How to Reinvent Yourself

It has nothing to do with New Year’s resolutions.

I know this might sound like a bit of a strange goal to give myself, but hear me out.

As a general rule, I put way too much pressure on myself and that is a very efficient way of taking the fun out of literally anything. By the way, I see this everywhere. I think this whole generation is struggling with this.

We don’t have hobbies anymore. Everything is a side hustle.

I made a short list of topics that I’ll be focusing on in 2022. These three simple things.

1. Don’t Wait

We are killing time, waiting for things to happen to get back to normal. Except we’re not going back to normal.

Normal was never normal.

I’ve been thinking about it a lot because I admit there were a lot of moments this past year where I just thought, “Well, we just have to get through this and things will get better.”

I was playing wait. But I don’t want my whole life to be a waiting game. Basically, I’m not going to expect the world to change or improve for my benefit.

I’m not going to wait to try to make the things I dream of come true or to start my projects. If that requires finding creative solutions to all of that, so be it.

I’m always trying to remind myself that it’s a miracle that I’m alive, that it’s actually quite unlikely that I exist and not just take that for granted. I have to value it while I have it.

Quick productivity tip, if you want to immediately double your productivity get off social media. I guess that ties in with my point of not waiting because when I look back on my life. I think about what are the things that I will remember as important.

There are not going to be TikToks, they are not going to be Instagram reels. I have nothing against TikTok or Reels or anyone who enjoys those things, but I’m also not sorry when I say that they don’t align with my priorities, with my goals.

For me, there are better ways to spend my free time or to give myself a break. I really need some mental space and I find that overstimulation is paralyzing me.

2. Love of Fate

The way I interpret that is essentially, an enthusiastic acceptance of everything that happens to you in life, which is exactly the approach that I want to have towards all the obstacles that I have in my life.

I’m not saying I’m good at it, I’m just saying I work hard at it.

Let life surprise you and the doors that open, the flexibility that provides in all situations. Nietzsche, the philosopher wrote a lot about that idea.

My formula for greatness in a human being is the love of fate: that one wants nothing to be different, not forward, not backward, not in all eternity. Not merely bear what is necessary, still less conceal it — but love it.

I wasted a lot of time this year thinking and obsessing over past mistakes or wishing things were different. All I can say about that is that it brought nothing to my life other than exhaustion.

At the end of the day, there’s a lot of nonsense out there. A lot of things have gone wrong. Many reasons to be angry.

There’s a lot of change going on and a lot of it’s scary and uncomfortable but I’m not going to let any of those things take away my excitement for today for what I’m doing, for what I’m going to create, and for what I will discover about myself.

3. Pay more Attention

This is very personal I guess, but I really enjoy doing things.

More and more I feel an intense attraction to the world of analogue and I’m loving it. Analogue capture of ideas with pencil and paper, analogue journal.

I think one of the big imbalances I’ve felt this year, was the impact of the distractions and strong stimuli that exist out there, being distracted by the waves of social media, podcasts, videos, articles, and all that.

None of these things is bad by themselves, but it’s more than all the quantity, it is the constant and incessant bombardment, it’s the overload that is harmful.

I want to pay more attention in my life. I want to pause more, reflect more often, and stop doing many things simultaneously.

Anything with real value takes time.

Final thoughts

It’s going to be difficult and it’s going to take a lot of discipline, consistency, and focus but I would like to write/journal for an hour a day in the afternoon and meditate for half an hour, in the morning, or at night.

In between, I can do the rest of my work but I would love to start and end the day with those two hours.