More Ideas for Life
1. Dua Lipa’s Service95 Newsletter and At Your Service Podcast SERVICE95
www.service95.com
www.iheart.com/podcast/1119-dua-lipa-at-your-service-92385531
Like millions around the globe, I was first drawn to Dua Lipa by her incredible music and uniquely beautiful voice. I don’t know why it took me so long but it wasn’t until the COVID lockdowns that I really came to appreciate her. Her album “Future Nostalgia” — which has to be one of the best albums ever made — came out at the perfect moment in history. The energy and optimism of her music was exactly what we all needed during those dark days. This was definitely true for our family. Despite all the odds, I have these beautiful memories from lockdown — which, perhaps because of the unusualness of it all, feel kind of stuck in time. Somehow, my wife and I and the boys got into this routine of dancing around the living room, jumping on the trampoline and riding bikes around our eerily quiet neighborhood all while blasting Dua tracks!
As I started paying more attention to her career, I began to see that there was something else about Dua that made her really fascinating. She had a maturity and a seriousness about her that was rather uncommon for a pop star. In a sense, I wasn’t all that surprised when the announcement for her newsletter and podcast came out. She seemed to be heading in the direction of leadership. With these projects, Dua is taking an abrupt turn from the usual path of a young star and expressing, in a refreshing way, a totally different side of her feminine power. And it is a really inspiring expression, one that encourages things like social and civic engagement, open-mindedness, reading, self-care, independence, and, most importantly, a very noble commitment to the idea of the life of service. In just the first few issues, Dua is focusing on things like helping refugees in Afghanistan, bringing awareness to oppressed and under-represented voices in business, exploring the psychology of creative work and supporting up and coming artists around the world. All this, when she could have just as easily started a fashion company or created her own tequila brand! I’m glad she didn’t though. Given her youthful energy, her incredible global platform and her refreshing commitment to a life of service, I’m excited to see what she can do with these noble-minded projects.
2. The Marginalian by Maria Popova
This has to be one of the very best newsletters in the entire world. As a faithful subscriber now for almost a decade, I have learned more from Maria Popova than from almost anywhere else in life. I feel like I’ve gotten a sort of mini-PHD at the intersection of art, science, philosophy, and poetry. Maria is an incredible writer — part artist, part scientist — with an insatiable curiosity and a knack for finding the most interesting things. I think something like 50% of the books I’ve read over the last decade originate from something I read in one of her articles. Each week she publishes three articles that examine in depth what she’s been reading and studying. Her articles are filled with insight, penetrating observations, amazing quotes and images and an incredible network of hyperlinked connections. In Popova’s work you begin to see how connected things really are and some of the false distinctions between disciplines like art and science start to fade away. The articles themselves are so well designed that you quite literally start to see a picture for how knowledge and culture build upon themselves. And often, her work reads almost like a journal entry and you get this intimate look at the on-going development of a truly exceptional mind. Every Sunday morning, I find myself eagerly awaiting the next installment, which usually faithfully arrives in my Inbox around 6:00am. All morning, I catch myself checking and rechecking my email over and over again hoping it will arrive. Believe me, it’s that good!
3. Another Workout from the Reebok Lab in Los Angeles
4 rounds for Time
• 200M Run
• 30 Wall Balls (20lb to 10ft Target)
• 5 Muscle Ups (substitute 12 Pull Ups)
My time was 18:25. This workout is all about managing your oxygen intake. The Wall Balls are so physiologically devastating — the weight of the ball literally pushes the air out of your lungs — that by the time you get to the Muscle Ups or Pull Ups you have to very deliberately draw in long breaths to avoid a major heart rate spike. If you try this, good luck!
Nick Halaris is a real estate investor and developer. He’s the founder and President of Metros Capital and publisher of Profit.
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