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#116: I don't want to...
Shem Opolot
April 11, 2025
Hi! Welcome to The Friday Fix! You’re reading this because you probably stumbled upon this post somewhere on the internet instead of where it should be—in your inbox. But no worries; we can fix that.
Who am I? I’m Shem Opolot, a health professional turned content creator, passionate about helping people be their best selves in life and work.
Why should you subscribe?
I have over ten years of work experience in healthcare, program management, and data analytics on two continents. So, I know a little about helping you work smarter
I comb through tonnes of self-improvement content so you don’t have to, and I distill the content into bite-sized wisdom for you
I’ll occasionally make you laugh
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Hi! I'm Shem Opolot, and this is The Friday Fix, my weekly newsletter. If you've received it, you’re either subscribed or someone forwarded it to you. If you fit into the latter (yes, I’m the kind of person who uses words like “latter”) camp and want to subscribe, then click on the shiny button below:
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HAPPY FRIDAY 🎉 The ability of American capitalism to consistently push the envelope never ceases to amaze me. DoorDash (basically Glovo if you’re in Africa) and Klarna, the kings of the buy-now-pay-later scheme, made a deal for a buy-now-pay-later option for food orders. This means Americans can take out an interest-free loan to order a burrito.
LIFE.
I don’t want to…
For a class project, I interviewed one of my classmates to learn about their experience being a graduate student and a parent, and overall, their insights were unoriginal and unsurprising.
“It is hard. It is temporary. It is worth it” was the chorus answer.
But when concluding and talking about how they hope their children will process this sacrifice they made during a time when the kids were making core memories, they said something profound:
“I hope I can model for them that they can do hard things.”
***
As much as I love writing this newsletter, I didn’t want to write today.
I was lethargic; my list of assignments due piled up like a heap of clothes on a bedroom chair, and I was seduced by the tendency to do nothing in the evenings after class/work.
But on days like these, when it is hard, when I feel like I’ve reached my limit, I must write.
Because…while reflecting on this old episode of Jay Shetty’s podcast, I remembered what he said about self-love: that loving yourself comes from respecting yourself, and respecting yourself comes from doing what you said you’d do. By doing hard things and completing them.
I agree with Jay.
In the autumn of 2021, a little over a month before my son was born, I decided to write every week, and I’ve done so ever since. Rain or shine. Inspired or not. Sleep-deprived and desperate for a nap I couldn’t take because my son and life’s demands wouldn’t permit it—or not.
I respect myself a little more for that. I love myself a little more for that.
Working out, an activity we all have a love-hate relationship with, illustrates the power of doing hard things better.
You see, the secret to building muscle and getting in shape is the last set. The last rep. Okay, that’s not true. The secret is to stop eating like a thief, but let’s not let the truth get in the way of a good story.
So, if I tell you to do 10 burpees, you may hate it, but once you accept it, every count—every labored breath—that gets you closer to 10 inspires more oomph. But what happens when you get to 9, and I ask you to give me 5 more?
Most people would give up because they can’t rewire their brain to fathom this new instruction and act on it fast enough. Yet pushing past your perceived limit is where the real gains are. Pushing past your perceived limit is like a character in a fantasy movie opening a hidden door in a tiny closet that leads to a new dimension.
So, whatever you want to do or be, the first step is to do. A chef must cook, a thief must steal, a writer must write.
The second step is to do hard things. To push past your perceived limits.
So, what do you want to do? Who do you want to be? Do it. Be it.
Don’t feel like it? Do it anyway.
THINGS.
A quote.
It’s good to have some friends that you only catch up with once a year or less. They’ll notice things that people you talk to regularly won’t.
A picture.
I woke up wayyy too early a couple of weeks ago to see the Cherry Blossoms at Tidal Basin in D.C., and everyone had the same idea because there were more people than blossoms. But it was worth it.
WORK.
An engagement hack for your presentation
As part of my role as a teaching assistant, I lectured this week on Tuesday, and two tools produced magic for me and my audience.
Canva is PowerPoint that went to international school and took steroids.
But Mentimeter—another presentation software—allows you to engage a shy audience by asking them to respond to your questions anonymously. You can create quizzes, polls, open-ended questions, etc., and view/display the results in real time.
In my case, I uploaded a map of the world into Mentimeter and asked the audience to show me where they thought Kenya was. You can view the results below. Now imagine watching these bubbles populate on the screen in real time during a presentation 🤯.
FUN.
The Friday Fix playlist
Shem’s picks
✅ Explore Spotify’s full genre list
✅ This site lets you rank things objectively
✅ A quiz to find the perfect vacation for two picky travellers
✅ Rescue the chickens in this addictive game
✅ How many episodes should you watch before giving up on a new show?
Have a great weekend,
— Shem
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