(selecting what you really want).
My 20's were filled with seeking adventure, fun, and dopamine.
As I've gained more years, so have I gained more responsibilities.
Not all the things I enjoyed doing are worth the same anymore.
I began to see things in two groups.
Doing things like mindlessly scrolling Instagram, watching TV, or seeking out desserts feels like "cheap thrills"
Doing things that matter more to me and feel more rewarding, but take more time to achieve or require discomfort to do well. I call the later "meaningful rewards." These are the things I want to do with the life I've been gifted.
The way I've done fewer actions for "cheap thrills" and more actions for "meaningful rewards" is to categorize the behaviors I used to do into these two groups.
From there, I eliminated the consideration of "cheap thrills."
The interest in these "cheap thrills" still arises occasionally, but when I see how low value they are to me in comparison to the "meaningful rewards," I let them go to have more resources for the "meaningful rewards."
Now the focus is on increasing the percentage of my resources spent on "meaningful rewards" and reducing the percentage on "cheap thrills" and "not genius zone tasks."
What percentage of time are you spending on "cheap thrills?"
What percentage of time are you spending on "meaningful rewards?"
From Terrified, to Prepared
Last night’s dream placed me in confrontation with a hungry crocodile and equipped me with tennis racket. How did I win?
I woke up.
Shook by the experience, I felt a sense of terror, fear, and sure defeat. I mean, what else could I have done to win in that situation? I felt quite powerless.
Me? A soft looking creature that doesn’t hunt large animals. The crocodile… A scary looking creature that hunts large animals.
Eventually, when I came to, I recognized that I was focusing on an immediate sense of how dangerous this creature was to me, but ignored variables that would reveal how I could win.
Like, they only sprint a short distance and ziz-zag running confuses them (I can sprint faster)
or that they don’t like loud noises (I can yell loud)
or they hate being hit on their snout or eyes (the racket could help)
While I’m not seeking to face a crocodile in another dream soon, I do feel more prepared to solve a situation like that.
So, what steps must we take to go from afraid to solution?
Here are they are: (The detailed answer would depend on the challenge)
Investigate the tasks people did to over the challenge you have today
Recruit the help of someone for whom that challenge is a breeze.