Now that I’m off social media AGAIN (not sure if LinkedIn counts), I’ve decided to start this site. I’ll post some cool things here and there. This first one is about why I left the trap.
I fall asleep to podcasts (when Adèle allows me). Usually it’s Joe Rogan, Chris Williamson, Andrew Huberman or Theo Von. A few weeks ago I was listening to Chris Williamson, and a guest on his podcast said something that resonated:
“The most dangerous people in society are lazy ambitious people.”
That is me. Hopefully soon, that was me.
I’d call myself ambitious. I’ve been lucky enough to have some pretty insane experiences growing up, and I want to work hard enough to one day pay for them myself and share them with the people closest to me.
But at the same time, I was on my phone 10 hours a day. I’m embarrassed to even write that, and I honestly don’t know how it’s possible.
That’s the problem with being ambitious and lazy. You want to be successful, but instead of working on it, you’re lying on the couch scrolling. Then you feel bad that you’re not working on your dreams, yet you scroll some more to feel better. And everything you scroll past is bigger and flashier, so your goals get unrealistically inflated while you do less to reach them. It’s a crazy vicious cycle.
Another issue is that the goalposts keep shifting, and you get desensitised. Be that with the cars you see, the girls and guys you see, the insane lifestyles, the insane fitness influencers. It’s creating a false, unrealistic sense of reality, and it hits the core pillars of life: money, love and your own body.
That gap and the comparison is where I believe this pandemic of depression is hitting so many souls.
I know the excuses. It’s all BS.
Chris Williamson put it like this on Rogan:
“You’ve already achieved goals you said would make you happy. How can you presume that your happiness sits on the other side of the next goal, given that it didn’t sit on the other side of the last one?”
Not that long ago, I was trying super hard to move to Rotterdam and live with my girlfriend. That was my dream. Now I’m living it, and I love it. But I was so consumed by my phone that I never took a moment to take a deep breath and soak it all in.
The goals you set yourself never stop growing. Hit one and there’s already a bigger one behind it. Getting off my phone does two things for me. It lets me actually live inside the goals I’ve already reached, absorb them, enjoy them. It also slows down, realistically, how fast the goalposts move. Without the feed, the comparison is with myself rather than everyone else, which I believe is healthier and more productive.
So I’ve deleted it! I’m not telling you to do the same, although I suggest it. Just have a look around. You might already be living a dream you wished for.
Best,
Luke