#36: Finding Your Rhythm in Imperfection

#Productivity #ClarityVsConfusion #CreativePractice #Rest #Fun

Sep 15, 2023

👋 Welcome to this week's Pursuit. My name is Amir, and each week I go over 10 hours of content in pursuit of living a meaningful, fulfilling and balanced life. I'm grateful to share my findings with you and hope I can have a tiny impact on your life. Subscribe now if you haven't already!

This week’s discovery:

🎯 What You Work on
🤔 Compatibility: Clarity vs. Confusion
🎼 Finding Your Rhythm in Imperfection
🛌🏼 The Importance of Rest and Rejecting Capitalistic Ideals
😂 Creating a Playful Atmosphere for Fun
🗒️ A Quote I'm Pondering On
🎵 Music I'm Listening To
📱 An app recommendation

🎯 What You Work on

It doesn’t matter how fast you move if it’s in a worthless direction. Picking the right thing to work on is the most important element of productivity and usually almost ignored. So think about it more! Independent thought is hard but it’s something you can get better at with practice. Don’t fall into the trap of productivity porn—chasing productivity for its own sake isn’t helpful. Many people spend too much time thinking about how to perfectly optimize their system, and not nearly enough asking if they’re working on the right problems. It doesn’t matter what system you use or if you squeeze out every second if you’re working on the wrong thing.

📖 9-min

🤔 Compatibility: Clarity vs. Confusion

The truth is that what is right for you will come to you and stay with you and won’t stray from you for long. The truth is that when something is right for you, it brings you clarity, and when something is wrong for you, it brings you confusion. You get stuck when you try to make something that’s wrong for you right. When you try to force it into a place in your life in which it doesn’t belong. You get split; you breed this internal conflict which you cannot resolve. The more it intensifies, the more you mistake it for passion. How could you ever feel so strongly about something that isn’t right?

📖 4-min

🎼 Finding Your Rhythm in Imperfection

Not everything you create/make/put out there is going to be your “best work”, or even “good” by your own measurement. But for some of us, sharing imperfect work is part of the practice. Not waiting until we've one-upped ourselves before sharing is part of the practice. Finding a rhythm is part of the practice. Getting more comfortable being seen as a flawed and complicated human & creative is part of the practice — of creating, of sharing, of doing the work we're here to do. And sometimes, removing the pressure to make your “best work” every time you sit down to create gives you the space needed to keep going.

There is an endless heap of solid ground found even amongst the least known path when we enter it from a place of integrity. There is a wide-open field of possibility when we choose to leap toward what we most desire, whether or not we ever even reach it — the leap itself is the honoring of self.

📖 6-min

🛌🏼 The Importance of Rest and Rejecting Capitalistic Ideals

If you're one of those people who always feels the need to be doing something in order to feel productive, it's time to rethink your approach to rest and relaxation. Rather than viewing rest as a means to grind more and be more productive, consider it a divine and human right that you have simply because you exist. This idea may go against the societal notions of productivity influenced by capitalism, but it's important to remember that you are enough just as you are. To incorporate rest into your routine, try practicing active rest through activities like dance classes or nature walks that allow you to connect with your body and mind. And when it comes to hobbies, don't feel pressured to monetize them. Instead, do them for the sheer joy of it, without the rush and urgency that comes with trying to make money. Remember, you don't need to be productive all the time to be deemed worthy.

🎧 3-min

😂 Creating a Playful Atmosphere for Fun

If you want to be a fun person, it's not about being the life of the party or constantly cracking jokes. It's about creating a playful atmosphere and making others feel comfortable and at ease. In fact, according to a survey, people don't associate fun with intrinsic characteristics or extroversion, but rather with specific learnable skills like being open to new experiences, laughing easily, and making others feel appreciated. So, if you want to be a fun person, start by letting down your guard a little, appreciating others, and embracing a mindset of levity. Help others feel safe and tap into their playful side, and soon enough, you'll find yourself surrounded by joy and laughter, growing like a little fire.

🎧 3-min

🗒️ A Quote I'm Pondering On

Some knowledge we acquire lies dormant until enough time and experience has passed until they are meaningfully realized.

🎵 Music Tracks I'm Listening To

🎧 You’ll find mostly Ethnotronica, Organic House, World, Disco, and Organic Electronic here:

📱 An app recommendation

Last week, my company's HR department asked me to send them a photo of myself to be used for my employee testimonial on our website. They requested that I send an AI-generated avatar, if possible. This prompted me to search for a tool to create cool AI avatars from my image. I came across Photoleap and it worked like magic. I spent a lot of time playing around with it, and it was really fun.