There’s No Free Lunch
Welcome to Effective Habits, a weekly newsletter where I share evidence-based strategies and tools to help you live a happy, healthy, and productive life.
Today at a Glance:
The Deathbed Regret List
Thinking in Trade-Offs: A Necessary Antidote to Diet Tribalism
How to Find Your Direction, In Work and Life
“Intentional living is the art of making our own choices before others' choices make us.”
The Deathbed Regret List
Sahil Bloom
🔦Lights, Camera, ...
Most of us move through life assuming there will be more time—more time to say the thing, make the change, take the risk, repair the relationship, become the person we mean to be. Alfred Nobel got a rare interruption to that illusion when a newspaper mistakenly published his obituary calling him “the Merchant of Death,” prompting him to redirect his fortune toward what became the Nobel Prizes. Jeff Bezos later used a similar kind of future-facing lens, imagining the regret he would feel if he never took his shot, which resulted in him starting Amazon. That is the power of what you might call the Deathbed Regret List: not a morbid exercise, but a clarifying one. Picture yourself at the end of your life, looking back honestly—what would sting most: the chances you didn’t take, the priorities you kept postponing, the love you failed to express, the meaningful work you kept deferring? Then return to the present with a different kind of urgency and the grateful realization that your future regrets are still, in many cases, preventable, and that a better ending is often built one brave decision at a time.
🎬Action!
Run the “Deathbed Regret List” exercise: picture yourself at the end of your life and write down the regrets that would feel most painful in that moment. Then work backward and translate each regret into a concrete action or change you can make today to prevent it. If thinking that far ahead feels abstract, shorten the lens to 10 years and ask the same question: what would I deeply regret if nothing changed? Use those answers as a filter for how you spend your time, energy, and attention starting now.
Here is Sahil Bloom’s list to give you an example:
Leaving my family without financial security. A weak financial base makes everything else fragile. Prioritizing stability, like building an emergency fund, creates peace of mind and the freedom to take opportunities without risking your family’s well-being.
Missing out on the Magic Years. Time with your kids is limited and front-loaded. Being intentional with your presence during these early years ensures you don’t trade irreplaceable moments for work that can wait.
Not spending enough time with my parents. Time with parents is finite and often overestimated. Reducing distance, whether physically or through consistent routines, helps you make the most of the years you have left together.
Not having the courage to take the leap. Overthinking delays action. Progress comes from acting before you feel fully ready and giving yourself permission instead of waiting for it.
Not taking on challenging quests. An easy life can feel empty. Growth and fulfillment come from pursuing difficult, meaningful challenges that require effort and stretch your limits.
Allowing meaningful relationships to atrophy. Relationships fade through neglect, not intention. Consistent, small investments—especially during hard times—are what keep them strong.
Allowing my "house" to deteriorate. Your body and mind are your lifelong home. Daily habits and small maintenance decisions determine whether you stay strong, independent, and capable over time.
Allowing technology to destroy my presence. Unchecked technology use fragments attention and weakens real-world connection. Setting boundaries helps you stay present with what actually matters.
Losing sight of the beauty of enough. Constantly chasing more creates endless dissatisfaction. Learning to recognize when life is already good allows you to actually experience it.
Thinking in Trade-Offs: A Necessary Antidote to Diet Tribalism
Dr. Peter Attia & Michael Rae
🔦Lights, Camera, ...
In the endless diet wars, the biggest mistake may be pretending any one way of eating is a flawless solution rather than what it really is: a set of trade-offs. When looking at virtually any nutrition study, most structured diets look good compared with the Standard American Diet because they add boundaries, reduce mindless overeating, and improve food quality, but that does not make them universally optimal. Low-carb and ketogenic diets, for example, can improve body composition, glycemic control, and appetite regulation, yet in some people they also raise ApoB and can compromise high-intensity athletic performance where carbs are physiologically required. Plant-based diets can boost fiber intake, improve cardiometabolic health, and lower energy density, but they often require more deliberate management of protein quality, meal composition, and nutrients like B12, iron, and omega-3s. None of that makes either approach bad; it simply means every diet is solving for something while accepting costs elsewhere. The more honest and useful question is not which diet is perfect, but what a given diet optimizes for, what trade-offs it creates, and whether those trade-offs are worth managing for your goals, biology, and real life. The goal is not dietary purity or tribal loyalty. It is building an approach that improves what matters most to you, keeps the downsides visible and managed, and remains sustainable long enough to actually work.
🎬Action!
Choose your diet based on trade-offs and actively manage the downsides. Instead of searching for the “perfect” diet, pick an approach that clearly improves what matters most to you (e.g., weight, energy, performance), then identify its likely downsides and put systems in place to manage them. For example, if you go low-carb, monitor lipids and adjust fat sources; if you go plant-based, increase total protein and plan for nutrients like B12 and iron. Treat your diet like an optimization problem, not a belief system: track what improves, watch what worsens, and refine accordingly.
How to Find Your Direction, In Work and Life
Sheryl Garratt
🔦Lights, Camera, ...
Finding your direction in work and life rarely looks like a clean, deliberate march toward a clearly defined passion; more often, it emerges through accidents, detours, failed attempts, shifting interests, and opportunities that only make sense in hindsight. Many accomplished people tell a tidy story about how they got where they are, but behind that version is usually a messier truth: wrong turns, chance encounters, abandoned plans, evolving identities, and skills gathered along the way. That is why the usual advice to “follow your passion” can feel so unhelpful—passion is not always something you discover first; sometimes it is something you grow into by getting curious, trying things, and becoming good at them. The real task is not to have everything figured out, but to keep exploring: meet new people, test new roles, revive old interests, say yes to what feels interesting or alive, and stop treating uncertainty as failure. None of it is wasted, not the setbacks, not the experiments, not the paths that went nowhere, because every experience adds to the mix of skills, perspective, and self-knowledge that shapes where you go next. A plan can help, but life is often built by making new dots before you can connect them. So when you feel lost, keep moving, keep experimenting, and trust that your path may be forming in ways you cannot yet see.
🎬Action!
Run small, low-risk experiments. Each week or month, try something new that genuinely interests you—a class, a side project, a new responsibility at work, or a conversation with someone in a different field. Do not ask whether it is the right path. Ask whether it teaches you something, gives you energy, or opens a new door.
Follow what feels interesting before it feels certain. Stop waiting for a fully formed passion or plan. Say yes more often to things that feel fun, meaningful, or slightly intimidating, even if they do not make perfect sense yet. Many paths only become clear after you start walking them.
Stay open to bigger changes in direction. Do not assume your past decisions have to define your future. If your current work no longer fits, allow yourself to explore a new role, industry, place, or identity. A change in direction is not starting from scratch—you bring your skills, experience, and perspective with you.
Treat detours and dead ends as useful. When something does not work out, do not dismiss it as wasted time. Look at what it gave you: a skill, a contact, a clearer sense of what you do not want, or the confidence to try again. Keep making new dots and let the bigger picture form over time.
TOOL TIP
tldraw: A very fast, minimal infinite canvas web app for drawing, flow-charting and dropping ideas. No sign-up needed, open the link and start working. Exporting as SVG, PNG or editable files is also possible.
FUN FACT
You're more likely to cry when chopping an onion with a dull knife than with a sharp one.
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Disclaimer: The information provided in this newsletter is for informational purposes only and is not intended as medical advice. Please consult a medical professional for advice, diagnosis, or treatment. We are not liable for any risks or issues that may arise from using this information.
