Sarah went to Shanghai for work in August, so I decided to go on a little solo retreat.
My grandpa was born in Nördlingen, and our family still has a small house there. I knew it well from childhood holidays, but I had never been there alone. It was calm, sunny and boring in the best way possible. Exactly what I needed!
Also: Nördlingen has great food, forests for running, nice public pools, and fast internet. And that’s how I found myself Presentmaxxing in Bavaria.
I worked on my Do The Thing book most mornings. I rebuilt presentOS in the afternoons, often long into the night. Other than that I ran in the fields and jumped into lakes. Insane amounts of fresh Brezeln and Radler. That was pretty much it.
One afternoon I cycled to the Freibad alone, jumped in, sat in the sun, and ended up on the phone with a friend for two hours. I can’t remember the last time I did that.
By now I have fully accepted that making is what makes me happy. Working on my Thing.
But that month gave me something else, too: One question kept coming up in my journal, again and again, until I started writing it at the top of the page every morning:
What would your 80-year-old self beg you not to postpone now?
With all the hustle and bustle of life as a Modern Maker, I find it crucial to zoom out sometimes. To check if you are actually still aligned with what you really want. What your actual Thing is.
This Principle is a regret minimization framework and its cuts through the noise faster than any productivity system. Good in the morning, but also in the middle of the day when you feel a bit weird and lost.
Notice what the question doesn’t ask. It doesn’t ask what you’d regret trying. Research on regret is remarkably consistent here: over a lifetime, people barely remember the things they tried and failed. They remember the things they never started.
Some of the thoughts that came to mind, straight from my journal:
Tell the people you love in your life that you love them. Show them and tell them more. Don’t overthink. Be scruffy but real. Don’t be so afraid to connect deeper.
Ship faster. Stop wasting so much time worrying and wondering. Don’t be perfect, be fucking authentic. Express yourself more honestly and more directly. Be more mindful of distractions.
Be faster. I mean faster in terms of confidence, assertiveness and fighting overwhelm. faster = more scruffy = more vulnerable = more real = more yourself
Sit even more with eyes closed and simply fall into being. Deepen your meditation practice. To understand yourself more. To allow insights to come on what’s actually important to put your time and energy in.
Stay present. Stay aware of Resistance. It’s lying to you. Don’t you ever give in. Be a Pro. Use your own tools. Accept more help. Help others.
I’m repeating this practice often. Because I don’t want to be 80 and have regrets. It actually scares the hell out of me. Waking up one day and thinking: “What could have been”, realizing I listened to my Resistance and gave in to my fears, sends shivers down my spine.
The definition of hell is that on your last day on earth, the person you became meets the person you could have become. This is my anti-vision. And it’s a real motivation.
I want to be able to say: I have fully become myself. That I gave it all. That I shared it all. That is my goal.
Tobi Lütke recently said something close to this: “My life’s philosophy is that I will meet the person I could have been at the end of my life, and my goal is to reduce the difference between him and me to as little as possible.”
Life becomes deeper when you postpone less. The more time you spend in flow, with your Thing, with your people, fully present with whatever is in front of you, the more contentment you feel. That’s the whole game.
This is also a homage to my grandpa Fritz, who I sadly never met, but who I think about often, and thought about even more this month, working in the house he grew up in, looking down at the lush garden he loved. In every picture he has the biggest, most genuine smile, and a look that says ready for anything.
I always imagined him as someone who didn’t postpone what mattered. Together with his wife, my grandma Erika, he ran a family business and raised four amazing daughters. I’m pretty confident that I got extremely lucky, because I had the greatest mum and have the best aunties one could wish for.
Tell me, what would your 80-year-old self beg you not to postpone? Comment here or hit reply. I’d love to hear from you.
I’m writing a book and framework to help as many people as possible. It’s called Do The Thing. A Modern Maker Manifesto and is now available to pre-order.
Wie krass, ich bin in Wemding aufgewachsen...Grüße nach Nördlingen.