- šLifeLemons
- Posts
- Make Your Life StoryWorthy
Make Your Life StoryWorthy
Iāve always believed that daily routines were for boring people.
To be honest, part of me still believes it.
At university, I had no routine, yet despite the lack of structure in my days, I got things done.
As a highly motivated lazy person, the old adage āwork hard, play hardā stuck with me. In fact, I made it my very own: āplay hard, then squeeze in hard workā.
The result was that Iād almost always give preference to a fun āmotiveā with friends.
You can find a hundred ways to criticise that and so could I, but something about it just felt right.
A Missing Piece of the Puzzle
Over the last couple of years, Iāve spent a lot more time by myself, time which has allowed me to observe my thoughts and behaviours more closely.
One thing I discovered was that I have a limited amount of mental bandwidth for the work I can achieve every day.
After I reach that limit, very little productive work gets done. Iām not sure many people have discovered this fact about themselves, but I have a feeling itās a universal phenomenon.
In an attempt to increase this propensity for work, I tried to sit at my desk for longer hours, confronting my tasks until I built more stamina.
Iāve reflected on this behaviour a lot, of which Iāve largely shared already, but for reference:
Overworking is bad. Creating time for spontaneity is good. Work smart, not hard and so on and so forth.
What Iāve only come to realise now is why exactly I miss that scrambling mess of a university routine.
Itās the reason I remember my days at university with crystal clarity.
Itās the reason I felt more outgoing and inviting.
Itās the reason why my friendships have strong foundations.
Regrets
Thereās great value in forming good habits. But what happens when your days are full of them? Your life becomes a habit; a controlled process of repeated actions.
A strong work ethic is also commendable, but who wants to be on a hamster wheel their entire life?
Do you know what one of the biggest āregrets of the dyingā is said to be?
āI wish I didnāt work so hardā.
Pardon my boldness, but Iād like to attempt to dissect this for a little more clarity.
I donāt think the regret is working hard, but rather, what the work made them miss (as explained by the original source).
Therefore, working at a lesser intensity can still occupy the same amount of time, leading to those same missed moments.
The answer then must be to create time for other moments.
But what exact moments should we be making time for?
Storyworthy
The moments I think we truly seek are those that are storyworthy.
Storyworthy moments are part spontaneous, part intentional. Not every spontaneous moment will be storyworthy, nor every intentional moment. But most storyworthy moments are spontaneous, and they require your intention to seize them.
The next time your friend is in town for a day, seize that opportunity to meet them, thereās a storyworthy opportunity in that reunion.
When someone asks you to skip your morning gym session for something new and exciting, consider it.
Donāt miss out on the regret of a storyworthy moment and donāt hide behind a wall of habits and routines, thatās not living.
Try to seize the storyworthy moments in your life Theyāre always another passing by, you just need to seize them as they come. There are very few things in life that influence our nature like stories do. The stories we tell make us more interesting. The stories we seek make us more interested.
And the story of our life is whatās most important, so make it the best it can be.
š If you made it this far, hit <reply> with a š + your comments. I read every one.
š Share this with your friends and tag me so I can share it. It really does go a long way in helping me spread my work.
š Read all previous articles on my personal website.
š„ Latest Youtube Videos - Subscribe!
š Quote of the Week
"Youāre never going to kill storytelling, because itās built in the human plan. We come with it.ā - Margaret Atwood
š The Weekly Link-Up
Links to things Iāve enjoyed this week and think you might enjoy too:
You may have noticed that this is the first time Iāve not drawn an illustration for this newsletter. Letās face it, it was never meant to be a work of art, but a gift of time and effort to show you all that I care about the work Iām putting out. Thatās until I found myself cutting corners on the writing to ensure I had enough time to get the illustrations done. Iām always willing to kill my darlings where needed, Iām sorry to say that this might be one of them :(
I spoke to my friend Dr Suga Roy on an Insta live. We talked about the intersection between medicine and content creation, her battle with scoliosis and how she grew her social enterprise āScoliownitā. Itās packed with wisdom from her so Iād love for you to check it out. Itās currently only on IGTV. Watch here.Iām thinking to speak to more people on InstaLive, itās pretty fun. Lemme know who I should speak to next!
One of my favourite Youtube videos Iāve seen in a long time and a testament to good storytelling, how Johnny Harris took a photo of a galaxy from his backyard. Highly recommend you watch this till the end.
Iām close to finishing the book āStoryworthyā by Matthew Dicks. Longwinded accounts of his stories for the first half. The second half has some great tips for storytelling but could have been more concise (I guess I was just impatiently searching for all the tips). Still, it brought back storytelling to the forefront of my mind and the inspiration to finish this long-awaited article.
If you'd like to support my free newsletter and videos, check out some of my genuine product/service recommendations that help me through affiliate commission: