Jamil Vanheyningen

[Jamil Vanheyningen @JamilVanGuard]

Life has a way of showing you what you need before you even realize it.

In 2017, I spent the summer before my freshman year of college working at an Amazon warehouse from 5:30am to 1:30pm. After that, I spent a few hours lifting weights & training at a local Little League field.

Any days off or free time on work days was spent between the library and my family’s apartment above a bodega reading, writing, and learning.

It was the most repetitive, simple, and isolated time in my life — and yet, it’s the time I look back to with the most fondness.

I was extremely insecure in my teenage years. I was broke, had no social life outside of baseball or school, and wasn’t very confident in myself. As a result, I found myself only saying and doing things I knew most people would agree with.

That summer gave me the autonomy to choose what I did with each minute of the day: I could do what I wanted without worrying what other people thought.

That step was important because I needed to be able to do that in isolation before I could do it around others.

So it’s no surprise that after years of college and a season of professional baseball, my return to solitude, disciplined training, and self-directed education has returned me to a state of unsurpassed happiness & fulfillment.

This realization is a perfect example of something Marcus Aurelius once said:

“If you seek tranquility, do less. Not nothing. Less. Do only what’s essential. Which brings a double satisfaction: to do less, better.”

I live a life that I have constructed piece by piece. I do not accept things simply because of convention. I’m always asking myself “Is this necessary” when it comes to the most basic of life’s decisions.

And while my baseball career didn’t go as planned, I’m fine with how things went. I was genuinely obsessed with the game and worked harder than 99.9% of players I’ve met, so there’s no regret.

Besides, there’s no such thing as a complete failure in life. You can mostly fail at something, but in every failure, there are pieces of the things you did well, the things you’re good at, and the things you enjoy.

Make sure you take those things with you in your next pursuit. I surely did.

And this time, I’m going to outwork that final .01% that got the best of me in my baseball career so that there is no room for failure in my future endeavors.
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[Price Errors @Pricerrors]

BestBuy sold PlayStation 5 Consoles for $90

Was about to post but sold out within a few seconds

This is insane 😭

[Jamil Vanheyningen @JamilVanGuard]

@WriteAlready The boys are back same week we love to see it

[Jamil Vanheyningen @JamilVanGuard]

@rachcorrine Max n Chester is a solid one if you like more patterns / colors

[Jamil Vanheyningen @JamilVanGuard]

@rachcorrine Reminded me of my favorite quote from The Mentalist:

“If you stop seeing the world in terms of what you like and what you dislike, and saw things for what they truly are in themselves, you would find a great deal more peace in your life.”

[Jamil Vanheyningen @JamilVanGuard]

Don’t love Black Swan, but I do love this quote, and the overall motif that you have to get out of your own way

[Jamil Vanheyningen @JamilVanGuard]

In the 20th century, Daniel Ludwig was one of the richest men alive.

He built one of the largest shipping businesses ever, was one of the biggest investors in the oil industry, and was a prominent philanthropist by donating millions to education as well as medical research.

Despite all of this, he is one of history’s most obscure figures.

But his lone biographer, Jerry A. Shields, observed that the perception that he was a “reclusive” figure because of his closely held private life was completely wrong:

“It is much more accurate to describe Ludwig not as reclusive, but EXCLUSIVE. He sees only those few people he wants to see, and avoids everyone else.”
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Been enjoying The Invisible Billionaire, and I think the key lesson I've learned thus far is that the idea of "focus" extends to relationships in the same way it does our careers.

Link in bio to subscribe and read the full post tomorrow!

[Jamil Vanheyningen @JamilVanGuard]

Just treat reading books like a job.

Problem solved.

[jon repetti @pourfairelevide]

I don’t think reading books is that hard when your job is reading books but that’s just my two cents

[Jamil Vanheyningen @JamilVanGuard]

Go get “Mastery” immediately.

More of a roadmap/anthology of what it takes to be great than the usual slop “self-help” out there.

[Robert Greene @RobertGreene]

4 of my books cost under $10 on Amazon right now!

Don't miss your chance to get a copy at a bargain price.

[Jamil Vanheyningen @JamilVanGuard]

@iamjasonlevin You’re actually the fucking goat

[Jamil Vanheyningen @JamilVanGuard]

@Giuliano_Mana Ahh well I guess I meant the length of it. Yea the language is pretty plain though, very straight forward as I believe the biographer was a financial writer mostly so very straightforward

[Jamil Vanheyningen @JamilVanGuard]

@ItsKieranDrew Become the crowd and you become nobody

[Jamil Vanheyningen @JamilVanGuard]

@whiskeythinking For our purposes though, there is no man without God is more important to think about, right?

[Jamil Vanheyningen @JamilVanGuard]

More wisdom in one of these than all of your self help books combined

[Into The Forest Dark @ElliottBlackwe3]

When the world is difficult, I live here

[Jamil Vanheyningen @JamilVanGuard]

It just means more to some guys, man

[Deesha @DeeshaThosar]

Jacob deGrom on returning to Citi Field: “I wanted to throw up all day. Honestly, it felt like I was making my debut.”

[Jamil Vanheyningen @JamilVanGuard]

Take some risks, my friend.
Or as Norman Maclean once said:
"You can't catch trout in a bathtub."

[Jamil Vanheyningen @JamilVanGuard]

First newsletter post in 3 months tomorrow morning.
Used the word "love" 28 times.
We are so back.

[Jamil Vanheyningen @JamilVanGuard]

Just a reminder that there is 0 utility or agency in feeling sorry for yourself

[Jamil Vanheyningen @JamilVanGuard]

It’s been 2 days bro relax

[Jamil Vanheyningen @JamilVanGuard]

@rachcorrine Robert Frost knew:

"He says the best way out is always through.
And I agree to that, or in so far
As that I can see no way out but through"