Happy September 1st from The Quiet Rich— the weekly email to get “rich” in what matters most (like time, health, and a house full of love).

Today we’re talking about your future self 4 months from now (on January 1st, 2026). They called—and they wish you did this journal prompt today. 👇

CONTEXT

There are 4 months left in 2025. Most people will let them slip by on autopilot—working the same patterns, making the same mistakes, wondering where the time went.

But what if you locked in for the rest of the year?

Think about it. You've lived through 8 months of 2025. You've experienced joy, stress, breakthroughs, and setbacks. That's not just time passed. It’s a set of very helpful clues of what your “top 10% of days” are like. And if you listen to those clues, you’ll learn exactly what to do (and not do) to make the rest of 2025 remarkable.

The problem? Most of us never pause to extract the lessons. We just keep moving forward, repeating the same patterns that brought us stress while missing opportunities to create more of what brought us joy.

Your past 8 months are a blueprint for your best life. You just need to know how to read it.

THE METHOD

Here's my 3-step method to turn the rest of 2025 into your breakthrough year:

Step 1: Mine Your Memory

Grab your phone and open your calendar and camera roll. You're going on a treasure hunt through the past 8 months (January-August).

Write down:

• Your 5 most wonderful moments!

• Your 5 most stressful moments

Be specific. Don't just write "vacation." Write "That morning in Portugal when I woke up early, walked to the local café, and had the best conversation with a stranger over coffee who ended up becoming a close friend."

Your camera roll is so helpful here. Those random photos will trigger details you forgot.

—

Step 2: Find the Patterns

Now comes the magic. Look for consistent patterns through an “80/20 analysis.” (Btw, I love Mark Manson’s explanation of the 80/20 rule.)

For your BEST moments, ask:

• Was I with a particular person?

• Was I trying something new?

• Was I away from work/screens?

• Was I being spontaneous or was it planned?

For your WORST moments, ask:

• Was I saying "yes" when my gut said "no"?

• Was I burned out from overcommitting? (Here are my 6 minimalist habits to avoid burnout. That was one of my most popular LinkedIn posts ever).

• Was I comparing myself to others on social media?

• Was I avoiding a difficult conversation?

The patterns will surprise you. Maybe your top 10% of moments all involved being outdoors. Maybe your worst all happened when you ignored your boundaries.

—

Step 3: Design Your Next 4 Months

This is where you become the architect of your own life.

First, schedule more joy. Open your calendar right now and block off time for whatever brought you those top 10% days. If travel sparked joy, book that weekend trip. If deep conversations with your brother made the list, schedule monthly dinners. (We all need more “moments that matter.”)

Don't wait for "someday." Block time in the calendar.

Second, create your "Never Again" list. Write down the specific patterns that led to your worst moments. Print it out. Put it somewhere visible.

My list includes:

• "Never again will I spend hours responding to email first thing in the morning"

• “Never again will I leave less than 45 mins between connecting flights 😅”

• "Never again will I say yes to shiny new projects when I'm already overcommitted."

Always keep this list somewhere visible (so you don’t add things to your calendar out of obligation, guilt, FOMO, or other nonsense). In the words of Derek Sivers, “If it’s not a ‘hell yeah,’ it’s a no.”

CLOSING THOUGHTS

Your calendar is simply your life in tiny time blocks. Most people fill it randomly, then wonder why they feel unfulfilled.

But you're different. You're using actual data from your own life to make smarter choices.

The best part? Your future self is already thanking you. Because 4 months from now, when you're looking back on 2025, you'll have intentionally created more of what matters and eliminated what doesn't.

There's still time to make 2025 legendary. But only if you start designing it today.

(Pro tip: Forward this newsletter to someone you want to do this exercise with. Cheers to creating more top 10% days with that person for the rest of the year.)

Much love,

❤️ Jade

If I’m honest?

When I look back at my top 10% days this year, all of them happened because of a single choice I made in 2023: to start growing my personal brand online.

Seriously, look at my top 5 list:

• Getting the call from my literary agent that 16 of my dream publishers wanted to meet with me about the rights to my book

• Having the most competitive Archimedes cohort ever, with incredible stories every day of members growing their brands and their businesses

• Getting featured in Business Insider with my viral strategy to get promoted

• And two more that I can’t wait to tell you about very soon 😉

If you’ve been curious about growing your personal brand on LinkedIn (but not really sure where to start), I have a fun surprise for you.

Ben Meer and I are hosting a FREE MASTERCLASS on September 16th from 12-1pm EST.

We’re giving away our 7 secrets to build a million-dollar LinkedIn profile. Because your personal brand on LinkedIn has truly never mattered more than it does now.

Register here for free. Spots are limited.

Can’t make it live? Register anyway and we’ll send the replay to you.

(But those who attend live will get 4 incredible bonuses from us worth hundreds of dollars.) Can’t wait to see you then!