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3 lessons from Costa Rica, stop wasting your time, mobility for desk workers

3 lessons from Costa Rica, stop wasting your time, mobility for desk workers

Build your health, reclaim your freedom (Issue #117)

April 09, 2025

Read time: 3 minutes

Good morning, 66.1ers.

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Food for thought:

I’m writing this week’s newsletter from the beach in Samara, Costa Rica. I’m here for a week with my girlfriend. We’ve been surfing, eating fresh seafood, and stumbling through conversations in Spanish. A welcome break in the action as winter wraps up in Montana.

3 lessons I’ve learned during this week away:

Busy doesn’t mean effectiveWe pride ourselves on being busy in the US. We conflate busyness with a sense of importance. But if you’re so busy answering emails from people who drive you nuts that you can’t turn off the phone and hang out with your family…what are you doing with your life?I’ve seen a lot of the opposite here in Costa Rica—people prioritize the person right in front of their face. Which leads to the next insight…
Silence is goldenMy Spanish isn’t good. But there are a few folks who understand the struggle because they’ve lived it when they leave Costa Rica to visit friends in the US or Europe. So they stand there, patiently waiting for me to collect my thoughts and share in Spanish. It’s a long silence rarely encountered in the US. In the US, we seem to have an allergy to pauses in conversation. And it looks more and more like an anxiety disorder. I wrote way back in the early days of this newsletter about the “silence test”. Pauses are a natural part of conversation—lean into them.
Roll with the punchesIn the US, we’ve come to expect perfection. The grocery stores always have everything in stock (have you ever thought about what it takes to get seafood to a landlocked state, for example?). Roads are largely pothole-free. Cars are maintained proactively, not reactively. In much of the rest of the world, though, such expectations don’t fly. If it’s not in season, it’s not in stock. Cars break down, plans change. Lots of lessons in here about being flexible and rolling with whatever punches life throws your way.

A question for you:

In the information age, you have everything accessible to you. More books than you’ll ever read available on your Kindle. More podcasts than you’ll ever listen to available on Spotify. And on and on…The point? There’s no reason to waste your time on something that doesn’t fit your conditions for “great” (even if a friend recommended it!).

Give it 10 minutes and move on.

The question: Where in your life are you wasting your time? How can you waste less of it?

A few that come to mind: TV shows, workouts you hate, optional meetings you attend instead of doing something truly useful.

Workout of the week:

Hurdler stretch

My favorite mobility exercise. If you sit for work, this one’s for you. Open up your hips, relieve back pain.

PS: keep an eye on the “30 Exercises you can do Anywhere” page. We’re building this resource so you’re never left wondering how to squeeze a workout in to your busy life.