The Maximized Life: Recent Episodes
Thomas Osborne
Read The Newspaper From The Day You Were Born
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- Support a local business—GoFundMe recently launched a Small Business Relief Initiative to make it easy to support those impacted by the COVID-19
- Help Main Street! — Buy gift cards to provide critical cash support during the COVID-19 crisis for businesses in your area
- Donate to the Flexport Frontlines Responder Fund — getting supplies (masks, gowns, gloves and other critical supplies) to protect medical professionals in hospitals across the world.
- Donate to the World Health Organization COVID-19 Solidarity Response Fund
- Donate blood—the American Red Cross and America’s Blood Centers announced recently that the US is facing a “severe blood shortage”. With their additional precautions in place, they are encouraging anyone who is healthy and eligible to give blood to make an appointment.
- If you had the virus and were cured, health officials are collecting plasma from people who have recovered to inject the antibody-rich fluid into patients still fighting the virus.
- You already donated $5 to Feeding America when you bought this challenge, but donate more if you can.
- Airbnb announced their global initiative to provide free or subsidized housing for healthcare professionals, relief workers, and first responders. Hosts can opt in to provide relief for workers on the front lines.
And when the physical distancing recommendations are lifted:
- Anonymously cover the check of the young family dining near you at dinner.
- Fill a trash bag with clothes and give them to a homeless person, or bring them something to eat.
- Go to the local nursing and retirement home and spend a couple hours with the residents
- Tip a barista or waitress way more than your bill dictates.
- Visit parts of your community thrumming with people— the local community center, library, a farmer’s market, etc.—and start a conversation with a stranger at each place. A study published in the Journal of Experimental Psychology by a team of behavioral psychologists confirmed their hypothesis that striking up a conversation with a stranger has positive effects on the mood and wellbeing of the initiator. What they didn’t expect to find was that the person with whom the conversation was initiated was equally positively impacted.
- Help the mom at the grocery store pushing a stroller with one hand and carrying a toddler with the other carry her groceries to her car.
Gazzaley said it: “Let’s be creative in finding new ways to come together.” We are calling on you today. We are calling on you to serve. Step out of your own little world, and step into the one we all share. Today. Tomorrow. For as long as you are alive.
Additional Resources:
- Meditationsby Marcus Aurelius — 7.74, 8.34
- How to help others in the COVID-19 crisis
- Staying Safe and Helping Others During COVID-19
- Doing Good Betterby Will MacAskill
- How To Do The Most Good: An Interview With Will MacAskill
- Doing Good Is Simple: Making a Difference Right Where You Are by Chris Marlow
- The Power of Serving Others: You Can Start Where You Are by Gary Morsch
- Lovingkindness: The Revolutionary Art of Happiness by Sharon Salzberg
- Give and Take: Why Helping Others Drives Our Success by Adam Grant
- Hack Your Happiness: How doing favors for others can make you happier
- 80,000 Hours: Find a fulfilling career that does good by Benjamin Todd
- Giving Is Living by Marnie Howard
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Additional Resources:
- Amor Fati: Learning To Love And Accept Everything That Happens
- Accepting The Little Facts of Life
- Let Us Argue With Reality No More
- The No Complaining Ruleby Jon Gordon
- Be Grateful for Everything—Even the Tough Stuff
- Every Day Is A Thanksgiving
- A Complaint Free Worldby Will Bowen
- A Stoic Response to Complaining
- Don't Complain or Blame
- Stop Your Complaining: From Grumbling to Gratitudeby Ronnie Martin
- The Science of Happiness: Why complaining is literally killing you by Steven Parton
- How Complaining Rewires Your Brain for Negativity by Travis Bradberry
- Complaining Is Terrible for You, According to Science by Jessica
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Additional Resources: Letters From A Stoic, 91: On the Lessons To Be Drawn From the Burning of Lyons * Letters From A Stoic, 98: On the Fickleness of Fortune * How to Cover an Emergency Even When You’re Scraping by Tim Stobierski * Get Your Household Ready for Coronavirus * Critical preparedness, readiness and response actions for COVID-19 * Remember: You Don’t Control What Happens, You Control How You Respond*
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Additional Resources:
- Trim- automated service to cut recurring expenses
- On Freedom by Epictetus, Discourses,4.1
- Digit - app that will “analyze your income and spending, and find money it can safely set aside for you”
- I've been using the personal-finance app Digit for nearly 3 years, and it's helped me save $20,000 by Jackie Lam from Business Insider
- Letters From A Stoic, 17: On Philosophy and Riches
- Letters From A Stoic, 110: On True and False Riches
- It’s About The Paring Down
- Cutting Off Those Recurring Charges You Forgot About by Ron Lieber
- Cutting Out These 25 Expenses Will Save You $14,992.52 a Year by John Csiszar
- 10 Expenses Destroying Your Budget by Susannah Snider
- Essentialism by Greg McKeown
- The Disciplined Pursuit of Less by Greg McKeown
- Simple Matters: Living with Less and Ending Up with More by Erin Boyle
- Wealthy, Successful People Who Choose Less over More: 10 Real-Life Stories of Minimalistsby Melissa Burns
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Additional Resources: Letters From A Stoic, 9: On Philosophy and Friendship * The Letters Page * The Lost Art of Letter Writingby Eavan Boland * How to Write Letters: A 19th-Century Guide to the Lost Art of Epistolary Etiquetteby Maria Popova * Eight Or Nine Wise Words About Letter-Writing by Lewis Carroll * The Forever Letter: Writing What We Believe For Those We Love by Elana Zaiman * The Art of the Personal Letter: A Guide to Connecting Through the Written Word by Margaret Shepherd * To the Letter: A Celebration of the Lost Art of Letter Writing by Simon Garfield * Letters of Note: An Eclectic Collection of Correspondence Deserving of a Wider Audience* by Shaun Usher
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Additional Resources: 13 Life-Changing Habits To Try And Do Every Single Day * Have Better Days With Marcus Aurelius' Daily Routine * The Most Important Thing You Can Do Each Day * Why The Stoics Believed in the Power of Routine * 28 Ways to Find the Stillness You Need to Thrive*
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Additional Resources:* Future — one-on-one coaching from remote personal trainers. Sign up through our link and get your first two weeks for just $1. * 7-minute workout app * 8 free quarantine home workouts to try during the COVID-19 outbreak * These 29 Home Workout Hacks Help to Make Your House a Gym * Soul Cycle — Instructors leading at-home workouts over instagram accounts * Nike Training Club — Waived monthly fee for its premium service indefinitely * Centr App — Six-week free trial * Daily Burn — 60-day free trial * Orangetheory — At-home daily workouts * Corepower Yoga — Free access to a collection of online classes * Peloton — 90 day free trial * How to Approach Being Active During the COVID-19 Crisis
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