Today I turn 55.
Iām the fittest, sharpest, and happiest Iāve ever been.
If Iām an outlier, itās not because Iām built different or discovered a secret formula. The truth is far less glamorous:
Itās 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 distancesāitās critical to longevity.
2. Develop a writing practice. Itās the single best way to sharpen your mind. And remember, you donāt 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. Hereās a rule of thumb: Donāt put anything on your skin that you couldnāt safely eat.
4. If you have a positive thought about someone, donāt keep it to yourselfāshare 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 āyoga toesā 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 (āass to grassā) squat every morning. Deep squats are often called the anti-aging exercise. Itās been said that, āItās not that you canāt do deep squats because youāre old, itās that youāre old because you canāt do deep squats.ā
8. Explore minimalism (itās 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. Donāt eat garbage. Binge occasionally. Fast occasionally. Thatās the diet.
11. Learn about FIRE. Itās a great framework for financial success.
12. Donāt take antibiotics except in emergency situations. Theyāre massively over-prescribed and arenāt 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:
āDonāt eat after 6pm
āGet blackout shades and cover LEDs with black tape
āNo screens 2 hours before bed
āTry ashwagandha (an herb) to calm the nervous system
14. Stop drinking, even in moderation. People find all sorts of ways to justify drinking, but thereās 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 doesnāt have to be expensiveāthe 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 isnāt them⦠itās 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 donāt spend time outside, youāre fighting biology (hint: You wonāt win.)
19. Stop doing dumb things. As Leo Tolstoy said, āPeople try to do all sorts of clever and difficult things to improve life instead of doing the simplest, easiest thingārefusing to participate in activities that make life bad.ā
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 environmentāchoose yours carefully.
21. Find a hobby and pursue mastery. You canāt have a happy life without a passionate pursuit that isnāt your vocation. Your workāeven if you enjoy itāisnāt enough.
22. Avoid mainstream medicine except as a last resort. The results are ināour 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 pessimistāeven if youāre right, itās a miserable way to live. In a very real way⦠whatever you believe, youāre 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, āHard choices, easy life. Easy choices, hard life.ā
25. Ignore haters. Hurt people hurt people. Negative/toxic people live in a prison of their own design. Donāt join them!
26. Say no. Protect your time and energy like itās your most precious asset⦠because it is.
27. Become a water snob. As an alien said on Star Trek, humans are āugly bags of mostly water.ā You are what you drinkāliterally! 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 wonāt miss them, and a few months later theyāll seem disgusting. Refined sugar causes inflammation, which is the root of most disease.
29. If youāre 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 itāchoose 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, thereās nothing you can buy in a mall that youāll remember in ten years.
32. Explore spirituality. Itās arrogant and small-minded to believe thereās 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 actionādoing rather than talking. If you ask a bunch of old people about their regrets, theyāll talk about the things they *didn't* doāthe shots they didnāt takeāmore than the things they did do (even if it went wrong). As Wayne Gretzky famously said, āYou miss 100% of the shots you donāt take.ā Most people donāt take enough shots.
34. Stay lean. Men in particular are obsessed with muscle mass these days, but bulk doesnāt age well. The goal is to be strong but lean. The fittest guys in their 50s and beyond arenāt meatheads, theyāre 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, weāre the average of our 5 closest relationships.
36. Be the fittest version of yourself. Your body is your only vessel for experiencing lifeāso treat it as such. Fitness isnāt working out a few times a week, itās 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 donāt understand and canāt impact, while ignoring problems right under their nose. Want to change the world? Start at home.
39. Try psychedelics. Itās one of those things everyone should do at least once, and it might be the breakthrough youāve been looking for.
40. Limit bad habits, including unhealthy thought patterns. We all have themāpractice avoidance and find substitutes. Get professional help if needed.
41. Be a lifelong learner. Your brain is just like a muscleāif you donāt 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 cheapāemulate those who have DONE it.
44. The goal is not to retire and do nothing, itās to build a great day-to-day life that you donāt need to escape. A life of leisure is a slow death. Happiness isnāt 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, āWe don't stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing.ā
46. Whatever you want to do or achieve in life, start NOW. Donāt fall victim to āsomeday thinkingā because someday never comes.
47. Accumulate assetsāthings that grow in value over time. Itās 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. Donāt ignore the big 3 canaries in the coal mine for health:
āLow libido (and ED)
āFrequent sinus & respiratory issues
āDepression
These usually arenāt medical conditions in themselves, theyāre 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 havenāt clearly defined the destination? It sounds obvious, but 95% of people havenāt defined their āIdeal End Stateā 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. Donāt be afraid to break from societal normsāif people say youāre crazy, itās a sign that youāre doing something right.
51. Get hardcore about mobility exercise. As you age, itās 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 ruthlesslyācut 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 peopleāitās 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 donāt be afraid to hit the reset button. Bold, calculated moves made for the right reasons almost always pay offāusually even more than you can imagine.
š 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?
USA. A Mexican restaurant. We had not yet ordered anything, and the food was already arriving.
Chips. Salsa. Unrequested. Free.
I stopped the waiter. "We have not earned these."
"They just come with the table, man."
They come with the TABLE. In my land, hospitality is a debt. Every gift creates an obligation, weighed carefully, returned in the proper season with interest of feeling. Here, the gift arrives before you have even proven you can pay for dinner.
This is not an appetizer. This is a declaration: we trust you. Eat.
I ate with the gravity the moment deserved. And then ā I must report this calmly ā the basket emptied, and a new one appeared.
"Did we�"
"Refill," the waiter said. "It's bottomless."
Bottomless. They have wells of salsa. The supply lines of this nation are beyond anything my ancestors imagined.
My friend warned me. "Don't fill up on chips, dude."
Too late. I had accepted three baskets. Honor demanded each one be finished ā an unfinished gift is an insult. By the time my actual food arrived, I was a ruined man.
I was not hungry. I was not comfortable. I had been defeated by a courtesy.
Generosity that arrives before the request cannot be repaid. It can only be survived.
I know the rule now. I have made my peace with the basket. One basket. Two at the most.
Who am I deceiving. There is no number of baskets I would refuse. The trust of a nation is in that salsa, and I intend to honor all of it.
Gio Reyna's first-ever FIFA World Cup goal was a trivela to seal it for the @USMNT š¤Æ
It's the first four-goal outing for the US men's squad in a FIFA World Cup
This morning we are introducing COGE ā the Commission on Government Efficiency.āØāØThis Commission will find ways for our city to work smarter, faster, and more effectively for working people. āØāØNew Yorkers deserve a city government as careful with their money as they are.
NEW @2waytvapp / @HarrisXdata NATIONAL SURVEY:
1/3Ā of voters are concerned about a widespread hantavirus outbreak, but most believe the virus can still be contained without becoming a nationwide pandemic.
Our latest study of 1,224 registered voters shows voters support targeted but strong quarantine measures for those currently infected, while opposing a return to full COVID-style lockdowns. š#Hantavirus #PublicHealth
NEW: HarrisX national survey finds strong bipartisan support for American leadership in digital finance ā and majority support for passing the CLARITY Act.
Our latest study of 2,008 registered voters shows Americans want clear federal rules for crypto and digital assets. š
#Crypto #CLARITYAct #Fintech
As a former head of a crypto trade association, I have some advice for bank lobbyists: upgrade your technology ā and your advocacy.
Public debate on X is a superpower. It allows for solutions to complex problems to be widely scrutinized and vetted. It also communicates support to our champions. And it activates the millions of passionate crypto users and builders who deserve a voice in Washington.
Transparency is why crypto is winning.
https://t.co/0QDryNUI8I
I was in the meetings @PatrickJWitt organized where our industry negotiated in good faith to reach a compromise.
At this point, itās fair to ask whether those negotiations were ever being approached in good faith on the other side. This debate has already been opened, debated, and settled.
Itās time to move forward and make America the crypto capital of the world.
3/ American voters understand whatās at stake.
According to a new @HarrisXData poll, 70% of registered voters say the U.S. should have already passed crypto legislation and 62% say itās important for the U.S. to set the global rules for digital finance.
https://t.co/mG8ZI06fmL
I specifically requested the attendance of Mr. Nichols and other bank trade CEOs at the meetings we hosted back in February to resolve the stablecoin rewards/yield issue. They refused. I guess the White House was beneath them?
In their defense, I wouldnāt want to have to defend their position in public either.
You dont want a yacht. You dont want a big house. You dont want a super car, a $40,000 watch, or shoes you worry about getting dirty. You want free will.
You want to wake up naturally on a Tuesday and you want to go to bed when youāre done having fun. You want to say yes to everything that excites you without having to request time off. You want to go to the the gym at noon, in absolutely no hurry. You want to spend 18 hours a day doing what you love. You want to be exactly where you desire being, always. You want to spend as much time with the people you care about as possible.
Youāre saying you wanna be rich? In what?
This is a shameful moment in our industry. We need to grow up.
This is humiliating and shameful for each and every single person that is associated with the space. We need to do better.
šØAmerica Is Handing the Crypto Market to Foreign Competitors. The CLARITY Act Would Change That.šØ
The United States is the largest cryptocurrency market on the planet. American users moved over $1 trillion in crypto transactions in the first seven months of 2025 alone. And yet most global crypto trading happens on exchanges that operate out of the Cayman Islands, the Seychelles, and other offshore jurisdictions, testing the reach of U.S. regulators, U.S. courts, and U.S. tax collection. That is not an accident. It reflects a regulatory environment that made it easier to build a digital asset business abroad than at home. The Trump administration has reversed the worst of that posture by ending regulation by enforcement.
Now Congress needs to lock in durable change. The Digital Asset Market Clarity Act of 2025, known as the CLARITY Act, is the most serious attempt to do so. The Senate needs to pass it now.
The Biggest Market, Capturing Almost None of the Trading
The United States is the dominant player in global crypto markets. USD is the world's largest fiat on-ramp for cryptocurrency, accounting for over $2.4 trillion in volume between July 2024 and June 2025, nearly four times the next-highest country. (Chainalysis, 2025 Geography of Cryptocurrency Report (Sept. 2025).) Between January and July 2025, U.S. crypto transaction volume surged roughly 50% year-over-year to more than $1 trillion. (TRM Labs, 2025 Crypto Adoption and Stablecoin Usage Report (Oct. 2025).)
So where is a lot of that trading actually happening? Not on American exchanges. @binance , the largest offshore venue, controlled roughly 38% of all centralized spot market share in late 2025. (CoinGecko, Centralized Exchange Market Share Report (Dec. 2025).) Coinbase, the largest U.S.-regulated spot exchange, reportedly sat below 7% of global spot volume despite operating in the world's biggest fiat market. The picture is starker on the derivatives side, where the top four offshore venues, namely Binance, @okx , @Bybit_Official , and @bitget , accounted for roughly 62% of $86 trillion in 2025 perpetuals volume, with no U.S.-regulated platform among them. (CoinGlass, 2025 Annual Derivatives Report (Dec. 2025); CoinGecko, 2025 Annual Crypto Industry Report (2026).)
The National Security Stakes
The competitiveness gap is also a national security gap. Crypto trading that happens offshore tests the reach of U.S. anti-money-laundering, sanctions, and counter-terrorism-financing tools. Sanctioned actors tied to Russia, Iran, North Korea, and Venezuela have been using stablecoins routed through offshore venues as connective infrastructure for moving value outside conventional financial controls. (See @trmlabs , Stablecoins at Scale: Broad Adoption and Highly Concentrated Illicit Networks (Feb. 2026).)
The CLARITY Act addresses this directly by establishing a federal registration and oversight framework for digital commodity exchanges, brokers, dealers, and certain intermediaries operating in U.S. markets. It expands @USTreasury and @FinCENnews visibility into the digital asset ecosystem by directing the application of Bank Secrecy Act and sanctions compliance requirements to covered registrants, including AML programs and sanctions obligations. The bill also strengthens law enforcement authorities through enhanced illicit finance coordination, expanded Section 311 special measures authority for digital asset activity, new transaction monitoring and reporting requirements for certain non-decentralized finance trading protocols, and targeted anti-fraud and compliance requirements for digital asset kiosks. In addition, the legislation creates mechanisms for information sharing between government agencies and designated private sector entities, while preserving Treasuryās existing sanctions and anti-money laundering toolkit. The result is a significantly more robust U.S. regulatory perimeter around the digital asset venues and intermediaries used by illicit actors.
Wall Street Is Waiting for the Green Light
Major U.S. financial institutions, namely banks, asset managers, exchanges, and payment companies, are exploring migrating meaningful parts of their infrastructure onto blockchain rails. The operational case is overwhelming. Faster settlement, lower transaction costs, programmable compliance, and the elimination of the reconciliation breaks that haunt cross-border payments and securities clearing. What has been missing is an affirmative legal framework defining what compliant blockchain-based intermediation looks like. The end of regulation by enforcement was a necessary first step, but prudential regulators, shareholders, and fiduciary duties require a strong legal foundation that institutions can work off of with confidence. The CLARITY Act provides that foundation. With it, billions in TradFi investment in blockchain modernization unlocks, and U.S. consumers and businesses get faster, cheaper, and more reliable financial services.
High-Wage American Jobs Are on the Line
This is also a story about American jobs. "The United States is the largest single-country market for blockchain industry hiring, with open positions up 26% year-over-year in 2025. (Coincub, Web3 Jobs Report 2025 (Aug. 2025).) U.S. blockchain developers earn an average of $146,250 annually, with experienced professionals commanding up to $187,000. (Algorand, 2025 Blockchain Developer Salary Report (Feb. 2025).) These are among the highest-wage technology jobs in the country.
But that lead has always been fragile. The shift in U.S. policy posture is recent, and companies have endured years of ambiguity because the U.S. market is too valuable to abandon. The durability of that calculus depends on Congress turning the Executive Branchās reset into permanent law. The EU under MiCA, the UK, Singapore, and Dubai are all waiting.
The Window Is Closing, Possibly for Years
The CLARITY Act passed the House in July 2025 with a strong bipartisan vote of 294 to 134. The White House is actively driving this effort. @realDonaldTrump views blockchain innovation as both economically and politically advantageous, and lawmakers who block the bill risk being blamed if the effort collapses while receiving none of the credit if it ultimately passes. Industry-side disputes over stablecoin yield rules and adjacent issues appear largely resolved. The remaining work is getting a bipartisan product out of the Senate Banking Committee (@SenateBanking@BankingGOP), and the calendar is unforgiving.
@SenLummis , who chairs the Banking Subcommittee on Digital Assets, has been blunt about the stakes. Failure to pass the bill this year could mean waiting until at least 2030. The Senate has only weeks to move the bill before the August recess, after which the midterm election calendar takes over.
The People Want CLARITY
The political calculus here is remarkably clear. A @HarrisXdata poll released this week found that 52% of registered voters support the CLARITY Act and just 11% oppose it, with majorities of Republicans (58%) and Democrats (55%) and a strong plurality of independents (42%) all on the same side. About 70% say Congress should have passed the bill already. Senators who vote yes stand to gain a roughly +20 net electoral benefit. (HarrisX, National Survey on the CLARITY Act (May 2026).) Bipartisan legislation is rare in this Congress, and voters are handing the Senate a chance to deliver some.
CLARITY is not just good policy, itās good politics. It ensures a market that works for Americans and the U.S. dollar, provides law enforcement with durable tools against illicit finance, and allows American institutions to modernize the rails on which finance runs.
The Senate should pass it.
1/ There's never been a more critical time to join Blockchain Association.
Digital asset legislation is actively being shaped and debated in Washington right now ā from market structure to taxation to developer protections.
Join us: https://t.co/Cc2pSl594h