Nothing is as mundane as it seems
Learn to form an anti-vision and start messy, find wonder in the ordinary, savor experiences instead of stockpiling them, and balance self-awareness with empathy to meet people where they are.
September 27, 2025 - Issue #137 - 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:
✨ Give yourself permission to suck
🔍 Nothing is as mundane as it seems
🌼 You can't horde life
💖 Empathy & self-awareness in relationships
✨ Give yourself permission to suck
You must contemplate what you don’t want often. You must form an anti-vision that you can tap into for a source of potent fuel to rocket toward a unique future.
You do not create a vision or anti-vision all at once. You add brush strokes through experience. You give yourself permission to suck. You give yourself permission to be afraid. You give yourself permission to step into the unknown to make mistakes, struggle, wrestle with your demons, and figure it out.
🔍 Nothing is as mundane as it seems
When travel is used as a vehicle to break the monotony of life, then don’t be surprised when that sense of monotony finds itself to whatever newfound place you’re visiting. A curious mindset doesn’t ignite just because your surroundings have changed. Rather, it’s something to be cultivated in your current state – in your day-to-day life – whether you’re working in a cubicle or having the 1,000th meal in your apartment or home. Instead of trying to break away from this, use that desire for escape as a signal for you to look deeper at your life as it is today. Nothing is as mundane as you believe it to be; all you need to do is look closer.
Travel is no cure for the mind because there is no cure for it to begin with. There is no external vehicle that will take you to prolonged contentment. What truly brings contentment is internal: gratitude for what’s in front of you, openness to all the stories around you, and unwavering curiosity toward the people you see everyday.
🌼 You can't horde life
Spending your days trying to get experiences “under your belt”, in an effort to maximise your collection of experiences, or to feel more confident about the future supply of similar experiences, means placing yourself in a position from which you can never enjoy them fully, because there’s a different agenda at play. Experiences are for having, not for hoarding.
💖 Empathy & self-awareness in relationships
Self-awareness is essential, yet too much inward focus can block our ability to understand others. Empathy is the counterweight. One sharpens how we see ourselves. The other opens us to someone else’s reality. Healthy relationships move between these two questions. How much do I need to know myself. How much do I need to know you.
You can feel this shift in a simple meeting. Someone says, “They’re always in a bad mood,” and the room nods. Then you learn their mother is ill or they are caring for someone before work. The behavior does not become likable, but your stance changes. Information softens judgment. Context turns a label into a story.
That move from assumption to curiosity is the heart of empathy. Rather than deciding why someone acts a certain way, ask a plain question. What matters to you here. What would help. Pay attention to what happens outside your direct exchanges. If your approach misses the mark, do not double down. Adjust. Relational flexibility is a skill. It signals respect without abandoning your own perspective.
Language can help or harm this process. Notice when you explain your mood with context and explain someone else’s with character. Be wary of words like always and never. They close the conversation. Replace certainty with observation and invite a reply.
The aim is simple. Know yourself well enough to stay steady. Know the other person well enough to meet them where they are. When self-awareness and empathy travel together, relationships become easier to navigate and far more humane.
🇵🇸 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:
