📧 Elevate Letter #49: This 13-minute Video Literally Everyone Should Watch
Plus: How We Spend Time, Old ways won't open new doors, A list of great questions to ask someone and A chart to rethink how you spend time
Hey Ambitious,
Welcome to Elevate Letter!
If you're new here, this is the newsletter where every Sunday, I share the 5 best ideas I find each week to help you improve by 1% each day.
Let’s dive in!
A question I can't stop thinking about
Here’s a question I haven’t been able to shake:
What did you do as a kid that made the hours feel like minutes?
You know the feeling.
You’d look up and the whole afternoon was gone.
No phones. No schedules. Just joy. Curiosity. Flow.
Somewhere along the way, most of us lost that.
Adulthood crept in.
Deadlines replaced daydreams.
Productivity swallowed play.
But here’s the thing I believe more than ever:
So much of adulthood is just trying to find our way back
—back to the spark, the wonder, the thing that made us forget about time.
And often, the path starts with something simple:
A sport.
A hobby.
A creative itch.
For me? That thing was music.
As a kid, I’d lose hours making it.
And lately, I’ve decided to bring it back.
I signed up for a DJ course.
Not because I’m chasing a new career…
But because it feels like me.
It reminds me of who I was before I became who I thought I had to be.
Now it’s your turn.
Your challenge this week:
Take a moment.
Answer this:
What did you love doing as a kid that made time disappear?
Then ask yourself:
What’s one small step I could take to bring that back into my life today?
Reply and tell me. I’ll read every single one.
Because this isn’t just about nostalgia.
It’s about remembering who you were…
…so you can finally become who you’re meant to be.
A short quote that contains a lot of wisdom
“Old ways won’t open new doors.”
Read that again.
If you keep doing what you’ve always done,
you’ll keep getting what you’ve always got.
Want change?
Growth?
Something more?
Then at some point, you have to step into the unknown.
Even when it’s scary.
Even when it’s uncomfortable.
Because comfort is a cage disguised as safety.
So ask yourself:
What door are you trying to open?
And what old habit is keeping it locked?
This 13-minute YouTube video might change how you see everything
Last week, a friend sent me a video that completely shook how I think about life, work, and relationships.
It’s about Game Theory — and somehow, it explains why kindness, trust, and cooperation actually win in the long run.
It starts with a simple idea:
The Prisoner’s Dilemma.
Two players.
Each one can either cooperate or betray the other.
If they both cooperate, they both win.
If one betrays and the other doesn't? The betrayer wins big. The cooperator gets crushed.
It’s a perfect metaphor for real life:
Do you help others or look out for yourself?
Do you play fair or play dirty?
Researchers ran thousands of computer simulations of this game to find the best strategies — and what they discovered is pure gold.
Here are the 3 mind-blowing lessons:
1. The 4 traits that win over time
The most successful strategies weren’t the cleverest, sneakiest, or most aggressive.
They were:
Nice – They never betrayed first.
Forgiving – They let go of the past.
Retaliating – They stood up for themselves when betrayed.
Clear – Their behavior was easy to read.
This is the life playbook we all need:
Be kind — but don’t be naive.
Forgive — but stay sharp.
Be steady — so people know who they’re dealing with.
It’s simple. It’s powerful. And it works.
2. Small groups can change the world
Even in a world full of selfish, backstabbing players…
A tiny group of people who consistently cooperate can survive, grow, and eventually take over.
That’s not theory — it happened in the simulations.
Let that sink in:
A few people doing the right thing, consistently, can rewrite the rules.
This gives hope. For broken companies. Messy teams. Divided communities.
Change doesn’t need everyone. It just needs a few people brave enough to go first.
3. Life isn’t a win-lose game
We often think:
“If you win, I lose.”
But that’s not how real life works.
In long-term relationships — in business, love, teams, friendships — success isn’t about beating others.
It’s about winning with others.
Mutual trust. Shared wins. That’s what lasts.
You don’t need to crush the competition.
You need to build something worth winning together.
This video hit me deep.
It made me rethink how I treat people, how I make decisions, and what kind of world I want to help create.
If you’ve got 13 minutes and want to feel smarter — and maybe even more hopeful — watch it.
🔗 What Game Theory Reveals About Life, The Universe, and Everything
You’ll see life differently afterward. I promise.
A list of great questions to ask someone
Tired of the same old “deep” questions?
Yeah, me too.
Every time I see one of those “great questions to ask” lists, it’s filled with yawns like:
“What’s your biggest fear?”
“What motivates you?”
“Where do you see yourself in 5 years?”
Snooze.
But this list? This one made me laugh, think, and immediately want to text someone.
It had a perfect mix of weird, wonderful, and “wait—I’ve never thought about that” energy.
So I made my own mini list to keep the fun going:
6 Not-Boring Questions to Ask Someone:
• What’s the smallest hill you’ll die on?
(You’ll fight to the death that cereal is soup? Let’s hear it.)
• What’s a compliment you still remember years later?
(Sometimes 5 words stick with you forever.)
• What’s the last thing you changed your mind about?
(Big or small. Serious or silly. What shifted?)
• What’s a random skill you’re weirdly competitive about?
(Foosball? Speed typing? Parallel parking? Bring it.)
• What do you wish people asked you about more often?
(You’re probably sitting on a great story.)
• What’s your go-to drunken karaoke song?
(Bonus points if you sing it completely sober.)
Your challenge this week:
Send me your best not-so-obvious question.
Make it silly. Make it deep. Just make it different.
I’ll rate every single one out of 10.
(Don’t worry—no one gets a 3 unless it’s “What’s your biggest fear?” 😅)
Let’s make conversations fun again.
Ready? Hit reply.
A chart about finding meaning in life
I saw this chart the other day and couldn’t stop thinking about it.
It was about finding meaning in life.
And the older I get, the more I agree with what it said.
It wasn’t some complicated philosophy or 10-step purpose-hacking system.
It was just this:
Find people you like.
Make cool stuff together.
That’s it. That’s the tweet.
Of course, real life is more nuanced.
You don’t have to build a startup, start a band, or lead a movement to feel fulfilled.
But if you zoom out…
That’s what it all seems to come back to:
✅ Create something.
✅ With people you care about.
✅ That makes life feel a little less empty, and a lot more alive.
Whether it’s a business, a garden, a family, a podcast, a project, or even just a group chat with a shared dream...
Making things—together—is one of the most human, meaningful things we get to do.
And if you're lucky enough to have that right now, hold onto it.
If not? Start small. Reach out. Make something.
You don’t need to save the world. Just make something worth remembering.
Last Words👋
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All my best,
~ Elevated Path