33 Birthday Thoughts (Aug. 20th Edition)

Every week, I send you 3 random thoughts on my mind.

These thoughts cover everything - my books, my Japan life, and people I meet on my travels.

I do it to help move something inside of you.

And to document what I experience.

But this time is a bit different…

Because it is my 33-year birthday.

So I’m going to continue the tradition of passing forward all the lessons I’ve learned for every year I age.

33 years, so 33 lessons. Or thoughts, rather.

1. Act, then think.

I used to think too much. Then lose sleep regretting the actions I didn’t take.

Then, I just acted without thinking. That also led to regret.

Now, I think a bit. Weigh the risks. Then act. No regret.

And all the benefits of taking action quickly on ideas.

2. Ideas ain’t shit.

I used to mentally masturbate over how unique my ideas were.

Then, I started trying to bring those ideas to life.

Got humbled quickly.

Ideas can now be generated by AI.

Execution is where you fight the real battle.

3. We’re all religious.

I grew up catholic. Then, I “left” the church to be agnostic while still living at home during high school because priests touched boys.

Now, I understand we all subscribe to a “God”.

In Japan, they have a bunch of different gods.

But, I think the real one for them is food.

For me, it’s nature/universe.

4. Talk about money.

I used to be weird about money.

Now, I talk about it transparently and directly.

It’s helped me tremendously.

5. Stretch or Die.

I’ve tried a bunch of different exercise routines. I grew up practicing karate and soccer multiple times a week for a decade. We stretched every time before we practiced.

Then, I went to college and started lifting with my roommates. They didn’t want to stretch, but I prioritized it.

After living across different countries during my 20s, I had to create my own exercise routine to stay fit. Stretching kept me from enduring any heavy injuries or health scares (besides a near-death experience in Shanghai from a nasty pork leg).

Exercise is necessary. To get the best benefits out of regular exercise, stretching is necessary.

Stretch or die, reader.

6. Money is emotional.

I remember when I owed $30,000 in school loans after graduating in 2015. For years, I ignored the email reminders. I deferred the hell of it until I ended up accruing a bit of interest ($1000~). But I didn’t make a single payment until 2022…

When I paid it off in full.

7 years of sweeping it under the rug.

If I were thinking logically, like most people, I would’ve tried to maximize my degree and get a full-time job.

Instead, I spent it getting to know myself, exploring the world, and creating a life in a foreign country (Japan).

Somehow, that investment into my emotional intelligence and connection to myself helped me pay it off.

Not saying this is the best path, but it worked for me.

7. Listen to new music.

This is a toughie.

I consider myself a pretty open person. But often find myself gravitating towards the musicians I first discovered and fell in love with during college.

As we get older, we seek comfort.

“New” takes energy.

But recently, I’ve made it imperative to find new music.

Doesn’t mean I don’t listen to my favorite old tunes.

But I get the fresh perspectives new music can encourage.

8. Travel to random places.

Recently, I visited a customer (who I now consider a friend) who lives in Maine.

I never imagined I’d be traveling to Maine.

I mean…beside being the head of the US…what’s in Maine?

Turns out, a lot.

If he hadn’t invited me out to visit, I never would’ve seen the different cities that make up the state of Maine - a place that shows you, “The way life should be”.

9. The internet is amazing.

More on the customer who invited me to his crazy nature pad.

His home was full of art and books.

All displayed in a custom-made home that you could tell was designed with love.

I was there a few days with my girlfriend, and afterwards, we marveled how the internet allowed us to meet through my business.

He saw me on NHK World, bought some things, started conversations based on these emails, and boom…a friendship was built over years.

I’m grateful for his generosity and courage in taking a chance on the first version of “Raw Japan” back in 2019~2020. Along with a handful of other readers, he joined my membership community, and helped lay the groundwork for me to start the company I now run in Japan, Shokunin Mode LLC.

10. Obsess.

Over the last 2 weeks, I traveled to South Korea and the US. Every spare minute I had not spending with family or friends, I found myself hungry for books.

So, I went to multiple bookshops. Didn’t matter if I was in an airport or a countryside town, I found a bookshop.

And every time, it relaxed me.

Something about being around pages of stories makes me feel understood.

When really, the books I read allow me to understand the writer.

It could also just be brainwashing I endured as a child when my parents took me to libraries weekly to get books.

I’m obsessed. And that obsession has led me to become a writer.

I’m one that believes a healthy obsession is, well, healthy.

Find something that you can get lost in and see what that flow state does for your overall mental health.

11. Nankai Megathrust Earthquake

Japan is due for a massive earthquake.

Recently, the meteorological agency issued a warning. There was an earthquake Aug 8th in Miyazaki close to the hotspot.

This thing usually comes 90~150 years and it’s been a while.

Remember the 2011 disaster? I was in Fukuoka at the time, and remember seeing the tsunami sweeping away homes on TV and checking out international news stations saying Japan was underplaying the damage to the nuclear reactors…

Well, that 2011 disaster is nothing compared to the megathrust.

The Nankai megathrust earthquake is said to be 10x the damage of the Fukushima disaster.

Spooky stuff.

The way I’m planning on addressing this is…

12. Stay paranoid.

There is a fine balance between being prepared and paranoid.

In Japan, I err towards paranoia.

Besides getting an emergency kit, I plan on building a dome house.

All the people I tell this to make fun of me for wanting circular-cult-capsuley-corpy-honeycombs as a house.

And all I have to say is…

It’s so earthquake resistant, that the Kumamoto sent people to evacuate in these dome houses in 2016 when tremors tore the city’s castle.

It’s insulated. If you’ve ever been to Japan in the summer or winter, you’ll understand why this is vital.

And it just looks crazy. I run events to build community and introduce my products in person.

Thinking of also opening up slots throughout the year for funky unique stays you can’t get anywhere else.

We shall see.

13. Funky stays.

Take a trip. Stay somewhere funky. See how it changes ya life.

I did it in Japan. I did it in Sweden. I did it in Taiwan.

Every time, it changed my life.

14. Change your inputs.

I go through phases with what type of media I consume.

But my media cycle typically rotates through the following:

Indie publishing → Filmmaking → AI/Crypto → Black & African history → Fiction → Japanese Art → Health → Romantic Relationships → Marketing → Comedy

I try to intersperse other inputs every once in a while to make sure I’m not brainwashing myself with the same videos, podcasts, music, and newsletters.

And I noticed it helps change my thoughts and conversations.

Which all trickles down to how I write.

When’s the last time you listened to something that you disagree with on purpose?

Or something you’ve had no interest in before?

Seek out the differences.

Seek out the dissonance.

Seek out the discomfort.

15. Do discomfort.

I try to inject little bits of discomfort into my daily life on purpose.

Walking the long way when the sun is at its highest point.

Turning off my AC when exercising to drip sweat like I live in a sauna.

Fasting for a day with just water.

Starting conversations with strangers.

Gathering people in a room and public speaking with vulnerable questions.

Sharing my writing online before I think it’s “ready”.

Setting boundaries with people I love who are used to one version of you.

etc. etc. etc.

Doing these lil bits of discomfort allow me to weather the real bouts of pain that crop up naturally in life.

What can you do to build your pain tolerance muscle?

16. Write and Publish daily.

I’ve changed my life by publishing my words online.

First, nothing happened.

I doubted myself.

Then, I started printing my words.

A lil dose of courage built confidence.

Now, I talk to you from Japan where I’m a resident based on a business I built writing words.

Still working on the full vision, but I never would have gotten here without publishing consistently since 2016.

17. Drink water.

Hydrate or die. Literally.

18. Public Speaking does not = death.

I remember seeing some statistic that people fear public speaking more than death.

I’ve done it multiple times in front of small crowds.

I’m still alive.

And better for it.

Try it. You’ll shake from nerves, but you’ll emerge a stronger communicator.

And we all know that…

19. Communication is everything.

Talking and Communicating is different.

Talking = yapping

You just leak words out of ya mouf.

Communicating = connecting

You use words to connect with someone on an emotional level.

I believe mostly everyone knows the difference.

But, most aren’t motivated or patient enough to build the skill of communicating.

So, we get a lot of “waiting for the other person to stop talking so you can respond” instead of “listening”.

20. Listening is everything x2.

To truly listen, do one thing.

Shut. Up.

You’re welcome.

21. But really, to listen, do this.

Here’s how I sharpened my listening chops.

I forget about myself, and focus on the person in front of me.

I try my best to understand what they are saying, instead of trying to craft some type of clever reply.

Try it. You’ll notice the difference immediately.

22. Connecting with yourself.

Sounds a bit woo-woo, but I truly believe that you can’t connect with others until you connect with yourself.

I see this as just “understanding who you are.”

Which there’s a buffet of tools to do so.

Personally, I chose…

23. Do Psychedelics.

Of course, check with your doc and all that jazz.

But for most people, a light dose of psychedelics would do wonders.

It rips apart your worldview and stomps out your ego in the most euphoric manner you can imagine.

My personal go-to is shrooms.

I’ve tried mescaline, DMT-infused bark from the amazon, and high doses of cannabis.

Shrooms gave me an intimate understanding of my mortality.

And was the spark that pushed me to travel to Japan back in 2011.

But, the better, healthier version of these psychoactive substances is…

24. Meditation.

There is some quote from Alan Watts talking about the difference between meditation and psychedelics. One small part of it has always stuck with me:

“When you get the message, hang up the phone.”

That is what I did with psychedelics when I discovered meditation in 2012.

I attended a silent meditation retreat in the mountains of Kyoto.

10 days. 8 hours a day. Sitting in silence. Watching your breath.

At 21, this was the hardest thing I’d done in my life.

You have all the energy, but nowhere to funnel it except into yourself.

Any meditation is good if you keep a consistent practice.

Try it.

25. Talk to your loved ones.

There’s a chart out there that shows you how much time we have with the people we love as time goes on…

The hours with others start to decline after 30.

The hours by ourselves rocket up in our 40s.

It’s the natural flow of life - especially if you live a life abroad.

But the way I am dealing with this is monthly calls with family…

Meeting new people daily…

And plenty of fun dates with my girl…

How about you?

26. Leave your phone in a different room from 10pm~12pm.

Completely transforms your day.

I’ve woken up with my phone.

Gone to sleep with my phone.

And woken up in the middle of the night to touch my phone.

But nothing beats turning it off an hour or two before bed and not touching it until you finish your most important tasks the next morning.

27. Try a different “Goodbye”.

I’ve been messing around with different quotations between my first and last name when signing off on these emails.

I enjoy the challenge to come up with something fresh.

And it seems like it keeps things fresh for you, my readers, since it keeps you replying.

28. Watch weird movies.

I like to challenge my tastes…as I mentioned earlier.

And sometimes that means I watch a movie I have zero interest in.

A lot of the time, I don’t get through the whole thing.

The sucky thing about working for yourself is there’s always something to do.

So I bail on a movie quickly that isn’t serving me a challenge or emotional resonance or a laugh or a “WTF?!”

How quickly? I’d say 30 min to an hour.

But when I do get through one of the movies, I tend to look up the director and any behind-the-scenes videos I can find.

A habit I developed from the days of scouring Blockbuster racks of DVDs on our weekly family pizza & movie night.

Speaking of Blockbuster…

29. Watch Blockbusters.

As a writer, I gotta know what’s popular.

What people are stuffing down their eyeholes.

Especially in a dopamine-saturated environment.

Any movie that can sell over $100 mil and get people to sit still in the dark for 2~3 hours when people are practically drooling to get back to the endless doom scroll is a movie worth watching.

Why is the movie popular?

What about the characters and their motivations is pushing people to leave their comfortable homes and pay inflated prices for tickets and heart-attack-inducing-popcorn?

Are there plot points or pacing I can mirror to make my writing more gripping?

All questions that cross my mind when I plant my ass down in one of them seats.

30. Say “No” directly without explanation.

We all have the tendency to guide a “no” with the cushion of unnecessary explanation.

When all we really need is the courage to say “no” without the fear of hurting someone’s feelings.

If they ask, “Why?” simply respond with “because I don’t want to.”

If they’re a real friend, nothing will come of it.

I’m still working on this one btw, but it feels good when I say it.

For the last 3 thoughts, you’ll have to check out tomorrow’s email.

Hope these 30 did something for ya.

Talk soon,

Brandon “this took 3 hours“ Chin