5 Things I Can’t Live Without

Yo, what’s up, all you beautiful people? Welcome back to the podcast. Okay, so I want to talk about the five things that I can’t live without right now. And what’s interesting about this five, this list of five things. What got me thinking about this is the fact that as you move through the different tiers of wealth, it’s really easy to think like, oh, the people above me, they have access to nicer things. In some cases, that’s the case. But for the most part, consumer goods are so good at this point to drive quality at an affordable price downstream. So the things that I have access to, or Jeff Bezos has access to are identical, right? Like, he doesn’t have nicer phone than I do, for instance. And what I’ve been reflecting on is the five things that I can’t live without in my life.

They’re things that you could have access to right now, regardless of like what income level that you’re at within like a certain range. If you’re making $100,000 a year, you have access to all five of these things. So the number one thing for sure, could not live without our headphones. Like noise canceling headphones. I get so distracted so easily from audio, from different, you know, stimulus, and that’s going back to my ADHD. But a good pair of noise canceling headphones. I like to use the Sony wh something something, the over ear ones. And then I’ve been using the Apple AirPods quite recently.

The Apple AirPods are surprisingly good if you’re within the Apple ecosystem, which I resisted for a very, very, very long time, maybe rightfully so, maybe wrongfully so, but it’s been pretty good. So, can’t live without the headphones. Number two, a good pen. Gotta have a really good pen. I’m a little bit of a snob knob when it comes to writing utensils. Like right now, I have a Sharpie. I love writing with a good, crisp Sharpie. Anybody can get this for like a buck, right? I do have a couple fountain pens that are over, you know, $100, $200, nothing too crazy.

I have a buddy who has a pen collection. One of his pens is worth $50,000. That’s wild. He doesn’t write with it, but that’s wild as a collector, as an investor item. But I like a nice pen because it just gives me that tactile feel. It makes me feel better as like pouring my thoughts out onto the page, like the expression of writing. And anybody, again, anybody with a pen can do that. They can transfer their thoughts onto the paper.
And as they say, prolific writers make prolific thinkers. So that’s the number two thing I can’t live without. Pen. Number three, you gotta have something to go with the pen. So journals. And again, like, the journals that I have access to is no different than the ones that Jeff Bezos has access to, which is no different than ones you have access to. Like, this thing. I got this from the local art store just down the street for like a buy pack of these things for like, uh, $10 maybe.

I love this because it’s just good art paper. It’s nice. And there’s no lines or anything. I can just draw. I can write out with my Sharpie. I like to do my to do lists with Sharpie on this because I can write it really big and bold. It limits how much I can put there. And so it makes me focus on what’s actually important when I’m writing in my journal.

Like, I’m putting my thoughts into, and I want to collect that and, or I’m doing, like, deep writing. I have different journals, leather bound journals, all sorts of journals. But, like, you gotta have something to write on, something that you’re excited to crack open. And one of the best gifts that you can give future you is the gift of your current used thoughts. And I think that’s one of the most best things that’s ever come as a unexpected consequence of creating content for so many years is like, being able to look back and see what I was thinking. Where I was seven, 8910 years ago, you know, because I have my journals from when I was in the back of that van. I can look back, I can see what I was thinking. I can see what I was feeling.

I can, like, see how differently I saw the world then versus now. And I can see that progression, and it’s really cool. Number four, the fourth thing that I cannot live without is my computer. Like, I could not function without my computer. My computer is. You take away everything else in my businesses, like the headquarters, the buildings, all that stuff, you give me a computer, like, we’re good to go. We can make money, we can entertain ourselves, we can get back on our feet. And that computer is just Apple.
What is it? The MacBook Pro. It’s not even the snazziest one. It’s just, it’s a good computer, but maybe two, $3,000. And again, like, that’s a, that’s an expensive laptop. I’m not gonna say that’s like, everybody can, like, afford that. I definitely couldn’t for a long time, I had, like, the $800 laptop from Hewlett Packard. But that’s all to say is, like, the tools that I have access to, again, no different than the tools Jeff Bezos is probably using, maybe the same tools that you’re using. And so we just.

It’s so interesting to me that we play the wealth game thinking that we’re going to get access to nicer and nicer things. But there comes, like, this point of diminishing returns very, very quickly, and it’s at a lower level of wealth than most people even realize. The fifth thing, could not live without. This isn’t a singular thing, but this is a category of things, is books. I could not live without books. Books are my escape. They’re my gateway to a different life. Honestly, like, the books were really the means for me.

As I was turning my life around on my path of self improvement, it was really the means for me to improve myself, to learn about the world, learn about the people who were where I wanted to be and what they had done to get there and, like, open my horizons and expand my mind. It helps me build concentration, to develop discipline, to develop patience. Like, all the downstream effects of reading, books have been tremendous in my life. And so that’s a habit I could not recommend more for anybody. If they’re looking to turn their life around or start that journey towards their greatness, I think books are a huge part of that. And so I could just. I could never live without a book. So those are five things I can’t live without.

I’d be curious, what are the things in your life, the tools, the resources, the things that you love the most? Like, what couldn’t you live without? And we’re talking about physical things, not people. Of course, we got our kids, we got our loved ones, all that stuff. But I want to hear about the resources that you use that you could not live without. Let me know in the comments. Shoot me a DM, leave a review. That would mean the world to me. Truly, it would. And that’ll do it from you guys.

We’ll catch you in the next episode.