Where are you rushing to?

Everyone feels rushed, but no one is asking: where are you rushing to? I think one of the most important things in life is to be able to slow down. Our world is moving too fast. We're trying to hit different milestones all at the same time, and everything needed to be done yesterday. So where are you rushing to? What are you rushing for? Where are you going, and why are you going in that direction?

I get so used to the dopamine of reaching a goal that I forget the importance of patience, and of knowing that you aren't really going anywhere, even if you accelerate yourself in massive amounts. Acceleration only gets you to a place faster. It does not mean you are happier. It just means you will have another goal sooner. Sure, you might achieve more things, but life is about quality, not quantity. No one cares how many achievements you had in your lifetime as much as you do. Someone might think about you and say, yeah, he achieved a lot in his life, good for him, and then they immediately move on with their own life, and it's all done.

That chase for the next hit is the same thing that sits under every addiction. In 1954, two researchers at McGill University, James Olds and Peter Milner, put an electrode into the reward centre of a rat's brain and gave the rat a lever that switched it on. The rat pressed it again and again, and stopped caring about food. That's what a dopamine trigger does. It feels like satisfaction, but it never actually satisfies you, however many times you press. And because you already feel satisfied, you stop doing other things with your life.

I was sitting on the grass, getting ready for another hit, and suddenly I had a piercing thought: what the fuck am I doing with myself, and why am I doing this? Why am I damaging my lungs, this vessel I could take care of so much better, and live a better life that way? Nicotine is a huge drainer. It imitates the feeling of a boost because it's a dopamine trigger, and I kept pressing the button. For anyone addicted to something, anything really, it could be sex, it could be porn, it could be drugs, remember that if you're actually addicted, it is draining you. Cutting it out is important. These addictions are not real satisfaction.

Real satisfaction is travelling, doing exactly what you want to do with your life, and loving it. Not stressing, and just being a happy motherfucker. It's not hard. But this world makes it seem so hard to just be happy, and to be honest, that's pretty sad. If everyone is sad all the time and no one is actually happy, then what's the point of life?

So stop telling yourself things are hard. I find myself too often saying that things are difficult because of this or that, instead of figuring out how to do the thing itself. By thinking something is hard, you manifest that difficulty. The project never gets done, or you never start it, because you scared yourself before you began. Think about the journey instead, and don't judge it before you do it.

So keep it real with yourself. Don't bullshit yourself.

Find a way of living that lets you truly enjoy waking up every morning and doing life. It doesn't need to be extravagant, although it can be. The most important thing is that it's exactly what you decide is important for yourself, and you know it. No one else can tell you otherwise.

That includes the content you watch. Don't listen to self-improvement content that tells you what is important. That is telling you what to think. Learn from people who show you how to think. Your thinking governs the way your reality unfolds, whether you like it or not, so be careful where your attention goes. It is being harvested as we speak. That's why this channel exists: to use the same system that harvests your attention to give you something real back.

So here's something to try. Tomorrow morning, before you pick up your phone, before the first goal of the day, ask yourself one thing: where am I rushing to? If you can't answer it, slow down until you can.