Check out this exclusive, never-before-seen clip from our episode with Maria Shriver! Maria’s mornings have so many insightful tips for starting your day off just right.
Enjoyed this clip? Check out Simon and Maria’s full conversation as they talk about identity, self-reflection, and finding your voice in a world that keeps trying to define it for you: • Who Are You, Really? with journalist Maria...
New Life Hacks will drop every Friday, and new episodes of A Bit of Optimism on Tuesdays.
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Simon is an unshakable optimist. He believes in a bright future and our ability to build it together.
Described as “a visionary thinker with a rare intellect,” Simon has devoted his professional life to help advance a vision of the world that does not yet exist; a world in which the vast majority of people wake up every single morning inspired, feel safe wherever they are and end the day fulfilled by the work that they do.
Simon is the author of multiple best-selling books including Start With Why, Leaders Eat Last, Together is Better, and The Infinite Game.
Do you have any life hacks or personal hacks that have benefited you over the years
that might benefit somebody listening?
Well, meditating in the morning works really well for me.
Being in quiet and being alone in the morning really works for me.
Every morning?
Every morning.
How long?
Probably 45 minutes to an hour.
Oh, that's serious.
Yeah, no, like, alone.
Yeah.
Alone with my thoughts.
And then I have...
You're not necessarily sitting there saying om and meditating.
No, I meditate for like 20 minutes.
Okay, but it's the alone time.
Yeah, then I just kind of look out the window.
I look at the sky.
Sometimes then maybe I'll write a poem or I'll...
So it's the...
And then I write a to-do list for my day.
Okay.
I do that.
I definitely like, I need to do this.
I need to talk about that.
I need to send a note about this.
So you write a little to-do list every day.
And then I exercise because that's really good for my head.
And obviously for if I want to be independent and I want to age well,
that's a really big part of...
And my work in the Alzheimer's space and the women's health space
has really taught me a lot about how do I want to redefine aging?
How do I want to age?
And I remember recently I went to a birthday party for a 70th birthday party.
I went with my daughter and I was like, oh my God, these people are so old.
She's like, mommy, this is your age group.
I was like, what?
She goes, these people are your age.
I was like, no, they're not.
She goes, yeah, they are.
I'm like, okay.
So I was like, okay, I want to be around vibrant, alive people.
I really want to be alive.
And I think a lot about what does that...
Because you can have one 70-year-old and one 70-year-old,
or you can have one 30-year-old.
I know a lot of 30-year-olds who are like, ugh.
So I really want to be alive.
I have a book in my living room that says Becoming Alive.
I want to be alive.
I want to feel it all.
And that means the good, the bad, and the ugly, right?
And so I think that's my...
And then on my weekend, I think a lot about what kind of week I want.
I write down what kind of week do I want?
What do I want to do in that week?
What do I want it to mean to me?
And my other hack is that I check in on people.
I really like this idea.
I don't know if that's a hack.
You really start every day with a check, with a to-do list,
and then the weekend, what I want to do this week.
So an intention for the day and an intention for the week.
That's a good one.
That's really good.
