Do You Live Your Life or Do You Plan to Live?
First time I found out about stress and that a certain amount of stress is actually good at the end of high school. Nowadays you can hear “It’s stressing me out” from a 7-year-old. Did life get stressful? Or did we create stress for ourselves on an everyday basis when we choose to do more than we can, should, need or want?
I just finished listening to a 3-hours podcast episode. The longest podcast I’ve ever come across, and it was totally worth the time. The podcast by The Diary of a CEO, in which Steven Bartlett interviewed Mo Gawdat, the former chief business officer for Google X and the founder of ‘One Billion Happy’ foundation. Episode title: 80% of Illness is linked to one thing! (linked in the notes below).
The main theme is how to live without stress, a theme of Mo’s newest book “Unstressable”. Mo talks a lot about when enough is enough and when a lot can be too much. And really, how do we define what’s enough? Why do we always have to increase the profit of our companies or double our income? When is enough enough?
Does the monetary reward we get by getting involved in ten projects and starting twenty five businesses be that important if we miss the time with our families? Why do successful (in monetary terms) people continue making more money and, literally, can’t stop? They buy more houses, build more, and sell more, but when does that “enough is enoughness” come in?
It’s important to understand why you do what you do. If you eventually want to spend time with your family, write your novel, or paint, why don’t you do this right now, and try doing so many different things to get to what you can already do now?
The other thing that really stuck with me was Mo's question: “Do you realize that while life is supposed to be lived, we spend most of it planning to live it?” We’re busy doing something or planning something, and we’re missing the life that is happening right now.
I’ve spent almost three months again with my family in Estonia, living in a small city where things are different from Sydney. Life seems simpler, and I seem to have more time for things I enjoy doing: writing, painting, walking, and learning.
I can go to the bank and post office, do grocery shopping, and walk to enjoy a view of the river within an hour. Maybe living in a smaller place helps. Maybe because of this, I also have less stress and fewer demands. Can I create a similar experience in Sydney? I believe I can, if I start prioritizing simplicity and decreasing the amount of projects I get involved in when I’m in Sydney.
In the last year, I asked myself this question: What can I not do? Not what I can do or what I should do, but what I can not do from the things I previously wrote down or thought that I had to do. We fill our lives with to-do lists and forget to have time to enjoy our life.
Listen to this episode. It stirs a lot of emotions, and you will not agree with everything. The episode touches on a variety of subjects, from dealing with stress and the difference between stress and anxiety to AI and relationships.
What I’m trying to think about now is what is enough for me. I thought I knew (I even had an amount), but it doesn’t seem that the amount in dollars would determine enoughness.
Mentioned: The Diary of a CEO With Steven Barlett. Mo Gawdat: 80% of Illness Is Linked to One Thing! An Alarming Warning for the Burnout Generation! If You Feel Like This, Quit Your Job Today.
Unstressable by Mo Gawdat.
Useful: I found the transcription of this episode here.
“It's not the events of your life that stress you. It's the way you deal with them that does.”
~ Mo Gawdat
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