Alright, I’m back! I guess I’ll settle at weekly for the long term.
Anyway, today’s article is about how if you want to optimise your life, you may find that many of the little things you can do and integrate already have roots in your life. It’s not something wholly new you got to learn and start from scratch!
Of course, first of all, I must emphasise that sometimes, new elements that were totally not in your life before can indeed make a monumental change! For instance, I learnt singing for the first time back in 2022, and it seems to have become an integral part of my life since.
Still, there is also so much that you might possibly be able to enjoy just from what was already in your life before!
Now I got to address one myth that I previously believed in for some time, but I’ve come to see the falsehood of now. Basically, it is that things that you are okay with not being in your life probably don’t mean so much then.
A quick example. For instance, this blogging thing. It was gone from my life for so long! And I was thoroughly okay with it not being in my life. Still! Does that mean that it doesn’t! matter whether my life has it or not then? No! Presented with two options, considering the enjoyment and/or meaning I derive from blogging, the option where blogging is present is really quite an attractive one!
So basically, the idea is to not look at things from the perspective of negatives.
As in, don’t be like – well, since my life would probably be relatively fine even without that element, let’s just persist without it then!
Let’s just consider the analogy of a dish.
Yeah, maybe this ingredient is not exactly one that makes or break the dish. Even without it the dish would still be delicious enough!
But hey! Consider the fact that this ingredient really, really synergises insanely well with that dish and brings out the enjoyment of the meal that much more! Brings even more insane ratings and reviews over!
Yeah, perhaps the dish would still be fine and tasty enough without said ingredient X, fine. But still! Does this really not warrant adding that ingredient to the dish to round out the meal and make it all that spectacular beyond measure?!!
No, right!
And so life is the same. Think of yourself, for instance, as the main character of a role playing game now. There are some elements of this character in this game of life that thoroughly aligns with them and just absolutely makes them who they are. Now then!! Would this character still be this character if one of their sub skills which oh so perfectly coordinates, meshes with and enhances their main skills were not there?
You are who you are because you are you! And so your job, perhaps, is to craft the perfect dish of the person that is you, going infinitely closer to your higher self in a spiritual sense, going to that Max Level perfect! character in the game sense!
Anyway, yeah. That’s what I feel about blogging weekly now, or reading a page of a Japanese light novel daily now. They align great with me and make me me.
Oh, and I gotta say a few things here.
One thing is that these things simply don’t have to be very jaw-droppingly productive in the first place. The very most important factor, rather, would be the sustainability, cueing the incredible long-term presence of that element in your life that accompanies that.
For instance, yeah, one page of a Japanese light novel per day is kinda pitifully little. I mean, during the pandemic lockdown period, I had a phase of reading 5 pages a day! But still! Think of it this way okay.
That was just for a one-time self-directed project basis. On the other hand, this is something that can last a lifetime! And over a year, I’d have at least finished a book! Now, compare that to not even having this routine in my life in the first place?!
See, one thing that previously captured my attention is the 100 hour rule. It states that if you perform an activity for 100 hours, you’ll already be better than 95% of people in it! Of course then there’s the 1000 hour rule, which states that if you wanna became an absolute expert, or master…
But that’s not the point! See, if you just devote a bit of time to something on a regular basis, over time it accumulates and propels you to spectacular heights! Like, even if it’s only 10 minutes a day, in just 2 years you’ll already be able to kinda show it off in the sense of at least! being that top 5%!
Meanwhile, I must emphasise that you don’t! commit to these activities simply because of ego or wanting to show off or something like that. God forbid! No! Rather, it should simply be because of the enjoyment you derive from the activity in itself.
Like, as in, some of these activities might not even seem to provide any real value from doing them! Like, sure, my Japanese might improve to N1 to N2 quite smoothly because of this, or so on and so forth. Yeah, depending on the activity itself, them gains will surely be evidently observable in their own way!
Like, even if it’s as seemingly impractical as consuming media or a trivia learning frenzy, at some point you’ll even be able to really really vibe and belong in the particular relevant community because of it! And that surely means a lot too!
What I want to say is – just do those activities because of the being state it puts you in. Now, this article has been going on for quite long already, so I think I’ll just give a real life example of something which simply in full did not resonate with me very well at all when I was acting upon it for the sake of doing, but now in being it really clicks very, very well.
So basically it’s piano. Back then I wasn’t very enthusiastic about it aka preparing for the exams very much at all. If you ask me I would only give it my 45% when practising for the exams. And once I failed the diploma exam by a few marks I just stopped trying to take the exam altogether and even felt like, well, it’s no wonder that I failed, I mean, I don’t even feel like I’m very aligned with this endeavour at all!
Which led to a very!!! ambivalent relationship between me and piano because I simply didn’t see the point of playing it at all because what! was the point anyway?? It would just entertain me, I had some skills I would apply these skills cool and then it would be over. And I would not!! feel the urge/pull/draw to go back to playing it really.
But now this relationship has changed!!!
So basically, nowadays, it’s become something of a regular routine for me, almost daily even, to play the piano for a bit. And I find myself really enjoying how I am increasing my skills and increasing my mastery of the songs that I am playing in particular. And becoming able to execute the performance of them!
So a few days ago I even tried playing one of the exam pieces that I had gained relative mastery in before. Now, this really is significant!! See, the songs that I am playing atm, I am playing because I feel like it. Sometimes, I go back to songs that I’d acquired before, and the muscle memory makes it much easier for me to pick them up.
However!!! When playing this Bach prelude song, I found that, even though I had gained relative mastery in it before, I simply couldn’t! muster the interest to try to pick it up now!! It felt dreary, a drag.
Now, I had learnt this song before, but it was only for the exam, for the sake of doing as opposed to being. Meanwhile, the song in itself did not! bring me enjoyment! And I felt no! pull/urge to go relearn it at all even though me having acquired it before should technically make it far!! easier! And I distinctly recall how I might have treated it like a bit of an ego booster before, like kinda showing off to a certain degree!
But no. Now, I am playing it for me, from a completed version of me. I no longer – far from it- playing for the sake of boosting my worth from achievement or validation! I play for the sheer process of playing, for the pure process itself, and how much that itself fills me!
Meanwhile, I think I can say the exact same thing about the very writing of this article itself! I have derived enjoyment from the act of writing! In comparison to that, the result far pales and it shall be as it shall be! Such is a more …ahem… spiritually developed way of thinking of thinks tbh…
Just want to conclude by saying that I am currently in a stage of my existence where I kinda feel my routines themselves fill me to a considerable degree and well isn’t that nice. Especially as a 6th house North Node hah. Anyway, if you don’t get the reference, it’s okay! Pertaining to the dish/food analogy, basically it’s that I’ve been working on it and I’m rather satisfied with it right where I am right now!
Yep! That’s the end for this week! And I’ll be back next week! Okay bye!