How big is the tank you’re living in?
Learn how small nonverbal signals amplify presence, why self-trust beats perfectionism, how teaching self-trust changes futures, and how expanding your environment unlocks growth.
August 30, 2025 - Issue #133 - read online
👋 Welcome to Pursuit—your weekly pause for intentional living, self-discovery, and inner clarity. My name is Amir, and every week I share four carefully chosen ideas to help you design a more fulfilling life.
This week’s reflections:
🌌 Three small nonverbal signals for presence
💪🏻 What would happen if you trusted yourself more?
💧 Tiny reflections
🐠 How big is the tank you’re living in?
🌌 Three small nonverbal signals for presence
How you are perceived is not only about what you say. It is also about the nonverbal signals you send. Small, intentional cues can change how others respond to you.
1️⃣ Open palm greeting
Show your palm when you say hello. A wave or an open-handed handshake signals warmth and approachability. Open hands are a universal sign of friendliness and safety.
2️⃣ Eye contact at the end
Hold eye contact at the end of a sentence. This timing signals certainty and helps your words land. Competent communicators do not only make eye contact. They place it.
3️⃣ Lower lid flex
Slightly narrow your eyes, as if focusing on something far away. Used sparingly, this conveys attention and intensity. It tells the other person, I see you.
Practice these three cues and you will project more confidence, presence, and connection.
✨ From The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
💪🏻 What would happen if you trusted yourself more?
Self-doubt is a limiter. It caps your potential before you even test its edges. You may have twice the talent of someone else, but if they have ten times the self-belief, they will pass you. They trust themselves enough to take the shot. Confidence is not just helpful. It is an accelerant.
Perfectionism runs the same play. It tells you that if something is worth doing, it must be optimized. In trying to win at everything, you strip away the joy of simply doing. Leisure turns into labor. Rest becomes another metric. Life starts to feel like a checklist.
Not everything is a game to win. Some things are worth doing for their own sake. A walk in nature. Playing a few notes on an instrument. Taking a full breath.
The real challenge is not to optimize every moment. It is to experience it.
✨ From Modern Wisdom
💧 Tiny reflections
I began to value myself so much more, trust my instincts, trust my uniqueness. Trusting oneself does not always come naturally. If learned when young, the practice sticks. Today, there is no one who can intimidate me because of title or skill or fame. I do what's right for me.
I have often wondered what I would teach my child first, if I ever have one. For a long time I believed the answer was curiosity and a love of learning. Lately I am leaning toward something even more fundamental: self-trust. Curiosity opens doors. Self-trust gives you the courage to walk through them.
✨ From Brain Food: Greats Don't Wait
🐠 How big is the tank you’re living in?
Real transformation rarely comes from motivation. It comes from absolute frustration with where you are. When progress stalls, desperation is not weakness. It is your mind demanding evolution.
Start by rejecting what you no longer accept. Write down everything you refuse to tolerate: sluggish energy, dead-end relationships, lingering stagnation. Let the discomfort fuel you. Use it to forge a new identity instead of circling the same frustrations.
This is not a minor tune-up. It is a full shift. Once you see that a mediocre life is the most uncomfortable option, change becomes inevitable. The pain of staying the same will outweigh the discomfort of growth.
Goldfish grow to the size of the tank they live in. Keep them in a small bowl and they stay small. Your mind works the same way. Expand the container and you expand what is possible.
✨ From How to Make the Greatest Comeback of Your Life
🇵🇸 If you want to support my work, commit to donating €5/month to the children of Gaza—living in what is now the deadliest place on Earth.
🎵 Music I’m listening to
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
🦥 Slow rave: Sleepy techno for tired danced
🌎 World: From Latin jazz to Turkish psych
🌚 Super Slow: For your intimate moments
Previously on Pursuit:
Thank you for this, really enjoyed your post on ‘increasing the size of the tank.’ The goldfish metaphor hit home. It connects closely with something I wrote recently in ‘The Comfortable Trap,’ where I explored how living in a life that’s ‘not too bad’ can quietly shrink our tank. Both reflections circle around the same truth: growth begins when we refuse to accept the bowl we’ve outgrown.
https://notesonbeingcurious.substack.com/p/the-comfortable-trap-or-how-its-not
This really resonated. I’ve often chased curiosity and growth, but it’s true: without self-trust, those doors stay closed. The “goldfish tank” metaphor hit home too, sometimes the environment has to change before we can.