It's that T.I.M.E of the week again!

The newsletter that provides actionable life lessons to a wealthier, healthier, and happier future.

The Failure Budget

Most people treat failure like a fine China plate, handle it carefully, never drop it.

The problem? That makes you scared to try.

What if, instead, you had a budget for failure? A safe, planned allowance you could spend to take bold risks, without wrecking your confidence or reputation.

Enter…The Failure Budget

Imagine a piggy bank on your desk labeled “Failure Budget.”

You drop in little Risk Tokens: a bold sales pitch, a new product idea, a stretch workout, a cold outreach email.

Each “failure” you spend from this piggy bank isn’t wasted, it gets swapped into a second jar labeled Growth Bank. These are lessons and learnings that you can take out from the risk tokens you put in.

That’s the real payoff. Every attempt you make, win or lose, teaches you something, builds resilience, and strengthens your skills.

You set aside a portion of your energy, time, or resources every month just for experiments you might fail at.

• Launch the project that scares you.

• Speak up in the meeting.

• Try the move you’ve never done in training.

If it works, you gain results.

If it doesn’t, you gain insight.

And when you treat failure like something you’ve already budgeted for, the fear melts away. You’re free to act.

So here are some tips and action steps to help you implement this into your life:

Tips:

• Plan for failure. Don’t let it ambush you, expect it and use it.

• Spend it strategically. Aim your risks where the lessons will be richest.

• Grow from the spend. Track what you learn and how it’s helping.

Action Steps This Week:

1. Set your budget: Pick 3 things you’re willing to “spend” a failure on this month.

2. Make the deposits: Log each attempt in a notebook.

3. Cash in the growth: Write down one lesson from each attempt, win or lose.

Your failures aren’t debts, they’re investments. Spend wisely.

There is more and more evidence coming out about the connection between the gut and the brain and this episode is a great evidence based example of that.

Herbal medicine pioneer Simon Mills shares how plant-based remedies can address the hidden causes of illness, why your gut health matters more than you think, and the herbs that could rival your medicine cabinet.

What They Cover:

• How gut health influences almost everything in your body

• Natural alternatives to antibiotics, cold meds, and painkillers

• Everyday spices and herbs with powerful healing properties

• The role of diet (purple veg, turmeric, green tea, cocoa) in disease prevention

• Herbal approaches to women’s health, fertility, and inflammation

Why Watch:

• Learn practical, science-backed natural remedies

• Discover easy, daily habits to boost health and resilience

• Get expert insights from 50 years of herbal medicine experience

If you are someone who is interested in holistic healing, this is the episode for you!

Unpopular opinion: “The challenge is the shortcut.”

Short-term pain, long-term gain.

This edition of the newsletter marks one year since I started writing it.

I wanted to prove to myself that I could commit to something for a whole year without missing a Thursday, and I did just that.

I tried to get it out every morning at 6:00AM, but naturally, as life happens there were days when it just wasn’t possible, for a multitude of reasons.

There were times when I was really under the pump, on holiday, life events happened and somedays I hadn’t even started writing before I got home on a Thursday night, but I still managed to get it done.

I am now looking to tick some other boxes and perhaps learn things through a different medium.

So why am I telling you this?

Because consistency compounds.

It’s not just about building an audience or ticking a box, it’s about building yourself. Each week was a small win. Each win built momentum. And momentum builds identity.

Keeping this promise to myself proved something powerful: when you show up repeatedly, even when it’s inconvenient, you teach yourself that you can be trusted to follow through. And that trust is the foundation for every other goal you want to achieve.

So there you have it, the ThinkerNick newsletter has been a great tool for me to learn life lessons, ideas, concepts and frameworks, and share them with you, hopefully providing you with some value you can apply to your own lives along the way.

You may hear from me occasionally from time to time when I find powerful worth sharing.

Thanks for being apart of this journey and hopefully we’ll see each other again.

This is not a goodbye, but see you later.

Ambitious Question

Are you fixing the symptoms while ignoring the real root cause of your problems?

In case you missed last week:

TEACH – Shrink Your Balloon – Work expands to fill the time you give it, so set tight deadlines and work in focused bursts.

INSIGHTS – Quit Your 9 to 5 Job – Steven Bartlett reveals the CV mistakes, hiring secrets, and AI trends that could help you escape the 9–5 grind.

MOTIVATION – Shots You Don’t Take – Not trying is the only guaranteed failure—courage unlocks possibility.

EXPLORE – The Self-Help Trap – Stop creating problems just to fix them; real growth is sitting comfortably in stillness.

Ambitious Question – What problems am I creating that don’t need to be here?

Check it out here.

Feel free to share this if you gained any value from it. Feedback is also welcome.

THANKS FOR READING LEGENDS!