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Happy Tuesday and Welcome back to… THE JAILBREAK.
(along with 680+ readers 🗝️ )
THE JAILBREAK - Issue #41 - March 5th, 2024 - by Jack ross
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How to Remember Your Life
Hey gang — Happy Tuesday! 🎉
As you know, I’m obsessed with building a life that I love.
The only thing that scares me more than missing out on life… is not remembering it.
So I’ve spent years developing methods to keep my memories from being overwritten by TikToks and day-to-day bullsh*t.
Here’s how to remember your life:
1. Delete Your Photos 🤳
Most people think their camera roll will preserve your precious memories. If that’s true…
When was the last time you actually looked through it?
Instead of keeping a dozen photos of a moment you don’t want to forget, choose one or two that capture the FEELING you had during that time. Delete the rest.
We don’t remember THINGS.
We remember how things make us FEEL.
One picture is all you need to capture a memory.
(Pro Tip: Get better at taking pictures.)
Once you get rid of the countless screenshots, burst photos, and random pictures of your cat — your camera roll will turn into a place you go to relive and feel those memories all over again.
2. Daily Recall Gratitude 🧠
What did you eat for breakfast this morning?
What did you do last Thursday?
Where were you on January 6th, 2021? 👀Most of the time I can’t answer these questions.
And every time I fail to remember such a recent part of my life, I get terrified that I might be missing more than that…
We go through our day hopping from one task to the next, rarely taking any time to reflect on exceptional parts of our day — let alone the ordinary ones.
To combat this, I practice what I call Daily Recall Gratitude.
Step 1:
Outloud, say every single thing you did today.
Nothing is too small.
Step 2:
Try and relive those moments, just for a second.
Step 3:
Think about how you felt at different times that day.
What were you doing?
Step 4:
As you’re remembering your day,
be grateful for the good things you got to do
and the bad things you overcame.
I’ve had some pretty amazing days as a digital nomad this past year.
But our modern lives are so busy that it’s easy to let a life-changing weekend slip out of your memory the second Monday rolls around.
Reflect on your day. Every day. You’ll start remembering more.
3. Document Your Life 📹️
At a certain point, my strategies for remembering my life will fail as my brain decays while I get ready to leave this Earth.
Memories don’t last forever.
And there will come a time when I can’t share my adventures, thoughts, and my life with the world. (Or even myself, if Alzheimers comes for me.)
To fight against time, I started documenting my life. Here’s how:
Step 1: Write about your life
There’s a reason your teachers forced you to take notes in school.
If you write something down, you remember it. ✍️
Write about your life, your struggles, the things you’ve learned, and anything else that feels meaningful. I do it every week on this newsletter and it’s amazing to go back in time and see what I was thinking every week for the past year.
Start by doing this in a journal, you don’t have to share it quite yet.
Step 2: Capture life on camera
You may have had an excuse 10 years ago… 📸
But in the year of our Lord, 2024, everyone and their mother is walking around with a 4K video camera in their pocket. Learn how to capture life on camera.
Instead of taking a photo of an important moment, get it on video.
There’s nothing quite like looking back at my YouTube videos from 10+ years ago and hearing the sound of my pre-pubescent voice explaining how to jailbreak an iPod touch.
Or seeing videos of my grandmother while she was still alive. (I wish I had more…)
Pictures are great but video can be magic for keeping memories safe.
Step 3: Tell stories
Memories get lost.
Stories get remembered.
After writing for a while you should upgrade from daily journaling to writing stories about your life.
What’s the difference?
Stories are something OTHER PEOPLE will enjoy.
Turn your life into a movie. Write a plot, a backstory, character arcs, and challenges to overcome. Learn how to tell the story of your life in a way that’s entertaining or valuable to someone else.
After you write a story, pair it with videos.
This takes some extra effort but you can start with something as simple as talking over some clips of a fun trip you went on. Trust me, it will become 10x more meaningful than the story or videos on their own.
I’m still learning how to do this but I’m slowly getting better over on my YouTube channel. (Check it out!)
Step 4: Put them online
This has been the most valuable tool of all for preserving my memories.
I can look back and see how I acted, talked, and thought through multiple stages of my life.
I’ve documented myself learning to code, dropping out of college, landing my first job, becoming a digital nomad, and working to become a full-time creator.
I can watch these videos, my family and friends can watch these videos, and if YouTube is still around in a few years — I might be able to show them to my future children.
If I get taken from this life, my videos, my memories will remain.
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Speak a New Language in 3 Weeks? It's True with Babbel's Expert-Crafted Approach
Forget clunky apps and robotic learning. Babbel's lessons are crafted by language experts, not algorithms, ensuring you learn practical phrases and vocabulary used in everyday situations. Imagine confidently navigating local markets or ordering food like a pro within just 3 weeks.
Start your fluency journey today and save up to 55% on Babbel's expert-backed approach.
(By simply clicking this ad you can support my newsletter👆️)
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- Jack Ross ✌️
Jack Ross (Data Engineer, Writer, Nomad)