31 Simple Pleasures

Every birthday I start a new note and title it the year I’m turning.

The goal is to turn the notes into a birthday article for the next year.

This year was 31.

The same for 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30.

Usually this article goes live on my birthday (September 1st).

This year it’s late.

I could give excuses galore.

My grandfather passed.

One of my dogs passed away on the eve of my best friend’s Dad’s funeral.

Rest in peace to three of the greats.

On many accounts, it’s been a tough year.

A reflective year which gave birth to the theme of this article.

31 simple pleasures.

Before that, a few not so simple pleasures...

I got engaged to my beautiful partner Georgia. Three years to the day we met. We plan on getting married at the end of 2025.

My brother Josh and I launched an app called Nutrify. Built from scratch in a converted office lounge room. We’ve been rejected from every startup program we’ve applied to. No matter. The beauty of creation is that you don’t need approval.

Since this article is late, we’re even close to launching our second app.

But more on that soon.

Anyway.

It feels good to be writing again.

1. Going for a walk with no purpose.

I call it doing a lap. Walking out the front door, strolling the local streets.

Waving at the neighbours saying hello to passersby.

Practicing flânerie.

Getting to the top of the hill and enjoying the view.

An anytime activity.

When you wake up when you need to work something out when you need to think of nothing when you need to get the blood flowing when you feel like some sun on your skin.

Walks always work out.

2. Lighting a candle.

A small flame. Perhaps a pleasant smell.

A flame dances and jiggles its whole life.

Sharing heat and light.

The start of a romantic dinner or well-deserved bubble bath.

Or even a chance to sit down and read the book that’s been on your shelf since the start of January.

Or write the article you meant to publish 9 months ago.

3. Waving goodbye to someone as they drive down the street.

I walk my fiancé to the front door and help her put stuff in the car.

We kiss goodbye say have a fun day.

I watch her reverse down the driveway and onto the street.

She winds down her window and puts the car into drive.

We wave and say I love you.

I stand on the driveway with my arm in the air, she drives up the street and turns left.

A chance to wave goodbye means a chance to be with someone.

A wave goodbye means a chance to say hello.

It’s nice to see you.

4. Rearranging a room.

A shift in furniture means a shift in vibe.

Perhaps not always for the best.

But it’s a good experiment.

How does the couch feel there?

If you get it right, you’ll get a week’s worth of wow this feels good.

A few months later you might move it back and say the same thing, wow this feels good.

Worth it.

5. Cleaning a car.

But it’s just going to get dirty again right?

Sure.

But so are the dishes we’ll use for dinner tonight.

And lunch tomorrow.

Somehow dust always returns to the inactive shelf.

But for the handful of times you’ll get into the clean car it’ll feel like waking up from a well earned nap.

Refreshed.

Ready for the next journey.

6. Fixing something that’s been broken for a while.

You get used to things.

Even broken things.

A wobbly door handle, a missing car handle, a chair that squeaks, a burned out light bulb, a broken heart.

But broken things can be fixed.

The door handle screwed in, a light bulb changed, a chair balanced, a broken heart stitched together with time and love and effort.

Sometimes a small fix, sometimes a big fix.

For a while the world feels new.

You wonder why you left it so long.

And spend a few moments saying when something breaks again, I’ll be better, I’ll be faster, I know how to fix it now.

7. Realising there’s always stress.

Winning, losing, staying put.

Winners stress about winning again.

Losers stress about not losing again.

Stayers stress about staying still.

Every direction has its challenges.

The good news is you can choose which way to go.

8. Switching from paranoid to pronoid.

A paranoid person believes the world is conspiring against them.

A pronoid person believes the world is conspiring with them.

A paranoid person worries about what could go wrong.

A pronoid person imagines what could go right.

It’s okay to feel both.

Just remember, they’re two sides of the same coin.

Being paranoid can help you survive.

Being pronoid can help you enjoy it.

9. Walking under the shade of a tree.

Or feeling a cloud pass by.

Or a gentle breeze flow between your legs.

It’s a hot day outside.

The sun weighing you down.

Sometimes 10 seconds of shade from a cloud passing by is all you need.

With 10 good seconds of rest, I can go another hour.

10. Swirling a drink in a glass.

A glass of wine at a celebratory dinner.

Ha!

You see I pretend every dinner is celebratory.

Secretly cheers-ing to myself and others.

It’s good to be alive.

A glass of water after working up a sweat.

A flick of the wrist and liquid dances around the sides.

The first sip.

Heaven.

11. Making something from scratch.

Writing a page full of words.

Baking a cake.

Reading the ingredients on the back of a hummus container at a supermarket and thinking I could do that.

Then doing it.

Creating something from nothing.

That page once had nothing on it, now it’s got a story.

That plate once had nothing on it, now it’s got carrot cake with crushed walnuts on top.

An empty dip bowl, now filled with homemade hummus.

However big or small, making something from scratch brings you closer to the Gods.

12. The first break of sweat.

The first two sets of a workout.

The first two kilometres of a run.

The hardest.

Then you feel the first bead of sweat roll down your cheek.

Hello it says. I’m here to help you.

You crack a little smile.

Thank you.

Time for set 3.

13. Doing nothing…

...

14. Eating with the fullest pleasure.

Something we do multiple times per day.

Perhaps the closet connection we can get with the world.

Impossible to count the happenings that went into what we’re consuming.

Consuming creatures and creations which we have no idea how they came to be.

What did the paddock look like our beast was wondering around days, weeks or months before?

How far have the tea leaves in our cup of tea travelled?

How cold the waters our fillet our salmon used to swim in?

A moment of pause to thank the cosmos for the gift on our plates.

A beautiful sacrifice.

To keep the dance going.

15. Deciding when’s enough.

Enough is a good as a feast.

Whether eating a meal.

Or spending time with friends.

Or earning money.

Once the fundamentals are covered, enough becomes a choice.

16. Finding a word in another language that describes a feeling.

I have another note which collected my favourite combo words.

I called them combo words because it comprises many English-words in one.

Perhaps feeling words might be better.

For example, Kounaichoumi, a Japanese term for cooking in the mouth.

Combining multiple flavours to make something more than the sum of each one.

Or Oubaitori, another Japanese term describing the idea that people bloom and shine in their own journeys, much a like a field of flowers.

A flourishing of one doesn’t have to take away from another. You can show off your colours just as much as the person next to you.

17. Learning something for the second or third time.

It’s easy to get scared off learning something for the first time.

Usually you suck.

It’s a strange feeling, not being competent at something, especially when you’re competent at other things.

Some people make it look easy.

Despite your initial poor attempts, you know deep down you’d be better the second or third or fourth fifth sixth seventh time if you put the effort in.

Competence makes anything fun.

A secret all weightlifters know: sets and reps.

18. Rereading a book for the second or third time.

The test of a good book is not whether it gets read once.

It’s whether it gets reread.

In my whole bookshelf I’ve got about three books which fulfil this criteria.

So far…

There may be more as I discover them.

But I can only think of a few I’d actively reread.

It’s about time I started one of them again (update: I’ve start rereading Alchemy by Rory Sutherland for the third time).

And just like building compound interest with competence, rereading a good book offers the same joys.

You get a reminder of all the important things you thought you’d remember but have since forgotten.

Every page becomes like revisiting a childhood memory.

19. Slow days.

Strolling to the market on a Sunday.

Shopping in the least efficient way possible.

Looking at the wares and produce from people who’ve spent the week preparing their goods.

Laying in bed a little longer.

Looking out the window and noticing new branches on a tree or the first blossoms of a new flowering season.

Slow days open up time for noticing.

20. Watching a bee land on a flower.

Where’s the next stop I wonder?

How many of these tiny landings lead to the jar of honey on my shelf?

21. Realising how fast the decades go despite how slow the days feel.

Walking through a nursing home the other day I noticed the photos on the wall.

A young married couple dressed in their best attire.

Further down the hallway an old lady with grey hair in a bed.

How long must’ve the days felt leading up to the wedding?

Even the day itself may have extended well into the night.

Now decades later, I wonder if she looks at the same photos with a warm familiar feeling.

Multiple eras been and gone.

I’m getting married at the end of the year.

I hope every day feels like 100 years.

22. Watching one wave flow into another.

The ocean waves at me and I wave back at it.

One wave into another.

Sometimes with enough grace to make you cry.

Other times with enough rage to make you curse.

23. Noticing people putting in effort.

There is no greater honour than watching someone give it all.

You can see the emotion in their face.

You can feel it in the air.

When a child shows you their drawing, when a runner steps it up for the final leg, when a waitress welcomes you with open arms, when your partner makes you breakfast in bed.

I helped my friend train for the fitness test to join the fire fighters.

We trained together every second day.

On the morning of the test, I went to a park and did the test while he did the real one.

Getting the phone call from him to say he’d passed made me jump off my chair.

Top 3 phone calls of the year.

Whatever the task, big or small.

That’s my soft spot.

I can’t help it.

It’ll bring me tears.

It’ll make me want to do the same.

Giving it all.

The best reward there is.

24. Thinking of someone you haven’t seen in a while and then running into them.

Who knows how it happens...

I thought of an old friend the other day.

I hadn’t thought of this friend for years.

The next day... we didn’t run into each other but I did get a 14 minute voice message from him.

We’ve all got those stories.

The I was just thinking of you stories.

Be careful who you think of though.

Some might be preferable to avoid rather than run into.

25. Noticing something you haven’t noticed before.

Was that tree always on such a lean?

Hell, was it even there before?

It feels good after visiting the same place for so long to discover a new secret.

You could’ve sworn you’d seen it all.

A small surprise is enough to keep me going for a few days.

Keep em comin’.

26. Giving into serendipity.

You hit a crossroads. For the longest time you’ve been going left. Except today something pulls you to go right.

Fate?

A slight change in the wind?

Who knows.

Not everything needs a reason.

Because is enough.

27. Noticing the magic of the mundane.

Making a cup of tea in the morning and seeing the steam pour off.

Vacuuming the lounge room.

Emptying the bin.

Calling the friend back who called you three days ago.

Making the bed.

Restocking the toilet paper rolls.

Watching a bird land on your balcony.

Cracking an egg onto a hot pan.

Pressing send on a polished piece of work.

Sitting at the dinner table with loved ones.

How many miracles had to take place for each of these to happen?

Small daily tasks.

Stacked together.

To make a life.

Learn to notice the magic in the mundane and life becomes beautiful beyond measure.

28. Reversing the argument.

I love sitting with anger, feeling high and mighty about what someone else did wrong and I did right.

Smouldering and smug.

Saying here’s what you did wrong and I did right.

Keeping a score.

Winning an argument feels good in the short term.

But am I trying to win an argument or make progress?

I’ve been trying to reverse it. Keyword. Trying.

Saying here’s what I did wrong and you did right.

Lowering the sword.

Sometimes the other person follows suit. A battle becomes a discussion. A discussion becomes laughter.

Laughing at serious we both were.

Aside from giving it all, my next favourite human trait is the ability to come off it.

To let it go.

29. Thanking the chef.

My office is above a cafe. Chef Michael cooks everything out the back. To get upstairs I walk past the kitchen.

Most customers of the cafe would never know where their food comes from.

They place the order and 15-20 minutes later out comes a plate of food.

A brilliant system.

But it turns out, there’s a real person on the other end.

The same goes for almost everything.

The person behind the scenes.

I’m sure they’re doing what they’re doing for fun for a paycheque for their own interests.

Like the credits at the end of a movie. There’s the star on the billboard and in the trailers.

And then there’s dozens of people behind the scenes all playing their part.

I enjoy applauding effort, visible or not.

30. Patting the dog.

Hearing the boys come home through the side gate.

Seeing mum make a cup of tea and walk around the house.

Talking at dinner table about who’s scamming who.

This one’s from my Dad.

He’s in hospital at the time of writing this.

No dog, no side gate, no mum walking around the house doing her thing.

Some simple things you wouldn’t even notice day to day.

But when they’re taken away, they’re the only things you miss.

31. Opening the fridge or cupboard and knowing your favourite foods are in there.

You’ve put in the effort.

Gone to the special store you like.

The start of the week, fridge stocked cupboard full.

All your favourites there.

You know they are.

For the next few days anticipation shines out of the kitchen.

You walk in, open the door and say a little thank you to your past self.

Quotes and notes

Extra notes and quotes I took down.

Most from others, some from me.

• You have the right to plant seeds but not to their fruit. In other words, you have the right to create but not for your creations to flourish. Creation itself is the gift, not the returns.
• On being late: Are you addicted to the feeling of rushing somewhere? Avoid being late by working on the addiction of the adrenaline rush. Sometimes, even if you’re on time, if you’re addicted to the feeling of adrenaline, you’ll still find a way to rush. Getting somewhere early means a state of calm. Perhaps you’re subconsciously avoiding the state of calm and sitting with your thoughts in preference for the rush of adrenaline? Bigger picture: What feelings are you chasing that don’t serve you?
• Face triumph and disaster, both imposters, in the same light.
• Nassim Taleb on learning to do nothing (idleness as a BS detector/cleaner).

At the start of this year I resolved to do “nothing except if it felt like a hobby” i.e, “satisfy interests while providing entertainment value with zero pressure, no schedule and no feeling of duty”. The rule is to wake up with the aim to “do nothing”, have nothing scheduled and avoid the usual guilt (or shame) encountered by most when “wasting time”, have minimum commitments and talk to NO journalist. Of course, cut everything unpleasant, no matter what the potential gain. Treat everything (including mathematics) the way a great-uncle of mine who was a man of leisure treated his afternoon game of bridge: intellectual concentration as entertainment.

• Most of wisdom which we employ in everyday life never came to us as verbal information. Breathing, swallowing, seeing, circulating blood, reproducing, digesting food, resisting disease. Current AI is incredible at noticeable intelligence (language) but there’s still a whole other universe of subconscious intelligence.
• Everyone is capable of a miracle a 1-3 miracles a month. 1 every 1 million seconds. 30 days x 24 hours x 60 minutes x 60 seconds = ~3 million seconds.
• You can’t complain about unfulfilled desires you’ve never expressed or put in effort for.
• The best story wins. For many, stories are more powerful than statistics.
• People don’t remember books. They remember sentences.
• Rick Rubin on taste.

I have no musical talent and play no musical instruments. I just know real well what I like and don’t like.

• On quick iterations: How can we test this in 2 weeks for under $500?
• Carl Jung had a theory called enantiodromia. It’s the idea that an excess of something gives rise to its opposite. The classic case of someone trying to do much “good” but is blinded by their poor decisions.
• On adding more people to a project: You can’t make a baby in a month by getting nine women pregnant.
• Crazy doesn’t mean broken. Crazy is normal. Beyond the point of crazy is normal.
• 77 year old Japanese hotdog salesman on service.

The store will be richer if you give rather than take.

• Take the long road. Life offers no shortcuts.
• A priest receives his ordination from a tradition. A shaman receives his ordination alone in the forest.
• Your quest for peace of mind is the same as a having a disturbed mind.
• A boy becomes a man when he generates a surplus for the group.
• Your body is the average of the five meals you eat most often.
• On marketing: Benefits not features. The first step in writing copy that sells is to write about benefits and not about features.
• Action expresses priorities.
• Magic of the mundane: Seeing the common, everyday things in this new light I was often transfixed. The moment one gives close attention to anything, even a blade of grass, it becomes a mysterious, awesome, indescribable magnified world in itself. Almost an “unrecognisable” world. The writer waits in ambush for these unique moments. He pounces on his little grain of nothingness like a beast of prey.
• A question for comedians: Which one of your parents was sick? Someone was physically or mentally sick and comedy gives you the opportunity to change the mood of the room.
• Laughter is a million years older than language. We show our teeth to show everything’s okay, other animals do it to show offence.
• Trying to win an argument or make progress? Discussing with someone you disagree with, let’s find out where you stand, how your views are not the only ones, how there are many spokes on the wheel. If you’re trying to win an argument, sure rack up the points. But if you’re trying to make progress, who’s right doesn’t matter as much as figuring out a path forward.

Oh and I almost forgot.

32. Loving yourself.

Because when you do, everything, even the hard things, become a little easier.

I love you.

I love you.

I love you.

Here’s to 32.