#90: The tyranny of realizing your own full potential
#SleepConsistency #ProductivityPressure #SharedStruggle #AuthenticJourney
👋 Welcome to Pursuit, where we explore the art of living well. My name is Amir, and each week, I go over 10 hours of content about personal growth and mental well-being, bringing you four insights and thought-provoking perspectives from leading thinkers. I hope to have a tiny impact on your life and inspire you with the tools to lead a more fulfilling life. Join us on this journey of continuous improvement and discovery.
In this week's edition, we have Zim as our guest author. He runs a newsletter focused on unique cultural and art scene events in Berlin. Zim is curious to ask you an existential question, and frankly, I'm also eager to know your answers. So, don't be shy to leave your responses in the comments. Even if you don't, I would love for you to ponder the question.
This week’s discovery:
😴 Regular sleep pattern & mortality risk
😰 The tyranny of realizing your own full potential
🥰 Your’s not alone ~ Lisa Olivera
🦅 The cage we choose (by Zim)
If you’re interested in listening to this week’s newsletter, you can follow Pursuit’s podcast on Spotify or other popular podcast platforms. Here’s this week’s episode:
😴 Regular sleep pattern & mortality risk
Like many of you, I've struggled with getting a good night's sleep. I used to wake up at 5:30 AM on weekdays to exercise before work, which meant going to bed at 9:30 PM. This routine left no time for socializing during the week. Even worse, on weekends, I had to force myself to stay awake during evening gatherings. Everything changed when I listened to an episode of Huberman Lab about the biology of sleep. Here's what I learned:
A study involving 60,000 individuals revealed those with consistent sleep patterns had a 39% lower risk of mortality compared to those with irregular sleep. When delving deeper, a 35% decrease in cancer-related deaths and a staggering 60% drop in cardiovascular mortality were identified. Interestingly, sleep regularity had almost twice the impact on mortality risk compared to sleep duration. The takeaway? Consistency in sleep is vital. The time you turn off the lights and slip into slumber needs to be consistent.
After learning this, I asked my company to allow me a mid-day break for exercising. This allowed me to bring weekday and weekend sleeping hours close to each other and achieve a more regular sleeping hours. I'm incredibly grateful for this flexibility and the positive impact it has had on my life. Sometimes, all you need to do is ask.
😰 The tyranny of realizing your own full potential
I struggle to believe I'm worthy of moments of joy and peace without first putting myself through a brutal schedule monitoring my productivity levels down to the minute perhaps some people apply this earn your cookie mindset in ways that lead to healthy achievements not me mine is a mutation whereby joy and self-compassion are regularly outlawed by an internal tyrant who decides when I've been flogged enough for one day just when I'm about to collapse a voice inside says okay give him half an hour of peace before bed but make sure he knows we'll start again bright and early in the morning.
We often feel we need to constantly justify our own existence through our work and accomplishments, and even if we enjoy our work, we feel pressure to realize our full potential, which is an elusive and never-ending goal. This mindset leads to a sense that the best one can hope for is to break even, to get to zero-balance, rather than feeling inherently worthy as a human being. It doesn’t have to be this way. You’re worthy for you are and how you’re influencing the life of other around you.
🥰 Your’s not alone ~ Lisa Olivera
Know you aren’t alone. Know your trying matters. Know the growing edges of it all aren’t a sign you’re doing something wrong, but a sign you’re traversing something important. Know you don’t need to get it perfect, nor can you. Know you are allowed to receive nurturance, even when it is surprisingly uncomfortable. Know the grief and beauty all swirled together makes so much sense. Know the work, maybe even the surrendering, of allowing your adult self to lead the way is worth the discomfort of it. And know you don’t need to do any of it alone.
🦅 The cage we choose (by Zim)
There's been a question on my mind for a while: If I got €10 million in cash today, what would I do with my life? I haven't been able to give myself a convincing answer.
I asked this question at a party, curious about what others would do. Almost without exception, everyone said they'd quit their jobs. But none of them knew what they'd do next. Some even said they'd probably end up back at the same job—not because they love it, but because they don't know what else to do. The uncertainty of not knowing what to do stresses them out, and they'd rather avoid it. How fuckin sad is that? It's like a bird in a cage that, when freed, chooses to stay simply because it doesn't know where else to go.
I'd like to ask you the same question: What would you do? Maybe you could share your thoughts in the comments to inspire others. But please, don't give one of those "I'll get a house in the south of France and live there with my pets" answers. I'm asking for something truly worth your time and life on this finite journey.
📸 Love the quotes? Join me on Instagram for daily doses of inspiration, highlights from my readings, and more thought-provoking content. Follow @pursuit.community and let's continue our journey of growth and discovery together!
🎵 Discovery for your ears
You’ll find mostly Ethnotronica, Organic House, World, Disco, and Organic Electronic here:
🎧 If you appreciate the music I carefully select and haven't followed my Spotify playlists yet, now is the perfect time to hit that follow button and join me on this musical journey! 🎶
🌒 Pano: Danceable and electronic obscure songs
🌓 Sisy: Ethnotronica and organic house
🌑 Berghain: Dark, minimal techno and tech house
🌕 Heide: Groovy soul and disco house
🌞 Sonntag: Afterhours shit
🌎 World: From Latin jazz to Turkish psych
🌚 Super Slow: For your intimate moments
Previously on Pursuit:
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