What do we want from life?
In this episode, we discuss some thought-provoking questions designed to help us (and you) figure out what we want from life. This turns into a commitment we make to one another to consciously work towards our ‘rock star’ goals.
Here are some of the highlights from our discussion:
In the realm of productivity there’s a perennial danger of feeling like you are getting things done by purchasing more ‘things’ that make you ‘feel’ productive. Whether it be new index cards, another time saving app or even watching productivity related YouTube videos (!), we can all fall into the trap of thinking that we are making progress towards becoming more efficient and effective in our lives when in reality we’re not moving anywhere.
“Goals act as your North Star, they keep you moving in the right general direction and allow you to reorient whenever you stray from the path. Figuring out what you really want out of life is the first step of getting it” Chris Sparks.
Chris Sparks argues that one of the ways of setting goals is to set them up around something called your life story. This long term perspective shifts our thinking from what brings us immediate happiness to what will bring our life meaning. Here are some of the questions that you can help to write your life story:
- What would you attempt if you knew you could not fail?
- What issue do you want to solve that people say is too big to tackle?
- In 25 years, you’re giving a keynote at TED, what is the topic of your speech?
- What would you want your obituary to say?
- What would you do if money was unnecessary?
- If you were the last person on Earth what would you do?
Links
Sponsored by Brilliant
This episode is kindly supported by Brilliant, the best way to learn maths, science, and computer science online. Brilliant focuses on helping you learn how to think, rather than just memorising methods and facts. Sign up at https://brilliant.org/notoverthinking — the first 100 people get 20% off an annual subscription.
Leave us a Review
If you enjoy listening to the podcast, we'd love for you to leave us a review on iTunes / Apple Podcasts. Here's a link that works even if you're not on an iPhone :)
Send us an Audio Message
We really want to include more listener comments and questions in our episodes. If you've got any thoughts on this episode, or if you've got a conundrum or question you'd like us to discuss, send an audio file / voice note to hi@notoverthinking.com.For any non-audio comments, drop us a tweet or DM on Twitter - https://twitter.com/noverthinking