Re: Life / Four Lessons For 2024
My life condensed into variably interesting posts on the internet
Dear Re: Life,
Yesterday, the Earth officially completed another orbit around the sun. Life’s good.
To celebrate and get in the right headspace for next year, here are four ideas for 2024.
1. Renovate Yourself First
Most people try to achieve goals by trying to change their actions. More often than not, this feels like bashing your head repeatedly against a brick wall.
It's inevitable: the fallacy here is that we can't change our behavior instantly. If we could, we'd already be living perfect lives.
The truth is that no change in your life can ever stick unless you change yourself first.
Instead of desperately willing your current self to act a certain way, focus on becoming a person who does it effortlessly.
Growth happens from the inside out.
2. “Cherish Your Chi”
If you're ambitious, you've probably confronted the paralysis of choice. Life gives you a menu of infinite options and possibilities, but only a finite amount of time.
This leads to a common trap: trying to avoid the choice entirely by doing everything and being everyone at once. Unfortunately, in the history of humanity, zero people have done this successfully1
Every time you say yes to something, you implicitly say no to something else. When you say yes to that first job, you say no to eight hours of your day. When you take on another job, and run your side project, and start a family, you're probably saying no to food, or water, or sleep. The thermodynamics doesn't change. Opportunities come and go, but you can't create new time.
Your focus is limited. Save it for the adventures that excite you most.
3. Look To the Past as a Teacher
People have been around for hundreds of thousands of years. In that time, everything has changed, except our minds.
Next time you're facing a problem that you think no one else could possibly understand, remember those who came before you.
Earth is old. Humanity is ancient. In this huge expanse of time, the chance that you're the first to see anything is slim. As Marc Andreessen once said:
"[Over thousands of years] lots and lots of very smart people worked very hard and ran all types of experiments on how to create new businesses, invent new technology, new ways to manage, etc. They ran these experiments throughout their entire lives.
At some point, somebody put these lessons down in a book. For very little money and a few hours of time, you can learn from someone’s accumulated experience.
There is so much more to learn from the past than we often realize. You could productively spend your time reading experiences of great people who have come before and you learn every time."
It's comforting to know that nothing is new to history. When in doubt, remember that the answers you're looking for might be hiding in the past.
4. You’ve Already Won
According to a report from the UN, nearly three billion people don't have access to reliable internet2
In other words, by simply reading this newsletter, you're doing something that a third of the world would be jealous of.
Spin it however you want - whether it's food, running water, or education, the evidence all points to the same conclusion. You're incredibly, incredibly lucky.
When all you see every day are your equally fortunate neighbors, it gets easy to lose sight of the big picture.
Last year, when I visited San Francisco, my friend Aarav put it really nicely:
"You've already won. Lighten up a little! Chances are that the biggest problems you'll ever face won't even compare to the smallest problems someone else is worrying about."
Contrary to popular belief, there’s still a lot to smile about.
Happy New Year, everyone. See you next time!
Aaryan
This lesson was inspired by a conversation with my mentor, Dr. Paul Bollyky. Thanks for the inspiration!
Source: UN ITU Report