I’ve been following Dr. Mark Hyman for a few years now and his podcast, The Doctor’s Farmacy, is an amazing series of interviews with some of the top individuals in the fields of medicine, health, and nutrition. As one could imagine, the topic of diet is a major point of discussion in this podcast. It seems that every expert these days is promoting a different diet. Often they are just slight modifications of the same diet. After all, what is the real difference between Atkins, Paleo, Keto, and low-carb? In reality, they all work on similar principles.

Dr. Hyman decided to unite the various diets by taking the two biggest players in the game—Paleo and Vegan—and combining them into a single diet, he calls “Pegan”. His ideal diet utilizes the common principles found in all the major successful diets:

• Eat natural, whole foods.
• Cook your own food.
• Avoid sugars and starches.
• Avoid processed and junk foods.
• Eat based on hunger, not time of day.
• Optimize your diet with proper exercise, sleep, and stress relief.

The Pegan diet seems great, right? Is it the “one true diet”? Probably not. But that’s because there is no one true diet. There are many great diets, including Paleo and Vegan. As long as you stick to the common principles stated above, and of these diets could work. Everyone has their personal preferences. Everyone has foods they love and others they can’t give up. For example, I could never give up meat, so I would never try Vegan. But other people refuse to eat meat for environmental or religious reasons, so Vegan/Vegetarian is perfect for them. Choose the diet that works best for you and stick to those common healthy principles.

There is no one true diet. The best diet is the one that you can stick to for life AND one that helps you achieve your health goals. So experiment. Try Paleo, Vegan, and Pegan. Try the other diets not mentioned in this article. Maintain and overall healthy life. And see what works for you. That will be your one true diet.

Alzheimer’s disease has long been one of the mysteries of modern medicine. Still today, it is unclear exactly what causes it, but progress has been made. It is a multifactorial disease. The usual suspects like age, lifestyle, and genetics all play a role. In this post, we explore what I find to be the most interesting etiological factor: insulin resistance. In fact, this is why some are now referring to Alzheimer’s Disease as Type 3 Diabetes.

Quite a few studies have been done on this topic. In this article, I examine a review article written by Suzanne de la Monte and Jack Wands. Based on analysis of Alzheimer’s brains postmortem, examination of animal models in which brain insulin resistance was induced using the same drug that can induce type 2 diabetes in animals, and a study showing the benefit of PPAR agonists (a diabetes medication) in preventing Alzheimer’s-related neurodegeneration, they concluded that Alzheimer’s disease is, in fact, a form of insulin resistance in the brain. This insulin resistance can occur even in the absence of Type 1 or 2 diabetes. However, they were unable to conclude that insulin resistance is the only or even the most important causative factor for Alzheimer’s disease. Eleven years after their article was published, definitive answers about “Type 3 Diabetes” have not yet been found.

Despite this, I still believe that we can apply the current research on this topic to our everyday lives. We know that insulin resistance—caused primarily by a modern carbohydrate-rich insulinogenic diet—has a major role in a number of diseases. Alzheimer’s dementia can now be added to this list. Therefore, we can reduce our risk of developing Alzheimer’s through the power of lifestyle changes. The most important of these changes is shifting our diet to one that is low in starches and sugars and high in natural animal products, vegetables, and fruits. Other lifestyle modifications like improved sleep hygiene, increased weight-lifting exercise, and reduced stress can also reduce our likelihood of developing Alzheimer’s by reducing inflammation and lowering insulin resistance. More research still needs to be done in this fascinating field, but action can be taken immediately based on what we already know.

References

de la Monte SM, Wands JR. Alzheimer’s disease is type 3 diabetes-evidence reviewed. J Diabetes Sci Technol. 2008;2(6):1101–1113. doi:10.1177/193229680800200619

What field are you applying for residency?

Every fourth year medical student faces this question as they prepare to make arguably the biggest career decision of their life. The field you choose determines the kind of career you will have for the next 30-50 years. And it is now harder than ever to make this decision. How do I know? Well, I am currently one of these fourth year students.

I always believed and was always told that my clinical rotations during third year and early fourth year would help me decide. Spoiler alert: they haven’t. Unfortunately, there is simply not enough time during the clinical years to get a true experience of every field. For broad fields like Internal Medicine and Family Medicine, there is simply not enough time in 4-12 weeks to experience every aspect of the field. For more narrow fields like Neurology or Anesthesiology, many medical schools do not even require students to spend any time in these fields.

The other issue is that for better or worse, medical students (and even residents to some extent) are asked to do less and less as many hospitals worry about liability. As a result, medical students do not get to experience what senior doctors experience, In surgery, a medical student does little more than retracting, basic knot tying and simple suturing. How can a student possibly know if he would one day like to be a senior surgeon, cutting skin, suturing muscle, and removing organs? The same can be said of any field, especially the more hands-on ones.

Another issue is the varying quality of clinical rotations. Any number of factors including time of year, hospital location, patient population, workload of staff physicians, and even your student colleagues can effect your view of a field. I say don’t let it. Each field is about so much more than the experience you get of it during a small time period at just 1 hospital.

So the actual experience you have during your medical school clinical rotations isn’t the best way to decide what field to go into. How then can you know? Well, I’ve developed some ideas over the past few months that have definitely helped me:

1. Talk to people in the field.

This is one way to use your time on the rotation to help you decide. Ask the residents and attendings what made them choose their area of practice. Ask them what they love and hate, so you can build your own pros and cons. You should even ask them what makes a good doctor in that field and what makes a bad one. This is how you see if your own strengths and weakness line up with a given field.

2. Research what personal characteristics fit each field.

There are a multitude of personality tests to help students find their ideal medical specialty. I’d say do these, at multiple points in your medical school career, as your personality may change.

The best book I have found on this topic is The Ultimate Guide to Choosing a Medical Specialty. It was also the inspiration and source material for much of this post.

3. Write a personal statement.

A fellow medical student told me that someone had told her that if you are still deciding between a couple fields, write a personal statement for each one. Then see which one you felt better fits you and better captures who you are. Which one was easier to write?

I didn’t really believe this at first, but then I tried it because every student has to write a personal statement for every field they apply to. It was an extremely powerful tool. And you don’t even have to wait until application season to try it out.

4. Start early.

Don’t be like me—and most other students—and wait until the clinical years. You can start talking to doctors and researching different specialties as a first year student.

5. Soul Search.

The first step to figuring out your ideal medical specialty is to figure out yourself. You cannot determine if a field suits you unless you know your own interests, values, and passions. Do you like seeing patients in the hospital (emergency, surgery, medicine, etc), clinic (primary care), or not at all (pathology, radiology)? Do you like working with your hands (surgery, anesthesia, GI, cardio, etc) or not? Do you like seeing patients acutely (emergency, urgent care, surgery) or over long periods of time (internal medicine, family medicine, pediatrics)? Do you like treating kids (pediatrics), adults (internal medicine), or women (OBGYN)? What is your favorite organ system? Favorite subjects in medical school?

All of these questions and more will help you figure out what you want in a career. That will lead you to the right specialty for you.

Today is December 1.

The day when I shave my beard for the first time after No-Shave November. The fourth consecutive No-Shave November of my life. And even though it’s not my first rodeo—it’s actually my fourth—the first shave always gets me.

It’s the best damn shave of the whole year.

There’s nothing like a 30-day deprivation to make something as mundane as shaving the greatest activity in the whole world. There’s really nothing like shaving off a 30-day beard.

And the best part is that it actually gets better every year. That’s because my beard grows faster as I get older (don’t ask me why, but it does). This means that my No-Shave November beard gets fuller every year. Which means that shaving it off becomes more enjoyable with each passing year.

It’s awesome. It’s fun. It’s game-changing.

And I can never recognize myself in the mirror after I finish.

I’m always like, “Who is this little kid staring back at me.”

No seriously. I’m 22 years old. But on December 1, I look like I’m 16 again. It’s so awesome seeing that babyface, that for 11 months of the year is just a normal face. Because I’m not babyfaced at all. If anything, I look older than my age, with all my gray hairs and what not.

But on December 1, I will always look like a teenager. That’s the power of No-Shave November.

Also, there’s this cool little cause associated with the whole No-Shave movement. It’s called men’s health.

People these days often get more carried away with the action than the cause behind it.

When I was in high school, my National Honor Society (NHS) group went to a Lupus Walk. I donated money and participated in the walk. But most of my classmates just participated in the walk. Sure the walk is great because it raises awareness about Lupus, a serious disease. But awareness isn’t enough. Money is what helps people.

Last year, the whole ALS Ice Bucket Challenge was sweeping the nation. I saw all the videos on social media. It raised a ton of awareness. But awareness doesn’t help people with ALS. Money does. A ton of people did the challenge, but not many donated. Why not do both?

And I can’t exempt myself from this type of behavior. For three straight years, I grew out my beard for No-Shave November to raise awareness about men’s health. But I never donated. This year I decided to change that. I grew out my beard and I donated $25 through the Movember Foundation to help fight prostate cancer.

I know it’s not a lot of money, but it’s something. When a lot of people do something, even something small, then big things happen. That’s the whole point of a movement.

So next No-Shave November, grow out your beard (if you’re a guy). But don’t forget to donate to the cause of men’s health.

Awareness is important. Money is more important.

September 26, 2015 was not supposed to be a great day.

I woke up feeling a whole array of terrible emotions. Loneliness. Desperation. Anxiety. Fear of the unknown. Lack of confidence. Poor self-esteem. Uncertainty. Doubt. Depression. Pressure. Failure.

Every horrible emotion you could imagine…I faced them all on that day.

But September 26, 2015 was one of the best days I’ve had in the past 12 months. How is that even possible? It was possible because I decided to devote the entire day to myself.

I ate a hearty breakfast.

Then I promoted by book, which began it’s free promotion on the Kindle Store that day. I hit number #1 in my category, which definitely helped with all the terrible feelings.

Then I watched TV.

I followed up by watching The Croods, a very lighthearted an uplifting movie. It was the first cartoon movie I’d seen in a long time.

I took a short break from the movie to enjoy an amazing lunch.

Then I went back to the movie and finished it up.

I started reading Choose Yourself by James Altucher, the true manifesto on focusing on oneself. It really uplifted my spirits.

Then I watched some college football. My alma mater Cal played that day. They won.

I talked to my brother, and my mom, and my dad. We enjoyed a nice lunch together.

Then I went back to reading, writing, and watching TV.

It was the most relaxing day I’d had in a long time.

During that day, I forgot about all the horrible emotions I’d felt when I woke up. I knew they’d come back, but I’d be more prepared to deal with them. I had just taken a whole day for myself. I was recharged and ready to take on whatever life threw at me.

You should take a day for yourself too.

Especially if you’re even dealing with a fraction of the emotional load I was dealing with. You won’t regret it.

It will be the best day you’ve had in a long time.

National Novel Writing Month (aka NaNoWriMo) is coming up soon. Every November, hundreds of thousands of individuals write furiously (>1,500 words/day) to produce a full 50,000+ word novel in just 30 days. Whether it’s to cross an item off a bucket list, show off to friends, or earn some extra cash from book royalties, people around the world transform into novelists in the course of just month.

And this year, I’m going to join their ranks.

I first learned about NaNoWriMo when I read Chris Baty’s Book No Plot? No Problem! back in June of this year. Chris Baty started the NaNoWriMo project all the way back in 1999 with just 21 participants in San Francisco. Now, it’s a global movement with hundreds of thousands of participants.

And I’m going to be one of them.

After finishing Baty’s book, I decided that I would participate in this November’s NaNoWriMo. But that was back when NaNoWriMo was a distant four and a half months away. Now it’s less than 10 days away. But I’m not backing down.

I’m not scared.

I’m ready for NaNoWriMo. I’m ready to write 1,667 words a day. I’m ready to sacrifice TV, video games, reading, chess, and whole bunch of other fun things. i’m ready to write during the Thanksgiving holiday that I am supposed to spend with my family. I’m ready to produce an epic novel. Or at least as epic as a novel can be, if you write it in a month.

Most importantly, I’m ready to cross “Write a novel” off my bucket list.

So who’s with me? Who’s ready to become a novelist? I know I am.

Out of all the great superheroes in the DC Universe (think Justice League), my all-time favorite is Batman.

Now, I know what you’re probably thinking. “Batman isn’t a real superhero. He doesn’t even have any superheroes.”

Here’s what I have to say to that: “complete and total nonsense.”

Batman is a real superhero. In fact, he’s the greatest superhero in the entire Justice League. I’m going to show you why by doing a direct comparison between Batman and Superman, the two most iconic superheroes in the world.

In March 2016, the two heroes are going to fight on the big screen in Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice. I’m going to have them go head-to-head on this blog post. And I’m going to focus on a comparison of their abilities: Superman’s superpowers vs. Batman’s “superpowers”.

Let’s start with Superman.

Superman’s Superpowers

Super Strength

More powerful than a locomotive.

But when have I ever needed to be more powerful than a locomotive? I’ll never need to lift a car in my entire life. I’ll never need to punch dudes so hard they fly through 2 buildings. I’ll never need to stop a runaway train or a meteor with my bare hands.

Now it would be great if I ever did need to do those things…but I don’t.

Completely useless power if you ask me.

X-Ray Vision

Seeing through walls would be cool. But what purpose would that serve? I’m not a spy. I’m not a cop. Who do I need to use this on?

Seeing through people’s clothes would be cooler. But why would I ever want to do that? With the advent of the internet, I have instant access to naked images of the most attractive people in the world. And everyone knows that attractive people look better with minimal clothes than they do completely naked.

Completely useless power if you ask me.

Heat Vision

I don’t know about you guys, but I own a microwave. I also own matches, a lighter, an oven, and I have access to a power torch. Why would I ever need heat vision?

Completely useless superpower if you ask me.

Flight

Gotta admit, I love flying.

And I hate the whole airline system. I hate waiting in line after line at the airport. I hate going through the tedium that is airport security. I hate sitting for hours on end in super-uncomfortable seats, while my only source of sustenance is a few measly peanuts.

But that’s the best that we humans can do, a century after Wilbur and Orville first got us in the air.

It’s even better than being able to fly like Superman.

That’s because his style of flying is weird and dangerous. People will see you, magically floating in the air. You’ll hit birds and eat insects. You’ll be targeted by the military: “You are in a strict no-fly zone!” You’ll be exposed to the elements. It’s cold up there!

No thanks. I’ll stick to my TSA and my Southwest peanuts.

Completely useless superpower if you ask me.

Invulnerability

Having bullets bounce off of me would be really cool. I’ll give you that.

But we have Kevlar. And nobody ever shoots at me. Sure, it would great to be invulnerable if someone did shoot at me.

But I’d rather take my chances. After all, I can’t live forever. Life would have no meaning then. I’m not going to resist my fate.

I like being vulnerable. That’s what makes me human. I don’t want to be invulnerable.

Completely useless ability if you ask me.

Speed

Faster than a speeding bullet!

That’s Superman.

But again, why would I ever need super speed.

I don’t like being in a rush. I like to take things slow. I like to stop and smell the roses. You can’t do that if you’re going hundreds of miles and hour.

I love taking walks. It’s so peaceful. I have no need for speed.

Completely useless power if you ask me.

Batman’s “Superpowers”

Wealth

Now this is a real power.

While Clark Kent, is some lowly middle-class-at-best reporter (dying industry, by the way), Bruce Wayne is the billionaire owner of Wayne Enterprises.

He has a mansion, an awesome car, and the world’s greatest butler.

He also donates a ton of money to charity. Now philanthropy…that’s a real superpower. His money certainly saves more lives than Superman’s strength.

And in this world, money solves all problems. You can do anything if you have enough money, and Batman has no shortage of money.

That’s a real superpower.

Gadgets

The bat-mobile. The motorcycle. The acid pellets and the gas bombs. The grapple hooks. The batarangs. The bat claw. The grenades. The trackers. I’ve even seen him with a jet pack and a plane.

I could go on and on and on.

Batman’s utility belt is iconic. This is what he physically uses to defeat his enemies.

The key to Batman’s gadgets is preparation. It seems like Batman always has the perfect tool in his belt to defeat the opponent he is facing. This is no coincidence. It is the result of proper preparation.

Batman pairs that preparation with perfect execution. Each gadget is deployed at exactly the right time for maximum effectiveness.

If only we could prepare and execute the way Batman does with his vast array of gadgets.

That’s a real superpower.

Intelligence

Batman is incredibly smart. He is often called the “World’s Greatest Detective”, an epithet that he shares with only one other person—Sherlock Holmes, another real hero.

That’s great company, if you ask me.

Batman fights crimes and solves problems using his intelligence. He overpowers stronger opponents—many of whom have “real” powers—using strategy, wit, and preparation.

Now those are some real powers. Super strength can help you lift a car, but intelligence can help you lift up the whole world with your life-changing ideas. Plus, it lets you defeat any opponent.

That’s a real superpower.

Fear

Batman is one of the darker superheroes out there. He relies heavily on fear to defeat the bad guys.

And out of this fear comes a sense of respect. Bad guys just don’t mess with Batman.

If you can instill a level of fear—and with it, a good level of respect—people won’t mess with you either.

That’s a real superpower.

Leadership

The Justice League is loaded with the greatest superheroes in the DC Universe. Can you guess who leads them?

If you said “Batman”, you’re right. That’s right. The guy with no real superpowers leads a team of the greatest superheroes in the world.

That’s because he possesses leadership abilities that the others lack. Sure they may be able to fly or lift buildings or shoot energy rays out of their hands, but they aren’t leaders.

Batman is a real leader. He uses his intelligence to solve mysteries, track the bad guys, and devise winning strategies. He uses his strong moral compass to guide the team down the right path. He uses his ability to inspire to ignite the Justice League. He uses the respect he commands to keep the team in line.

That’s real leadership.

That’s a real superpower.

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So on the surface, it appears as though Superman is the real superhero and Batman is just a phony, with no real superpowers. But if you were to give me the choice right now between Superman’s superpowers and Batman’s “superpowers”, I would choose Batman’s “superpowers” in a heartbeat.

Wealth, gadgets, intelligence, fear, and leadership. Now those are real superpowers. So much more useful than Superman’s strength, speed, flight, invulnerability, heat vision, and X-ray vision.

Batman’s abilities would actually be useful to me. I could use those in my daily life to inspire people and change the world. I can’t say the same about Superman’s so-called superpowers.

A couple of weeks ago, I applied for a position at Piazza. Since then, I’ve had the pleasure of talking to several employees through email and Skype, learning about the company in the process.

Piazza is an education technology company based in Palo Alto, California. Since its foundation in 2009, Piazza has had one mission: to help college students by levelling the playing field.

Their flagship service is a forum-style Q&A platform. The main function is to allow college students—especially the more shy, introverted ones—to openly ask and answer questions about their courses. As an added bonus, professors and teachings assistants (TA’s) are also on the forum to help answer students’ questions.

Once they had the Q&A service down pat, Piazza moved on to addressing another key issue facing college students: jobs and internships. The company has since created a recruiting service that directly connects employers and recruiters at top companies with the college students who use Piazza. During one of my interviews, I actually got to use the service as a Piazza employee and see first-hand just how valuable this is. It levels the playing field in job-hunting by helping ensure that the best students get chosen, regardless of background and connections.

Piazza is doing great things to help college students, my favorite group of my people. During my conversations with their employees and from my own research, I was actually able to take away a few key lessons that will serve me well in the rest of my life. I hope they help you all as well.

Lesson #1: The Riches are in the Niches

Notice from my introduction that Piazza didn’t try to solve 10 different problems for 10 different groups of people. They didn’t even try to solve 10 problems for 1 group or 1 problem for 10 groups. They focused on solving 1 specific problem for 1 specific group.

Their target audience is college students. Sure, they could have targeted every student at every level in the entire world. More potential users equals more money, right? Wrong.

Instead of trying to cater to every single student population, Piazza started with just undergraduate college students (they actually did a trial run with just Stanford students, before rolling out the service to more universities). You see, each level—high school, college, grad school—has its own unique set of complexities. It was much easier for Piazza to become the go-to service for one group, than to try and become the expert for three or more groups.

It was also much more profitable for Piazza to dominate 1 niche than to be average or so-so in 3 niches.

And notice that they only focused on solving one problem. Their initial goal was to democratize access to education at the college level. They did this by creating a service that allowed any student in a class—regardless of personality, GPA, background, etc.—to ask questions to his or her classmates, TA’s and professors.

It was only after they had mastered this Q&A service that they moved on to their recruiting service. Which brings me straight to my second big lesson.

Lesson #2: FOCUS = Follow One Course Until Success

This has got to be one of my favorite acronyms. FOCUS stands for “Follow One Course Until Success” and that’s exactly what Piazza is doing. It’s no wonder that they’ve experienced the success that they have had so far.

They picked one niche and focused intensely on solving just a single problem for their target audience. For years that was all they did. But they did it well.

I know because I used the service for a couple of my college courses. Piazza really helped me out when I took Linear Algebra. Now, I consider myself a “math guy”, but linear algebra was way different from all the other math classes I’ve taken. I was completely lost and I am really glad I had a service like Piazza to help me out. I ended up getting an “A” in that course and Piazza definitely deserves some credit for that.

There are thousands of stories like mine from students all across the country. Even professors and TA’s praise Piazza. The Q&A service has done its job, thanks in no small part to Piazza’s decision to “follow one course until success”.

After their successes with this service, they decided to branch out with their recruiting service. They stuck with the same target audience, held true to their values and mission statement, and made a logical decision with expansion. Their decision to add a recruiting service fit perfectly with what they were already doing.

By continuing to focus—and not trying to do or be too many things at once—Piazza is now experiencing similar success with their recruiting service.

As someone who considers himself to be a bit too much of a jack-of-all-trades or a Renaissance man, this is an important lesson for me to learn. I’ve always felt that to achieve success I would have to learn many skills, become an expert in multiple fields, and dominate multiple niches.

Piazza has shown me that this isn’t true. You can be successful by solving just a single problem in a single niche, and focusing intensely on your one solution. Once you master that one solution—and only after your fully master it—you can move on to solving another problem. Just make sure that new problem affects the same target audience and it aligns with your own values and purpose.

In everything you do, remember to FOCUS: Follow One Course Until Success. If you combine the “focus mantra” with the next lesson, you will be incredibly successful in your niche.

Lesson #3: Commit to Lifelong Learning

I spoke with Piazza’s Director of Engineering and he told that prior to joining Piazza, he had very little computer programming experience.

Yes. That’s not a typo. The Director of Engineering at an education technology company had limited programming experience when he joined the company. He got his current position through loads of on-the-job training and education.

That’s how committed Piazza is to developing its employees and that’s how committed its employees are to lifelong learning.

When I asked him (the director of engineering) about this, he told me that as an education company, of course Piazza had to be committed to the continuing education of its team. Lifelong learning was normal for them.

It’s also an important reason for their success. A company’s greatest resource is always it’s employees. The best companies don’t just have the best employees; they develop the best employees. And these employees return the favor for the education and professional development provided to them through hard work, loyalty, and innovation. These employees become what Seth Godin calls “Linchpins”, people who are absolutely indispensable to their organizations.

The most successful companies are the ones with the most Linchpins, which depends entirely on the level of commitment the company and its employees have towards lifelong learning. Based on what I know of Piazza, I can safely assume that they have plenty of Linchpins, so their success is no surprise.

I’m here to tell you that you can commit to lifelong learning right now, regardless of whether or not you are part of an education-related organization. You can become a Linchpin right now, simply by committing. Your education is ongoing and you are always learning and growing.

I am a firm believer that graduation is not the end of education, but merely the beginning of a new phase of education, what I like to call “real-world education.” This refers to education “on-the-job” as it pertains to both your career and your personal life.

Remember, “the more you learn, the more you earn.” If you want to be successful, you’re going to have to learn something new every day.

You need to learn career-related skills like leadership, writing, public speaking, computer programming, and a foreign language. You need to learn the standard life skills like filing taxes, being a good friend and partner, cooking, and basic home repair skills. You need to learn what I like to call “fun skills” like fishing, skateboarding, golf, and crochet.

Be a lifelong learner. Of all skills. Commit to this. The more you learn, the more you earn.

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If you can do these three things—(1) find and dominate a niche, (2) FOCUS: follow one course until success, and (3) commit to lifelong learning—you will be incredibly successful in what you do…just like Piazza.

Call me a nerd, but I love chess. I’ve been playing since the 4th grade. I competed in tournaments all through grade school. In high school, I was captain of my chess team, and I led our team to the state title my senior year…I even have the state ring to prove it.

Now, the tournaments are behind me, but I still love to play in my free time. There’s nothing better for keeping the mind active than hopping on Chess.com and playing a couple of great games. I’ve even played the legendary 4-player chess a handful of times with my buddies.

Let’s just say I’ve played a lot of chess over the past 10-15 years. And I’ve learned quite a few good lessons from my time behind the chessboard. I’m here to share with you 4 of my biggest lessons.

Lesson #1: Timing is Key

In chess, timing is so important, it has it’s own fancy word: “tempo”. Tempo refers to a single move or “turn” in chess. Tempo is so critical, that the player playing White actually has a significantly higher winning percentage (~52-56%) than the player playing Black simply because the White moves first.

Black can make up this disadvantage, however, by making moves that force White to waste his turn, gaining tempo on White. On the other hand, White can amplify his one turn advantage by making moves that force Black to waste his turn.

Chess is really a game of timing (tempo), and the player who has an advantage in tempo usually wins the game.

Interestingly enough, however, it is not always an advantage to have tempo on your side. The term “zugzwang” is given to a chess situation in which a player is at a disadvantage simply because it is his turn to move. Tempo works both ways, and it can be an advantage or a disadvantage.

Like chess, life is a game of timing. The same opportunity can be good or bad, depending on when it occurs. And you should always be thinking about tempo. Never waste time because a loss of time can be a significant disadvantage in and of itself.

Lesson #2: You Have to be Comfortable with Boredom

I once heard a great chess master say that the key to winning at chess is to be incredibly comfortable with boredom.

Chess can be exciting when pieces are being captured and players are launching attacks and counterattacks on the opposing king. But in most games, there is a so-called “boring phase”. The game slows down, certain pieces are gone, and the position on the board becomes closed. This can happen in the opening, the middle game, or the end game. But it almost always happen.

When it does happen, the key to victory is comfort with boredom. When the games gets “boring”, the winning strategy is to wait for your opponent to make a mistake. This could take 1 turn or 10 turns or 50 turns. It really depends.

But one player will always make a mistake. It’s usually the player who is less comfortable with boring. In an attempt to open up the game and make things more exciting, they’ll make a rash move, exposing a weakness in their defenses. Then, the other player sees the opening and makes his opponent pay.

In life, you want to be the one who sees an opening and takes advantage of the opportunity. To do this, you must be incredibly comfortable with boredom. There will be periods of immense boredom in your life.

When they occur, don’t move rashly. Be patient, keep yourself prepared, maintain your defenses, and move quickly and effectively when the lane opens up for you. Learn to be comfortable with boredom.

Lesson #3: Small Advantages can Lead to Big Victories

A pawn is the weakest piece on the chessboard. For the best players, being just a single pawn up on your opponent can lead to a big victory. Here’s how:

If you find yourself a pawn up, force your opponent to trade pieces. After all the queens, rooks, bishops, and knights have been swapped, both sides will be left with just a king and some pawns. You will have one more pawn than your opponent and if you play well, that will be enough.

Now start trading pawns. After all the dust settles—and assuming you play well—you will have one pawn who you will be able to get to the other side of the board. When a pawn gets to the other side of the board, it turns into a queen. Suddenly, you have gone from being a pawn up to being a queen up.

Your small advantage turned into a huge advantage and you will be able to use that advantage to bury your opponent. In chess, an advantage as small as a single pawn can lead to a huge victory.

The same is true in life. In both chess and life, the key to making this happen is proper execution. If the player with the pawn advantage had played poorly, he would have lost that extra pawn (or worse, more pieces). But because he played well, he was able to amplify that small advantage into a big advantage.

You can do the same in your life. And here’s the best part: in chess, you had to work hard to gain your small advantage, but you the same is not true in life. That’s because everyone already has a small advantage due to their genetics, upbringing, past experiences, personality, or some other reason. Every single one of you has some small advantage over 95% of the population.

The key to success in life is to find that small advantage, turn it into a huge advantage, and then turn that huge advantage into a glorious victory.

Lesson #4: You Need to Think Ahead

The masters of chess can think 10, 15, even 20 moves ahead. If you can think just a handful of moves ahead, you are already a better chess player than the vast majority of the world’s population.

In chess, the ability to think ahead separates the pros from the amateurs. The best players can predict how their opponent will react and will act accordingly.

You need to do the same in life. You need a Plan A, as well as Plans B-Z. You need to be at least one step, and ideally more steps, ahead of the competition. You need to be able to accurately predict how the world—your clients, your competition, your loved ones, your colleagues, etc.—will respond to your actions.

The dual combination of planning and predicting (the two P’s) is essential to success in chess and in life.

Lesson #5: Be Aware of Your Opponent’s Plan

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been planning and executing some ingenious plan to break through my opponent’s defenses and make a winning attack on his king. And just before I am about to deliver the fatal strike, the opponent launches his own ingenious plan and either checkmates my king or gains a significant piece advantage by capturing one of my pieces. I was on the verge of victory, and suddenly, the opponent struck and I lost.

I’ve also been on the other end of this, and it’s definitely a lot more fun completely catching your opponent off-guard with a surprising, game-winning counterattack. The look of horror on his face as I snatch victory from the jaws of defeat.

However, a closer look at this situation reveals that I didn’t magically turn defeat into victory. Instead, I was carefully crafting an winning attack that my opponent clearly ignored because he was too busy paying attention to his own attack.

As someone who’s been on both sides of this situation dozens of times, I can’t emphasize this enough: you need to pay close attention to what your opponent is doing.

This is true in life and it is true in chess. You can’t just close yourself off from the world and look inward. There is competition out there and you have to pay attention to what they are doing. When they attack, you must be prepared to counterattack. The look of horror should be on their faces, not yours.

Never sleep on the competition. It’s good to focus inwards, but you also need to keep one eye on what everyone else is doing. Be prepared for anything.

Take a moment, my friends, and just breathe.

That’s right. You heard me. Breathe. Go ahead. Here’s some space:

 

 

 

How did that feel? No different, you say? Well, that’s because you breathed, but you didn’t breathe properly. Go ahead and try it again. This time, actually breathe. Here’s some more space:

 

 

 

Now how did that feel? Still the same? Well, that’s because you didn’t breathe properly. Actually, I need to take some blame for that one. I didn’t teach you how. In fact, no one taught you how. That’s the problem. People don’t know how to breathe properly.

Maybe that’s why there’s so much pain, anxiety, suffering, and disease in the world. Well, it’s not the only reason. But its definitely a contributing factor. We don’t know how to breathe properly.

That’s why you’re so lucky. Because I’m go to teach you how to breathe properly.

First, let me clarify. By breathe properly, what I really mean is “breath deeply.” Not shallowly like 99% of us do 99% of the time. No, not shallow breathing.

It’s time to learn deep breathing.

First step: Sit up straight. Or stand up straight. Posture is key.

Then, put your dominant hand on your belly. You’re going to actually feel the difference.

Notice now how your hand barely moves. That’s because you’re breathing is so shallow that your body barely fills up with air.

Let’s change that.

Take a deep breathe. Inhale until your entire belly fills up with air and your hand actually moves significantly. Here’s some white space:

 

 

 

Once your body is full of air, hold for a brief second or two. Here’s some more white space:

 

 

 

Now exhale. Let it all out. I’ll give you some more white space:

 

 

 

Congratulations. You just took the first of many deep breaths. Now repeat. For five minutes. Go ahead, I’ll give you space:

 

 

 

 

 

Now how do you feel? More calm, more peaceful, more relaxed? How about all of the above. That’s the power of deep breathing.

And it only took 5 minutes. Do at least three of these sessions in a day—morning, afternoon, and evening. That’s just 15 minutes. Out of the 16-18 hours you are awake. You can shallow breath the rest of the time.

A little deep breathing makes a huge difference.