⏪ March 2026

A month’s worth of wisdom

March 31, 2026

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— Scott

Co-Creator of Slightly Smarter

P.S. Keep reading for our March 2026 recap.

FEATURED BOOKS

What if the real obstacle isn't your effort, your discipline, or your circumstances, but what you believe is possible?

In Beyond Belief, Nir Eyal reveals one counterintuitive truth: these beliefs aren't facts. They're tools.

With AI acceleration, social fragmentation, and economic instability colliding… we are entering a volatile new reality.

In AfterShock to 2030, Caroline Stokes provides a guide for leaders who refuse to wait for the future to overtake them—providing the language, mindset, and strategic scaffolding to imagine and build what comes next. Fast.

SMARTER WELLNESS

We teamed up with Brian Dye, the founder Applied Wellness, to create a limited series exploring the various aspects of wellness.

Every week, he digs into the latest studies to help simplify what the research says so you don’t have to.

Topics covered in March:

  • Emotional Wellness 👉 How to successfully handle life’s stresses and adapt to change and difficult times

  • Cardio 👉 The strongest predictor of early death is also the most fixable

  • Balance 👉 Neuromotor exercise for balance and agility

Want more? Read Brian’s full companion articles that dive deeper into the evidence to help you know what works, and why it works.

WELLNESS contributor for Slightly Smarter

More wellness topics we covered in March:

  • Why the common cold makes some of us sicker than others (Yale News)

  • How the flu is different than the common cold (1440 Media)

SMARTER GROWTH

5 beliefs that hold back high performers:

  1. Fear of failure: “I probably won’t succeed.”

  2. Lack of self-trust: “I’m not good enough.”

  3. Perfectionism: “It has to be perfect, or it’s not worth sharing.”

  4. Expected procrastination: “I won’t follow through…so why start?”

  5. Scarcity: “I can’t have more without sacrificing something.”

Start with leverage, not pain:

  • Productivity isn’t about suffering early. It’s about sequencing intelligently.

  • Do the thing that makes the next thing easier.

Ira Glass on building good taste and falling short:

  • “We all go through phases where we know our work is not up to par, even though we are trying so hard to make it perfect.

  • Keep doing your work, keep focused, and don’t give up!”

SMARTER LIVING

How to live a happier life:

  1. Invest in real relationships, not deal relationships (More)

  2. Relationships matter more than almost anything else, including your genes. (More)

  3. Practice gratitude deliberately; don't just go through the motions. (More)

The origins of March Madness:

  • Keith O'Brien argues the annual basketball spectacle really began in 1979, with an electric, raucous game that's largely been forgotten. (The Ringer)

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