Sahil Bloom tweeted this out a few days ago:
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And it really resonated with me. I'm sure it does with a lot of you as well. I'm guilty of feeling this guilt. Because by definition, if you have a strong desire to do or to achieve something, then you're going to want to spend a lot time working toward it. And any time not spent working toward it, can feel like an unnecessary slowdown or delay.
But it's easy to let time melt away when you're in this headspace and I'm trying to be better at not letting this happen. For one thing, there are diminishing returns to work. We all need free time and rest. It makes us better at everything else we do in life.
It's also really easy to fill our lives with unnecessary bullshit. The same thing happens in our homes when we're not paying attention: we end up collecting unnecessary stuff. So as Paul Graham argues in this 2016 essay called "Life Is Short", it's important to "relentlessly prune bullshit." Focus on the things that matter, and don't wait.
When you're ambitious, I think it's easy to become focused on the future. I've been told I do this too much. Achieving something usually requires hard work and determination, and that likely means it won't happen today; it'll happen at some point in the future. So it can be easy to discount the present. But nobody knows how much healthy future we all have.
These are all things that I'm trying to be better at and so I'm writing them down here as a reminder. How do you manage your work-life balance?
Cover photo by Christopher Gower on Unsplash
Neat B and I tried surfing for the very first time today in Biarritz. Our instructor was a 57-year old Frenchman who has been surfing for 50 years (he allegedly started when he was 7) and who spent some 20 years living in Costa Rica doing the same. Sounds super stressful, if you ask me. We both did well for our first time, and managed to catch waves and get up on our massive spongy boards. (This is what they give you when you have no idea what you're doing.) Naturally, we'll be doing the same thing tomorrow morning. Biarritz is an awesome place. It feels to me like the summer version of all the things I love about Utah in the winter -- breathtaking landscapes, chill vibes, and cool people doing fun things on boards and such.
Camera: Fujifilm X-T3 (23mm lens)