“This is what Someday is all about. How we automatically postpone what would make us happy because we assume it will be there waiting for us later and we think we have ‘more important’ things to do now. But, there aren’t more important things for you to do now.”
From “Someday Is Not a Day in the Week”, by Sam Horn
The hardest part for me when doing something isn’t knowing what to do, but taking the first step to actually doing it. So for me, this book was particularly relevant. Sam describes step by step a number of mind hacks in order to reason your way out of a apathetic stupor, and provides a number of discrete heuristics to judge where we are on various spectrums (like happiness).
I like this book because it provides a number of concrete steps to how you can improve your life, which increase in intensity of effort and likely effect. Some ones I enjoyed are:
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Clarify what you want: This is one of the biggest challenges for me; one reason I think I get into unhappy situations is because I don’t know what I want, which means in those situations I’m unhappy with whatever I get. Knowing what you want provides a compass so that when you get what you get, you have a direction to go in to get happier.
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Don’t Wait for Work You Love; Create Work You Love: Over the years, I’ve found my identity defined by the problems I chose to face, or not face. I’ve also found that my perception towards my problems not necessarily defined by the number of problems I have, but rather the share of problems I want to have and the problems I don’t have to have. So counterintuitively, if I have a lot of problems weighing me down, I consider making more. More problems I chose to make change my perception on what problems I currently face, and maybe solving some of those new problems will indirectly help solve the older ones.
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Integrate Your Passion and Profession: I have a very utilitarian mindset where it’s difficult for me to appreciate things that don’t bring immediate observable value to my life. I’m working on that, but combining passion and profession helps in alleviating that worry and that stress, and helps put the enjoyment front and center.