Success and social pressures

They told us productivity would set us free. So we organized and optimized and checked all the boxes. We became very good at being very busy.

But in the quiet moments between tasks, I felt something missing. Not the missing of empty inboxes or completed lists. The missing of wonder. Of discovery. Of the slow, sacred act of paying attention.

So I

Strange, isn't it? To have dedicated one's life to a certain venture, neglecting other aspects of one's life, only to have that venture, in the end, amount to nothing at all, the products of one's labors ultimately forgotten?

George Saunders, Lincoln in the Bardo

Key #3. Prioritize Impact Over Image “When I quit The New York Times to be a full-time mother, the voices of the world said that I was nuts. When I quit it again to be a full-time novelist, they said I was nuts again,” said author Anna Quindlen. “But I am not nuts. I am happy. I am successful on my own terms. Because if your success is not on your

Anne-Laure Le Cunff • Tiny Experiments: How to Live Freely in a Goal-Obsessed World

I know this is controversial talk and antithetical to the success mantras of the metric obsessed, performative, materialistic, linear, Key Performance Indicator driven world we live in, but someone needs to play the role of the annoying child who questions lazily adhered to and potentially harmful conventions, if only to stress-test them. I mean,... See more

Thomas J Bevan • On New Year's Resolutions

For I have a single definition of success: you look in the mirror every evening, and wonder if you disappoint the person you were at 18, right before the age when people start getting corrupted by life. Let him or her be the only judge; not your reputation, not your wealth, not your standing in the community, not the decorations on your lapel. If... See more

Nassim Nicholas Taleb • Commencement Address, American University in Beirut

sometimes the most important thing we can do is let ourselves stay blurry. to be unbranded, unpositioned, undone for a while. because real self-knowledge is a slow, unmarketable process. and the lost feeling might just be the first sign that you’ve finally stopped performing someone else’s idea of a good life.

milk and cookies • why feeling lost might mean you’re finally doing it right

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