started:
“ATG: Athletic Truth Group” created by Ben Patrick (aka: Knees Over Toes Guy). Ben has taken the exercise world by storm and has been featured on the Joe Rogan Podcast. His exercise routines emphasize strength, mobility, and flexibility. I’m choosing to go through his program as I want to build better foundational strength and mobility. My body is very tight and this puts me at an increased risk of injury while training. I think everyone can benefit from this program especially if you are beginner to weigh training, rehabbing an injury, or an athlete that wants to prevent an injuries from occurring. I also believe that the exercises in this program are essential to longevity and growing functional strength into your later years of life.
Quote That Struck Me:
“I saw that to do exceptionally well you have to push your limits and that, if you push your limits, you will crash and it will hurt a lot. You will think you have failed—but that won’t be true unless you give up. Believe it or not, your pain will fade and you will have many other opportunities ahead of you, though you might not see them at the time. The most important thing you can do is to gather the lessons these failures provide and gain humility and radical open-mindedness in order to increase your chances of success. Then you press on.”
—Ray Dalio in his book Principles.
This quote came to me at a time where I was definitely pushing my limits while studying for the MCAT (Medical College Admissions Test). It was reassuring to me that what I was feeling was natural and part of the process of striving for your goals. I will be coming back to this quote often as I go through my journey to becoming a doctor.
