why "following your passion" is more rational than you think
Edition #064
Hey friends, happy Sunday!
I hope everyone is safe and well.
Before we get into this weeks Filter I have one thing to share with you.
How to Become a Freelance Webflow Designer / Developer in 6 Months: In this video I share how I became a full-time freelance Webflow designer/developer and how I'd approach it now to progress much quicker.
I have a bunch of video ideas lined up, if there's anything you'd like me to create a video on let me know (just reply to this email).
Let's get into the Filter.
One Lesson
Why "following your passion" is more rational than you think.
Making progress in life comes down to making a series of life leaps.
All leaps vary in size.
Some leaps are huge: quitting your day job to go all in on your business.
While some leaps are small: starting to go to the gym 3 times per week.
In this article Lawrence Yeo shares how society conditions us to feel like we need to justify all our decisions. This leads us to not trade the comfort and safety of the present for an uncertain and rocky future — even if that future has the potential to be exponentially better.
Oftentimes, taking the leap is framed as an irrational thing to do – something that plays more to the emotions than to reason. This is why when someone takes the leap in a professional setting, we dub this phenomenon as “following your passion” instead of “following your rationality.
When deciding to make changes it's easy to let our concerns stop us because they are predictable. When the decision is career focused usually those concerns are money focused "How will I make a good living from this?". If it's a personal decision maybe those concerns are time related or a fear of being judged.
But what we leave out is that there is no way to predict the numerous unexpected rewards that await us on the other side of making that leap.
If you want to start a business sure you can predict that you'll benefit from working on things that matter to you, but you'd never be able to predict the long-tail benefits like making lifelong friends or the unexpected opportunities that will come your way.
As long as you think you can manage your concerns then the most rational thing to do is make the leap. As Lawrence says "By not making that leap, you are voting to give up all unimaginable future rewards for a single concern you can predict and prepare for today."
When making life leaps I find it helpful to refer to this graphic from Wait but Why.
There are many paths open to you, but you need to take the leap.
Two Ideas
I.
Every "yes" costs you time, money or attention.
Spend them wisely.
II.
"People are frugal in guarding their personal property; but as soon as it comes to squandering time they are most wasteful of the one thing in which it is right to be stingy."
—Seneca
On the shortness of life
Three Favourite Finds
How to Make Better Decisions: Following on the theme of decision making and taking leaps, this framework for making better decisions from Matthew Encina is great.
- Frame your decision as a question.
- Write down each option available to you.
- Create criteria for what’s important to you.
- Rate each path based on each of your criteria.
- Assess any risks, dependencies, and considerations for each path (what needs to happen for this path to be a success?).
- Total up your scores.
- Reflect on what other options you haven’t considered. Add in those new paths.
- Finally, revisit your scores and adjust if needed based on relative weight.
Intellectual Loneliness: Ever had the feeling that you’d rather be by yourself learning and exploring your curiosities than having shallow conversations at a party?
This short post from David Perell perfectly encapsulates a problem lots of creators and entrepreneurs deal with, David explains how:
“Intellectual loneliness is a challenge that many people feel, but nobody talks about. It’s built on a paradox where you feel alive when you’re learning on the Internet but soul-crushed when you try to talk about those same ideas with friends and family.”
The solution? Sharing your ideas online. “sharing ideas in public turns you into a magnet for like-minded people.”
TL;DR: Publishing online is the best way to attract other people interested in similar things to you and negate intellectual loneliness.
How does stretching actually work?: Being 6ft 4 and having the mobility of a reversing dump truck, this is a topic I’ve been obsessed with lately. This simplified answer to the 4 components that impact your mobility is incredibly helpful:
What stands out most is how the most limiting factor is your neuromuscular response, not an inability to be more flexible.
Our brains want to keep us safe so once we hit a point our muscles tense up trying to protect ourselves making us hit our range of motion limit artificially.
TL;DR: Train your muscles and brain by stretching multiple times a day for a couple minutes pushing a tiny bit further everyday. Consistency over intensity is key for flexibility.
End note
If you enjoyed this edition of the Sunday Filter then I’d love it if you could share it with a few friends. You can send them over here to sign up or share it on Twitter.
Have a great week!
- Stephen