Scott Lingle

Believer, Ironman, 5X Inc. 5000, Tiger21, Co-Founder My learning list @ Building

[Scott Lingle @LingleScott]

My Lindy Library of podcast episodes been collecting for years. I’d love to learn from others favorite episodes Thanks! @george__mack @naval @tferriss @patrick_oshag @david_perell @AndyStanley @craiggroeschel @shaneparrish @PeterAttiaMD @TomBilyeu @podcastnotes @RyanHoliday

[Scott Lingle @LingleScott]

Gold.

[Kevin Dahlstrom @Camp4]

Today I turn 55.

I’m the fittest, sharpest, and happiest I’ve ever been.

If I’m an outlier, it’s not because I’m built different or discovered a secret formula. The truth is far less glamorous:

It’s a million tiny choices, compounded over decades.

Here are 55 of them:

1. Walk 15+ miles a week, even if you do other exercise. Humans are uniquely made to move slowly over long distances—it’s critical to longevity.

2. Develop a writing practice. It’s the single best way to sharpen your mind. And remember, you don’t have to be a good writer to write. Start with 10 minutes a day.

3. Swap out your toothpaste, deodorant, lotions, soap, shampoo, and other personal care products for natural versions. Here’s a rule of thumb: Don’t put anything on your skin that you couldn’t safely eat.

4. If you have a positive thought about someone, don’t keep it to yourself—share it immediately. Encouragement defies the laws of physics: When you give energy, you also receive it.

5. Wear shoes with a wide forefoot (I like Topo Athletic) and wear toe spreaders around the house (search “yoga toes” on Amazon). Spine health begins with the feet.

6. Get sunlight regularly. Moderate sun exposure (without sunscreen) is hugely important for overall health.

7. Do a 3-minute deep (“ass to grass”) squat every morning. Deep squats are often called the anti-aging exercise. It’s been said that, “It’s not that you can’t do deep squats because you’re old, it’s that you’re old because you can’t do deep squats.”

8. Explore minimalism (it’s not what you think it is).

9. Set boundaries on toxic relationships. We tend to cling to relationships past their expiration date, and it takes a bigger toll on our health than we recognize.

10. Eat real food. Not too much. Don’t eat garbage. Binge occasionally. Fast occasionally. That’s the diet.

11. Learn about FIRE. It’s a great framework for financial success.

12. Don’t take antibiotics except in emergency situations. They’re massively over-prescribed and aren’t needed in most cases. Antibiotics have done untold damage to our guts, which is where health begins. Great natural alternatives are out there.

13. Get 8 hours of quality sleep each night. To optimize sleep:
—Don’t eat after 6pm
—Get blackout shades and cover LEDs with black tape
—No screens 2 hours before bed
—Try ashwagandha (an herb) to calm the nervous system

14. Stop drinking, even in moderation. People find all sorts of ways to justify drinking, but there’s no escaping the simple fact that alcohol is a toxin and it limits your potential.

15. Travel as much as possible. Nothing expands the mind like seeing the world. And travel doesn’t have to be expensive—the best experiences happen outside of fancy resorts, when you live like a local.

16. Let go of resentment. When you forgive someone, you release the prisoner, and the prisoner isn’t them… it’s you.

17. Show up on time, every time. Poor time management limits success more than most people realize. If you struggle with punctuality, stop everything else and fix that first.

18. Spend lots of time in nature and touch the earth. Humans evolved over 300k years to live in harmony with nature, and only recently have we retreated indoors. If you don’t spend time outside, you’re fighting biology (hint: You won’t win.)

19. Stop doing dumb things. As Leo Tolstoy said, “People try to do all sorts of clever and difficult things to improve life instead of doing the simplest, easiest thing—refusing to participate in activities that make life bad.”

20. Find your happy place and (eventually) move there. Most people live where they live because... that's where they live. We are products of our environment—choose yours carefully.

21. Find a hobby and pursue mastery. You can’t have a happy life without a passionate pursuit that isn’t your vocation. Your work—even if you enjoy it—isn’t enough.

22. Avoid mainstream medicine except as a last resort. The results are in—our healthcare (or more appropriately, sick care) system is badly broken and only makes people sicker.

23. Have a mindset of abundance. There is no advantage to being a pessimist—even if you’re right, it’s a miserable way to live. In a very real way… whatever you believe, you’re right!

24. Do hard things. Choose courage over comfort. Everything you want is on the other side of fear and hard work. As Jerzy Gregorik said, “Hard choices, easy life. Easy choices, hard life.”

25. Ignore haters. Hurt people hurt people. Negative/toxic people live in a prison of their own design. Don’t join them!

26. Say no. Protect your time and energy like it’s your most precious asset… because it is.

27. Become a water snob. As an alien said on Star Trek, humans are “ugly bags of mostly water.” You are what you drink—literally! We have Mountain Valley Spring water delivered in glass 5-gallon jugs and also have whole-house water filter (Aquasana Rhino).

28. Stop drinking sodas and sugary energy drinks. After a few weeks you won’t miss them, and a few months later they’ll seem disgusting. Refined sugar causes inflammation, which is the root of most disease.

29. If you’re over 35, find a good functional/longevity medicine doctor and start tracking your hormones. Modern life is hell on the endocrine system and restoring healthy hormone levels can change your life. As we get older, we either accept a slow decline in performance or we do something about it—choose the latter!

30. Develop a morning routine and follow it faithfully. Win the morning, win the day!

31. Invest in experiences, not things. People frequently regret buying things, but rarely regret investing in great experiences (especially when shared with loved ones). Remember, there’s nothing you can buy in a mall that you’ll remember in ten years.

32. Explore spirituality. It’s arrogant and small-minded to believe there’s nothing going on in our universe that is beyond our comprehension. We know less about our universe than an ant meandering on a sidewalk understands about this planet.

33. Have a strong bias toward action—doing rather than talking. If you ask a bunch of old people about their regrets, they’ll talk about the things they *didn't* do—the shots they didn’t take—more than the things they did do (even if it went wrong). As Wayne Gretzky famously said, “You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.” Most people don’t take enough shots.

34. Stay lean. Men in particular are obsessed with muscle mass these days, but bulk doesn’t age well. The goal is to be strong but lean. The fittest guys in their 50s and beyond aren’t meatheads, they’re lean guys who are serious about a sport.

35. Curate your inner circle carefully. Surround yourself with people you admire and who challenge you to grow. Remember, we’re the average of our 5 closest relationships.

36. Be the fittest version of yourself. Your body is your only vessel for experiencing life—so treat it as such. Fitness isn’t working out a few times a week, it’s a lifestyle. The older you get, the more time you need to devote to your health.

37. Take the time to appreciate art and beauty in all its forms.

38. Think globally, but act locally. Too many people put their energy into far-away problems they don’t understand and can’t impact, while ignoring problems right under their nose. Want to change the world? Start at home.

39. Try psychedelics. It’s one of those things everyone should do at least once, and it might be the breakthrough you’ve been looking for.

40. Limit bad habits, including unhealthy thought patterns. We all have them—practice avoidance and find substitutes. Get professional help if needed.

41. Be a lifelong learner. Your brain is just like a muscle—if you don’t feed and flex it regularly, it will atrophy.

42. Find your purpose. People with a strong sense of purpose are happier and live longer. Lack of purpose sucks energy and magnifies depression.

43. Only take advice from people who embody the traits you want to have. Talk is cheap—emulate those who have DONE it.

44. The goal is not to retire and do nothing, it’s to build a great day-to-day life that you don’t need to escape. A life of leisure is a slow death. Happiness isn’t possible without a little struggle, uncertainty, and skin in the game.

45. Have fun! Do frivolous and silly things that make you smile. As George Bernard Shaw famously said, “We don't stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing.”

46. Whatever you want to do or achieve in life, start NOW. Don’t fall victim to “someday thinking” because someday never comes.

47. Accumulate assets—things that grow in value over time. It’s the #1 habit of rich people, and it can be done in tiny chunks. Instead of spending $100 on an impulse purchase that has no lasting value, put that money into an index fund or Bitcoin. It becomes addictive (in a good way).

48. Don’t ignore the big 3 canaries in the coal mine for health:
—Low libido (and ED)
—Frequent sinus & respiratory issues
—Depression
These usually aren’t medical conditions in themselves, they’re symptoms of an underlying problem. Find a good doc (outside of the mainstream) and figure out the root cause.

49. Have a clear vision for your future. How can you decide which direction to go if you haven’t clearly defined the destination? It sounds obvious, but 95% of people haven’t defined their “Ideal End State” in detail and in writing. (Check out my thread on this topic.)

50. Make your own decisions. We live in an era where most of what society tells us is wrong. Don’t be afraid to break from societal norms—if people say you’re crazy, it’s a sign that you’re doing something right.

51. Get hardcore about mobility exercise. As you age, it’s usually the knees, hips, and lower back that limit physical performance. 30 min a couple times a week can spare you a lifetime of pain. YouTube is a great resource.

52. Go all in on family. Get married, stay married, have kids. Burn the boats. In the end, family is all that matters.

53. Be ruthless with your time. Money comes and goes. Time only goes. Audit your calendar ruthlessly—cut the trivial, double down on the meaningful, and spend your hours like your life depends on it. (Because it does.)

54. Have a strong bias toward action. Be curious, try things, meet people—it’s how you increase your surface area for serendipity, the most powerful unseen force in our lives.

55. Reinvent yourself every decade. Over time, we slowly drift off course from our priorities, values, and true identity. Take stock and don’t be afraid to hit the reset button. Bold, calculated moves made for the right reasons almost always pay off—usually even more than you can imagine.

🎁 P.S. If you enjoyed this post, would you give me a birthday gift? Repost or comment with the item number(s) you liked best?

[The Babylon Bee @TheBabylonBee]

Satan: 'I've Made A Huge Mistake' https://t.co/udi3x9MfPr

[Charlie Kirk @charliekirk11]

Jesus taught us.

Walked with us.

Ate with us.

Worked with us.

Debated with us.

And then for doing nothing wrong, died FOR us.

We don’t deserve it

We didn’t earn it

We are all sinners

We are all broken

But have salvation

Thanks to Jesus taking up the cross

To save us

[Scott Lingle @LingleScott]

High School Hustle, which helps teens start their first business, is now active in 13 local schools and is set to reach about 1,000 students this year. https://t.co/GwLhpKuHez via @IBJnews

[Scott Lingle @LingleScott]

We are giving away $100k to Indy area high school students with the best high school hustles. Learn more about here.

https://t.co/HYO2sgZ8UT

[Scott Lingle @LingleScott]

My calling at this stage of life is at the intersection of Faith + Entrepreneurship + Mentoring Young Adults. It's why I'm building https://t.co/NsMVR4cgP9. I believe Faith + Entrepreneurship is the greatest catalyst to change the world.

I recently read the book Million Dollar Weekend by @noahkagan It’s the #1 book I would recommend for high school students trying to learn how to build their first Hustle. A Hustle is a business you can start this weekend after watching a few YouTube how to videos (car detailing, pressure washing, window washing, etc.)

One of my top tips for parents is to encourage your kids to start and build multiple High School Hustles before they leave the house regardless of whether entrepreneurship is their thing. 

It will teach them so many life skills that they will never get from school or even a part time job, things like; value creation, experimenting, failing, learning from feedback, iterating, selling, customer service, handling rejection, facing fears.

Ultimately it teaches that taking action is the only way to overcome your fear. HUSTLE is the antidote to FEAR. Healthy struggle is how your kids will develop strong character and resilience.

Here are the top takeaways I got from the book Million Dollar Weekend:

Most people overthink first, act later. Every successful entrepreneur acts first, figures it out later.

Two main fears derail people starting businesses: fear of starting and fear of asking.

Everything you do should be viewed as an experiment, and you should aim to do as many as possible.

Change your mindset to think rejections are a badge of honor. Collect them.

Life is shaped by the willingness to face fears. Achieving dreams comes down to one question: how many times are you willing to get back up after falling down? Experiment, fail, try again until you succeed.

Focus above all else on being a starter, an experimenter, a learner.

We are scaling https://t.co/NsMVR4cgP9 to 15 IN area high schools & 1,000+ students in 2025.

If you or anyone you know are interested in helping us mentor students for https://t.co/NsMVR4cgP9 reply in the comments or apply here: https://t.co/rfTqy1F7l1

[Scott Lingle @LingleScott]

For most of my adult life I've lived by The 3% Rule: invest three percent of your income in your own personal development. Every dollar I've invested here has yielded a 10X return. This includes books, podcasts, courses, newsletters, coaches, conferences and mastermind groups. Build your own unique learning engine and become a learning machine.

Below are my top learning resources for all of 2024.

I'd love to hear a few of yours.

[Scott Lingle @LingleScott]

@FoundersPodcast 49. Be a perpetual talent scout
50. Find work that feels like play
51. The best story wins
52. People go where they grow
53. Feedback is a gift
54. What gets measured & rewarded gets done

[Scott Lingle @LingleScott]

Spot on. Grateful for @BillAckman @elonmusk @joerogan @RobertKennedyJr @theallinpod absolute game changers.

[Bill Ackman @BillAckman]

If the election outcome is as I expected, it should cause the large minority of the country who supported @KamalaHarris and predicted her victory to begin to question their sources of truth.

Half the country has believed that @X is filled with mis- and disinformation, and that they could only therefore rely on The NY Times, MSNBC, CNN and other mainstream media for their news. And they did.

If, however, you have been active on @X for the last year, you have known the truth days, weeks and often months before the facts appear in the MSM.

The MSM excerpted, clipped and cut to defame @realDonaldTrump while claiming that @JoeBiden was fit as a fiddle. Then when Biden’s polls collapsed, @KamalaHarris was anointed the candidate and her hagiography was written with glowing acclaim from the press. But this could not hold as she ducked the media and held fast to the teleprompter.

Citizen journalists with their phone cameras in hand captured the real Kamala forcing her to defend her record and her plans in more media appearances. It did not go well and the public demanded to learn more so @KamalaHarris had to risk more unscripted media.

The doom loop was underway with perhaps 60 Minutes as one of the more dramatic examples, even after CBS tried to save her, most glaringly by excerpting one answer to replace a word salad response to another. But the citizen journalists on @X quickly caught and outed this fraud and demanded a transcript.

As many who supported Kamala began to realize that they have been misled, they became open to Trump as an alternative, but they didn’t want to rely on the media to understand him because they did not want to be misled again.

They wanted to hear the candidate in his own words and that is where @lexfridman and @joeroganhq long form podcasts came to the rescue. When Kamala was offered the same opportunities to explain herself, she rejected them. And the voting public could only draw a negative inference.

When the story of this election is written, I expect it will be as much about how half of America woke up to the reality that they have been manipulated by the media. This should lead to an abandonment by many of the MSM as their primary source of information. It will push more people to @X, to podcasts and other empirical sources, and it will lead to a more informed public.

The other outcome I hope happens is the implosion of the Democratic Party. The Party lied to the American people about the cognitive health and fitness of the president. It prevented, threatened, litigated and otherwise eliminated the ability of other candidates for the primary to compete, to get on ballots, and to even participate in a debate. The Party and the administration used lawfare in an attempt to imprison, bankrupt or otherwise kill off Trump as a candidate. These acts are collectively grave threats to our democracy. With the highest irony in order to hide these acts, the Party accused the opposition candidate of being the grave threat to democracy.

The Democratic Party proved itself to be fundamentally undemocratic. It needs a complete reboot. The leadership should be thrown out and those responsible should apologize to the American people.

Honest Abe said it best:

You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you can not fool all of the people all of the time.

[Scott Lingle @LingleScott]

@mameroncason @NateSilver538 No doubt, how does that guy keep his job. This is his 2nd huge fail, embarrassing

[Scott Lingle @LingleScott]

@BrentBeshore The book Value Creation Kid by @imScottDonnell is fantastic! You should have him speak at Mainstreet or Capital Camp, he has done this for Tony Robbins events

[Scott Lingle @LingleScott]

Knocked out another bucket list item with my wife, brother & sister in law this weekend. Enjoyed 2 of our favorite bands @NEEDTOBREATHE & @judahandthelion at the famous @RedRocksCO Blew away our expectations. Easily the best place to enjoy a concert.

[Scott Lingle @LingleScott]

@iononrecourse @BrentBeshore I’m 55 with 3 flourishing adult boys, my top 3:
1. 1 on 1 intentional discipleship time with each child, the more the better
2. Staying physically fit and engaging my kids to join me
3. Reading & learning non stop and engaging my kids to join me to become life long learners

[Scott Lingle @LingleScott]

You have a way in which you live: a morning routine, a typical workday, a network of relationships, budget, activities you spend your free time on. The question isn’t, Do you have a Rule of Life? It’s do you know what your Rule of Life is? Is it giving you the life you want?

[Scott Lingle @LingleScott]

Goal #2: Become like him.

Spiritual formation: the process of being formed into people of love in Christ.

Love is the acid test of spiritual formation.

[Scott Lingle @LingleScott]

How? A Rule of Life

A Rule of Life is a schedule & set of practices that create space for us to be with Jesus, become like him, and act as he did, as we live in alignment with our deepest desires. It’s a way of intentionally organizing our lives around what matters most: God.