Passion vs Purpose, Social Media & Why Income Doesn't Bring Happiness

Hello my friend,

December, already.

I took some time off social media for November.

It felt odd for a couple of days. Like I was missing out again. Then it soon felt pretty good.

Like I had never had it in the first place.

I didn’t miss a thing.

I aim to take a break occasionally and this time around felt I needed it more.

I had to be honest with myself. I was too distracted. Getting caught up in other people’s worlds and distracting myself from my own.

Procrastination has been at a recent high. Social media absolutely didn’t help.

I was doing less of what makes me productive and of what brings me joy.

I was missing smaller details, paying less attention, and scrolling more on the move.

Without social media I gained a calmer mind and what felt like more free time.

I was paying more attention, enjoying more quality quiet time, having deeper conversations, finding more connected, reading more, thinking deeper, and looking where I was going!

More productivity, more intention, more present.

It was a fun month. Several events, concerts, travelling, great restaurants, nights out, quality time with my girlfriend and with friends, and I didn’t feel the need to share a single detail of it.

I can’t remember the last time I did that for a prolonged period.

I was off the grid and more in the moments.

It was refreshing.

Now I’m back online.

I’m curious to see if my relationship with it has changed. I enjoy social media a lot but I want to be more intentional with it. To use it, rather than it use me.

I’ll try and refrain from christmas selfies and updates - yet no promises there!

For anyone who regularly sends me videos of sleeping dogs, ultra running and David Brent, normal service is resumed. For now.

Passion may be the very thing holding you back from success.

The problem with passion from both a personal and professional perspective is that it is a parasite - it exists for its own sake. People go to Burning Man to find passion, to be around passion, to rekindle their passion. Notice they never tell you what they got done there, what it actually accomplished for them.

Purpose, on the other hand, wants only what it needs - and what it can get.

Passion is not your friend. It is your temptress. It’s the most insidious kind of laziness and resistance because it feels like you have an advantage. It feels like you’re going in the right direction, when it reality you’re not going anywhere at all.

That’s what I want you to understand. Passion isn’t helping. Not if you’re trying to do big things. We don’t need you to be excited or jazzed. The world has that in spades.

It’d actually be far better if you were intimidated by what lay ahead - humbled by its magnitude and determined to see it through regardless. Think gritty, not giddy.

Develop and articulate a real purpose for yourself, leave passion for the amateurs and the narcissists. Make it about what you feel you must do and say, not what you care about and wish to be. Then you will do great things. Then you will stop being your old good-intentioned but ineffective self.

- Ryan Holiday

Work with me

Do you have a busy lifestyle and struggle to make time for your fitness and health? If you are looking to take your energy, health and performance to the next level I can help you. My coaching gives you expertise, support and full accountability. Reach out here on Linkedin for a conversation and free strategy call.

Things I’m learning

Human life without healthcare was brutal.

Prior to the emergence of modern medicine, the average mortality rate was roughly 25% for infants and 40–50% for children across human evolution.

That is, nearly half of our would-be ancestors did not survive to reproductive age.

- Chris Williamson

The Happiness Lottery

In terms of the effect on happiness, having a friend you see regularly is worth $100,000 a year.

Being married is also worth $100,000.

Seeing your neighbor regularly is worth $60,000.

Other research suggests that income doesn’t have a lasting increase on happiness because people usually adapt to money. In contrast, marriage, family, and health have lasting increases on happiness and are immune to hedonic adaptation.

- Rob Henderson

Fail to learn, prepare to fail.

“Learning from failure has the status of a cliché. But it turns out that, for reasons both prosaic and profound, a failure to learn from mistakes has been one of the single greatest obstacles to human progress" - Matthew Syed

Question

We undervalue health if we have not recently experienced illness.

We undervalue wealth if we have not recently experienced poverty.

We undervalue kindness if we have not recently experienced cruelty.

What might you be undervaluing right now?

- James Clear

Life Hack

It takes 9 days to reset your caffeine tolerance.

Too dependant on coffee?

It only takes 9 days to fully reset your adenosine receptors.

December and January is a good time.

(I’m currently 3 days in - will update)

That’s it for this week. Thank you for reading as always.

If you like it please forward it on to someone - call it an early xmas gift ;)

With Love. Nick x

You can read the full article here.