This blog article was first published under the name: “What a First Blog Post Looks Like.” It has since been modified and updated to fit the evolution of this blog.
There isn’t anything extraordinary written in here. I’ve merely set out to explain to you a little bit about what you’re reading and what you can expect.
As any creative will tell you – the first steps are always the hardest. Not that the rest of it gets easier, necessarily; the same negative voices persist no matter how successful you get, they just change their costume. But they are the hardest because you are going from zero to something, and that takes a lot of effort.
I’ve been struggling to create a coherent first article, and I’m sharing this with you because it’s part of the creative process that I am living right now. In fact, this is what Enjoytheshitoutoflife is about – embracing the mediocrity of trying new things, overcoming the stigma against switching your mind and trying something else, and eventually making time for the things you really enjoy doing.
At the time of writing, this is what hard work looks like:
That’s me after an evening of struggle trying to get to this point. After all of the emotional turmoil that transpired tonight, I finally thought, screw it! Chances are only a handful of people will read this anyway, so I’ll go on to explain to you what I came here to explain in the best way I can.
First, a Word About This Project
This blog has been through quite an evolution since it first began. It started out wanting to be everything to everyone. My ambition to create was much more than I could possibly do on my own just starting out.
Over time, inspiration would strike, and I would work to implement it. And shortly after, inspiration would get struck down like a pile of fruit that was defying all laws of gravity just waiting to topple.
I don’t claim to be beyond that. I’m growing and adapting this space to refine it into something that works, just like I am refining myself every day. Staying stagnant is boring, and so I find myself exploring new things and testing them out, even if they’re bound to fail.
That spirit of trying things out and not being afraid to scrap a bad idea is part of the point I’m trying to make here.
David Epstein, Range
“We learn who we are only by living, and not before”
Aim for Range
When I first read the book “Outliers” by Malcolm Gladwell, I was convinced that hyper-specialization early on in life was the answer to getting ahead. It left me both convicted to do great things and discouraged about all the things I already hadn’t done.
What I did next reflected my true thoughts about the subject of hyper-specialization, though I didn’t realize it until I read the book Range, by David Epstein.
My takeaway from Outliers was to cater toward people who hadn’t yet invested 10,000 hours into a specific field and encourage them to sample a bunch of different things by just investing 20 hours to start. Smaller chunks make the daunting task of finding your life’s calling much easier to handle.
The reason I chose that approach was because that has been my approach and I have found a lot of enjoyment and success with it. My heart breaks when I see people not even try to go after something they’re excited about because they’re afraid of the mountain in front of them. The dream becomes a pipe dream, which becomes regret, which is overall a negative experience. Instead, investing a few hours into it could reveal it as a worthy endeavor (in which case – keep going, you’ve already started!) or a waste of time (in which case – scrap it and move on to the next thing!).
Range is much more powerful than specialization (for the vast majority of us).
Nothing is so Serious that You Can’t Have Fun
I’ve resolved that life is meant for enjoying and that whether or not I like something is important. If you enjoy what you’re doing, you will do a better job than someone who is miserable doing the same work.
For a long time, I’ve shouldered a crushing weight of responsibility to do things that I think I should be doing – such as anything contributing to solving the world’s problems.
Am I putting in enough effort?
Am I self-indulging too much when others are suffering needlessly?
Is the work I’m doing now the most efficient way of spending my time?
Shun those questions!! I’ve learned that they are the wrong ones to be asking. If we all sample a bunch of things in life to find the things that we truly enjoy and are good at, then we will fill in the gaps and rise together as a team. We each contribute by doing what we do best at 100%.
I’m speaking to the people who have a choice to make every day about what we do with our time. I’m speaking to the people who want to do great things but don’t know how. I’m speaking to the people who feel a growing sense of obligation to the world but don’t know how to fulfill it.
You’re my people. We share a similar struggle.
I’m choosing to pursue my trusted path of broadening my experiences and becoming an expert generalist because I believe it is leading me in the right direction. I’m here to share that to normalize being a generalist and having many interests that don’t seem to add up to anything in the moment.
Final Words
Enjoying life is not the same as being cheery all the time.
Enjoyment is deep – it’s at the soul level. You can feel deep within you if you are fulfilled by something because, much like love, it’s something that cannot be easily explained.
Enjoyment is hard to come by and the path has been commercialized, which makes it near impossible to discern truth from sales. We’re not equipped to make those discernments; we’re supposed to be able to trust our community to lead us in a direction that’s best for us. Instead, we often get led in a direction that some people chose as best because it made them a bunch of money.
Being cheery is what we get when we follow the commercialized path. It’s the story we tell each other to lessen the pain of not feeling fulfilled in our souls. We’ve been made to believe that if we put on a happy face, we will be happy eventually.
But do we trust those feeding us this narrative?
I don’t. And I know from first-hand experience that it’s possible to be deeply, truly, undeniably in love with life and at the same time depressed, exhausted, and impatient at times. A happy soul speaks to other souls even beyond a few bad days, but a cheerful face is transparent.
That right there is the true power behind following the journey that will make your soul happy. Your soul will shine.
