TLDR I’m officially pausing the blog updates here and moving things around. The archive of existing posts will still be here, but everything new will exist on Substack, which allows me to share and send posts with less admin effort.
Dear Reader
Feeling stuck? Ask yourself these questions.
Happiness is a skill.
"Socially we're told 'Go work out. Go look good.'
That's a multi-player competitive game.
Other people can see if I'm doing a good job or not.
We're told, 'Go make money. Go buy a big house.'
Again, external multi-player competitive game.
Training yourself to be happy is completely internal.
There is no external process, no external validation.
You're competing against yourself - it is a single-player game."
- Lifted from The Almanack of Naval Ravikant - a shorthand guide to wealth, health, and happiness that I just finished this morning.
Maybe that's why happiness is so hard to maintain (as an only-child I am 100% certain that single-player games are not as stimulating as playing against others).
Nevertheless, it's a skill I'm working on and getting better at every day.
How?
By focusing on the present (not future-casting or past-regretting)
Accepting the things I cannot change (and discarding of the desire for it to be any other way)
Gratitude (basic)
Sadness as Intuition
Do It Again (The Value of Repetition)
Put Your Money Where Your Heart Is
More than ever I'm working to align my purchase habits with my values.
If I want to support independent artists and black-owned, women-owned, LGBTQ-owned businesses, I need to wean myself off of Prime delivery and make time for the more conscious choice.
Basically, I'm here for making Patreon memberships, Substack subs, Venmo donations, and Cashapp tips my love language in 2021. *Giving and receiving, to be clear*