A common theme i’ve noticed with myself and talking to my peers is that its very easy to get into a rut or a plateau in your life, a comfortable life doing the same things each week. Not that thats bad or anything but many people have an underlying want to break out of this, but are unclear on how or what they even want to break out to.

What do you actually care about?

One way we can tackle this is by listing what your values are and working back from those.

Innately what do you care about and want?

  • Is it money?
  • Is it fame?
  • Is it power?
  • Is it adventure?
  • Is it knowledge?
  • Is it be useful to the world with your skill set?
  • Is it human connection?
  • Is it creative expression?
  • Is it autonomy?

And why do you want those things? Which of these do you care over others?

Is what you’re doing getting to where you want?

So now that you have your values we can revisit the actions and decisions you’re making today. Does your job fulfil your values? What do you do on the weekends to compensate?

A framework to help think about your actions further is with the regret minimisation framework.

When you’re 80 years old looking back at your life. What choices are you making today would you regret?

Common pitfalls

Money

Why is it really at the top of your list? Why do you need it?

Is it so you can more easily go on adventures later? Why not just go on adventures without depending on the money step?

Borrowed dreams

Another area which is dangerous is that your ideas are heavily influenced from the ideas you hear and which are around you.

The ideas you hear about something, you’ll forget, and next time you think about that thing, you’ll accidentally regurgitate that idea you heard as your own. Thats how it works.

So truly think about the ideas you hold. Are they actually yours?

Status games

We unconsciously compete over our peers for things we don’t even want: the biggest house, the most prestigious job title, the most followers. Do you actually want these things or are you just competing?

So what are you going to do about it?

You have your values, you know what you should prioritise, are you going to keep doing what you’re currently doing?

You only have a thousand or so weeks left.