#41: The Fear of Uselessness

#SincereNotSerious #HighExpectations #InsecurityConfidence #WorkCompensation #FearUselessness

Oct 20, 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:

😒 Be Sincere, Not Serious
🧐 High Expectations
😱 Insecurity Screams, Confidence Whispers
💰 More Than Just Payment for Work
😨 The Fear of Uselessness
🗒️ A Quote I'm Pondering On
🎵 Music I'm Listening To

😒 Be Sincere, Not Serious

You can’t be serious and sincere at the same time. Seriousness precludes sincerity. For the most part, you’d be better served by being sincere rather than serious. Yet in life, we often gravitate towards the reverse. Does letting go of what I’m calling seriousness imply letting go of standards and striving to achieve difficult things? It doesn’t—because all of that is still possible through sincerity. The difference between seriousness and sincerity is not how involved you are in the activities of your life, but in how tightly you grip. In fact, I would go even further still: gripping less tightly can actually unlock better performance with much less effort. You are going to die one day, so ask yourself: does this situation really require such seriousness? After all, the point of the dance of your life is not to get to the end, but to enjoy the music along the way.

📖 8-min

🧐 High Expectations

A lot of people say, “If you want to be happy, don’t have expectations.” And I think that’s a really good way to be unhappy for the rest of your life because … if you don’t have expectations, you will just put up with everything. I mean, you don’t expect anything for yourself. With high expectations, with [a] kind of enforceability around that, you’re not going to put up with a bad relationship, a bad work environment, a bad employee, all of these types of things.”

📖 3-min

😱 Insecurity Screams, Confidence Whispers

The more aggressively someone tries to convince you of something, the more insecure they are in their belief. They will feel extremely confident about their most insecure beliefs. The more your beliefs rely on other people also believing them, the more worried you will be about their fundamental legitimacy, and the more aggressively you will feel the need to convince others of them. When you notice yourself trying to convince someone of your beliefs, it’s an opportunity to look at yourself and wonder why you care so much if they agree with you.

📖 4-min

💰 More Than Just Payment for Work

Compensation is not just about getting paid for your work. It's about being compensated for what your work deprives you of. Time is the most precious commodity we have, and our employers are paying us for the opportunity costs of investing our time in one particular form of work rather than in other activities. This means that every moment you spend at work is a choice, and your employer is paying you for that choice. It's easy to forget this. We get lost in the day-to-day and forget that we could be doing something else with the time we have. So, ask yourself: are you investing your time in a way that aligns with your values and goals? If not, it might be time to reassess your priorities and make a change. Because at the end of the day, time is all we have, and we should use it mindfully.

🎧 3-min

😨 The Fear of Uselessness

To be present is to surrender willingly and without resistance to the fleeting moments of life. Do not seek to control the uncontrollable, but rather embrace the groundless facts of existence. Do not meditate with the intention of becoming more productive or less anxious. Contemplation should not serve as a means to an end, but rather as a way to acknowledge the transience of life. Fear not the uselessness of life, for it is in the pursuit of meaninglessness that one can find true happiness. In a world where we are constantly bombarded with distractions, it is important to confront our mortality and embrace the present moment. Remember that life has no inherent purpose and we have limited control over our fate. Do not be afraid to play, to indulge in the things that bring you joy, and to accept life's lack of ultimate purpose.

🎧 3-min