Mitchell Cohen

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🌱 Back to zero (Peyton Manning + Gucci Mane lessons)

The superpower nobody teaches: emotional reset

Here’s your 3 insights in 3 minutes.


🏈 Back to Zero


​​In 2015 I saw Peyton Manning give a keynote at a business conference.


A decade later, I’ve never forgotten one thing he said: Always get “Back to zero.”



So simple, but it gives you superpowers when you implement it.


🎤 It’s Gucci


Rapper Gucci Mane’s story is wild.


He sold drugs, went to prison, even overcame a murder charge.


But instead of trying to rewrite the past, he accepted it.


In The Autobiography of Gucci Mane he wrote:


“No one involved in the making of this book is attempting to ‘sell’ Gucci Mane—or even trying to make you think he is a good person. … To start a new chapter you’ve got to turn the page on the last one.”

— Gucci Mane


That’s the lesson: the past doesn’t need rebranding. It just needs releasing.


Or as Gucci put it:


“If you keep lookin’ back, you gon’ trip going forward.”


Aka, back to zero.


🧑‍✈️ Emotional Regulation


But here’s the real question: how do you actually get back to zero?


That’s where emotional regulation comes in. If you’ve never learned to regulate your feelings, you’ll keep dragging yesterday’s baggage into today.


(In addition to much inner work) I also started experimenting with a simple “Takeoff & Landing” note at the start and end of each day:



In Evernote I have this table for each day then type out below it


Much like a laptop, a quick reset always helps.


As the quote below reminds us: emotional regulation isn’t just soft skill. It’s a foundational skill.


(h/t Liminal)


Peyton calls it back to zero.


Gucci calls it turning the page.


Psychologists call it emotional regulation.


Different names, same truth: the past only has power if you keep carrying it. Learn to release, and every day is a fresh start.


Salud,
Mitchell

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