PRESENT Letter ✺ 012: Smells like Spring
Dear PRESENT People,
Smells like Spring! This is one of my favorite periods of the year, always bringing a surge of hope and fresh energy.
The start of the new year brought new clarity. The vision of how I can help my community and how to get there becomes sharper every week.
Sarah and I moved to Paris and it feels so right. Can’t imagine living anywhere else in the world right now! Throughout my life I learned to follow my gut and my heart and it served me well so far.
I updated my goals slightly: this year I will be more flexible, agile, free. I want to simplify life for new piece of mind and clarity. This will also help me unlock new energy for making and creating more value, and getting closer to my favorite unrealized projects.
I recently actualized one of my favorite projects: my own podcast and YouTube channel. This was a personal milestone and a kick-off for more to come. The list is long!
This year I’ll be experimenting with new outputs. I want to be less perfectionist, more free and quick. I started writing more again. I want to share more of what has helped me in my career and life so far.
PRESENT Podcast 001
I published my conversation with Jasmin Truong. It’s been a journey. Sometimes things take me a long time. But I don’t stop until I did the thing! My newest thing is this Podcast. This first episode is my prototype and starting point. I can’t wait to share more conversations with you.
Subscribe for future episodes and videos on YouTube, Spotify, Apple.
PRESENT Website
I’m constantly updating our website and editorial platform to provide our readers additional content, tools, and inspiration.
I recently added more Dojos and new editorials, including Learning from Lina, a conversation with filmmaker Regina Schilling, Samma Samādhi: an essay on creativity, concentration and meditation.
PRESENT Community
Our Community and Resources Hub is growing. If you’re reading this: join us – we look forward welcoming you.
We recently had a group call, getting together with a few fellow members to chat about how we can make it easier for people to share. Creating true community engagement is a challenge, but we’ll figure it out. PRESENT is a long-term project and we are just getting started!
We currently exchange about sleep, productivity techniques, AI, taxes, and the challenges of freelancing. We can use all the help we can get. Feel free to send any feedback or ideas for building this resource hub, library, and support system.
Weeks 07–12, 2024
Straight from my LOG, where I keep documenting the progress and process of life and work every week:
Let's take a quick break!
Deep breaths are love notes to your body and help you reboot to tackle your next challenges.
If you only do one thing today, breathe deeply.
Input
💫 Fascinating interview with the legend Manfred Thierry Mugler by Loic Prigent and a documentary about the house of MUGLER (one of my favorite clients!)
🔗 Unleashed Invites Silent Noise by French DJ and producer Crystallmess is one of my favorite mixes so masterful and refreshing (every episode of her show on NTS is killer)
🏔️ Learn from the Greek OG of Stoicism. Lovely video essay about the legend and personal hero Marcus Aurelius, author of Meditations
🙏 I salute Sébastien Haller from Ivory Coast and one of my personal hero's: from defeating cancer to scoring the winning goal in the Africa Cup of Nations
🍥 I’m a big Action Bronson fan: start with From Paris With Love from the great F*ck That’s Delicious series and listen to his recent Tiny Desk Concert
⚡️ Respect for Amelia Dimoldenberg and how she created Chicken Shop Date, explained in her fascinating interview with Colin and Samir
🤖 This one-hour introduction to large language models by OpenAI researcher Andrej Karpathy is a fantastic primer no matter your level of technical knowledge
💮 Wim Wenders’ Perfect Days is a wonderfully meditative exploration of the everyday life of a Tokyo toilet cleaner, played by Koji Yakusho with such wit and delicacy
🙌 Great podcast with one of my all time favorite humans Thierry Henry about dealing with childhood trauma, depression and success
🟠 Ijoma Mangold, arts and culture editor of DIE ZEIT wrote a fantastic book about Bitcoin which is a perfect starting point
🔖 Moshe Kasher on the fascinating History of Sign Language
🌊 My homies of Aroma Pitch released their new EP Millennium Surfer with Public Possession
End note
Sometimes when I don’t feel ready this is a trick that works for me: I simply open whatever file I'm working on. Click on that doc. Put yourself in front of your canvas. Just be in the gym. Everything then comes automatically. Simply putting your thing in front of you will make you begin more often than not.
And working on THE THING is the best energy provider. You know what it is. The thing you are afraid of. The one that’s hard but most rewarding. Your Favorite Unrealized Project.
We need to Just Get Started. Even for only 5 minutes. It will be worth it! Even if it hurts. Because the only thing worse than starting something and failing...is not starting something.
I try every day not to be blocked by perfectionism. The only challenge is to get yourself started creating. One of the rules artist and educator Corita Kent often shared with her students: "There is no win and no fail. There is only make."
What are you making today?
Have a great week and stay present,
Hugo