Week 13, 2024 - Diary of a Revenue Engineer
Quote of the week:
“The purpose of our lives is to be happy.” - Dalai Lama
What I thought…
Hello and goodbye to week 13 of 2024… one filled with surprises of revelations.
This was also the first week where I disagreed with my quote of the week. Don’t get me wrong, the Dalai Lama certainly knows a bit about the functions of life or the pursuit of knowledge, happiness and calm - all things I seek myself.
No, my confliction is with the belief that happiness is the purpose of life. I think that path is fraught with danger as a pursuit. Happiness is a function and an element of life, but it is not it’s purpose.
I think it’s important to make the distinction between contentment, which is a low burning but more ever present sensation, and happiness, which is a state of being for a short period of time.
I’m not putting a downer on some excellent philosophy, but I think seeking a life that is “happy” is like trying to flatten the water with an iron… a dangerous and self-defeating pursuit.
Happiness, like struggle, discomfort, sadness, are all part of the great tapestry of life. They are threads, woven into the experience, adding colour and definition to moments - not the entirety of the picture. I find great comfort in this, and certainly seek contentment in my life, my profession, my family, my friends and more, and I welcome moments of happiness like anyone - but I’m seeking the entire human experience in it’s deepest most fulfilling state.
However - I did make efforts to discover happiness, as I always do, in new areas and explore more of this wonderful human experience.
Let’s pull at the threads and explore how I wove a better life this week.
What I learned…
My learnings directly linked into how I loved longer and happier this week, and I really found it to be a massive revelation. I’ll talk more on the emotional impacts later, but for me the learnings were all about self and, as it transpired, all about happiness.
Clean your room (sort of)
There’s been so much about this in social media over the last year or so, with great thinkers and orators going head to head (like Jordan Peterson and Caitlin Moran) about how obvious and how overlooked this advice can be.
It’s also a key part of one of my favourite speeches on youtube from Admiral Willam H. McRaven, on the importance of starting right and completing a task.
However, the hero of my cleaning up story was the one and only Marie Kondo and her KonMari method of tidying up.
An undeniably beautiful soul, with a history of organisation, decluttering on national TV and spending years at a monastery, she combines something truly unique and seemingly simple.
It was my intention to clear out our attic, however myself and my partner only made it through our office.
Pictures and cards from loved ones and lists of what mattered to us from the house that we were going to (and eventually) bought, letters to each other and even a fake bar menu we created during lockdown… the infamous “Dirty Quarantini”.
Lot’s went, it was tough, but felt fantastic.
By the end of the day we were exhausted, but I felt we’d reduced what we had in our drawers and shelves by about 50% and what was left, really mattered.
If you want an intro to this, or feel a declutter could help you too, I recommend the Blinklist for Marie Kondo’s “The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up”, or go straight to the book version on Amazon here.
If you’re already sold and you want to dive in deeper, then you can checkout Mari'e’s course by heading here.
Oh, I also learned that spiders “Don’t like” conkers during this tidy up… which still blows my mind today.
Hard Conversations the easy way
I love the human experience, as you know, but it’s also filled with struggles, trials and tribulations of in myriad form.
Some of the hardest things can be navigating relationships with other passengers on this mad rock, hurtling through space.
There’s been much to discuss and cover and, after a particularly great therapy session and some solid introspection, I was able to have a really calm and incredibly important, but nonetheless tough conversation with my partner.
The details are, of course, private, but I learned the importance of having these conversations in an open and honest manner with nothing more on the table than a shared desired for a better life.
This, combined with the big clearout, felt like we were taking action to remove the bad, the gone-off or the useless from our lives and our homes, leaving us stronger.
What I built…
One of my clients has been struggling to find Product Market Fit (and an efficient route to market). This can be especially hard for start-ups who want to scale quickly, but can’t reach into an endless pool of resources and flex some cash at economy of scale options with partners.
So, we spent the morning once again mapping out the actual functionality of the product. We ran through all of the system, and found ourselves once again getting excited about what it could do.
We then covered the problems it solved and who would benefit from them and discovered that there were many potential verticals we hadn’t previously considered where we could add massive value.
We also realised, much to our chagrin, that we hadn’t been using our own product for outreach and conversion anywhere near as much as we should have.
Then, in a 24 hour flurry of action, we launched content, landing pages, flows, grabbed testimonials from customers and created a repeatable and scalable flow to launch in different verticals.
We’re now about to launch into two verticals a day and massively scale the outreach using our own product and showcasing it’s functionality in the process.
Great turn around from the team and a solid foundation for next steps.
How I lived longer…
I have only two things to point at this week but they were really impactful in my longevity efforts.
Depending on which longevity or healthspan or “live forever!” style books and podcasts you engage with, they’ll give you a different number and structure of “pillars” to follow.
Well, whether it be four, or five or fifty-four, there are great similarities in all. In my mind, the ideal collation of these falls into, Nutritional, Physical, Social and Emotional.
There will be more content on this for sure, but for now I worked on the Emotional and the Physical to be in a better place this week.
Physical
Rucking is very much of the zeitgeist at the moment, and is excellent for zone 2 cardio.
With the sunshine, creeping out in the UK finally, I also had a chance to enjoy the glorious outdoors in which I live.
I combined this with a long conversation with my AI CustomGPT coach to help keep a couple of business ventures moving forward and found the whole thing excellent.
More on tidying up…
The evening of the big clean up I felt exhausted. Physically, emotionally… probably the closest to spiritually I could get.
I was amazed as to how intense such a simple act could be, and how refreshing.
The next day I felt lighter, it’s the only way I could describe it.
So, in summary, this week I lived longer by carrying more in my physical life and less in my emotional life. A trend that, I’m sure, would give me better quality of life for longer if maintained.
How I stayed happier…
So, I’ve mentioned about the big tidy up already, and how I intend to maintain and continue this to other areas of our home. I also engaged in joyful relaxation on things I care a great deal about and even sold some of my old books, which was great fun!
Saying goodbye to things in the tidy up
So many things I stumbled upon in our great tidy up were of intense emotional value, or held that emotional value to them. Things that shouldn’t… Jumpers, old cards, scraps of paper.
I found myself unable to, or regretting throwing them out. I fell back onto the process in the KonMari method and it really helped. So, if you find yourself in that same position then:
Ask what it truly does for you - Does this item help, is it practical, is it useful, does it bring you joy or has it fulfilled it’s purpose?
Thank it - If you decide to let it go, then thank it, take a moment to recall what it’s purpose was and how fulfilling that purpose made you feel or helped.
Remember it - Many things are visual in nature, there’s no harm in taking a photograph of it if you wish to retain something truly important, but the goal is to let things go.
Dune 2
I couldn’t find time to go with friends, so I took myself to the Cinema and watched Dune 2. I haven’t been to the cinema for years and Dune by Frank Herbert is probably one of my favourite books of all time.
Denis Villeneuve’s recreation was as near to perfect as it could be. For a major book fan to be so enamoured by it is pretty amazing in itself, but it also created some of the most intense cinema experiences of my life in a couple of key scenes.
No spoilers, but Paul’s first ride of a Grandfather of a Maker actually brought me to tears.
And, it would appear, I’m in good company with me belief in this film as Steven Spielberg also rates it rather highly.
Ziffit
Also a quick shout out for a great service - I used Ziffit to sell on many of my read and pre-loved books. The service was excellent and I found it incredibly smooth and very easy to use.
Final Thoughts…
Another week where the quote invited me to explore a core element of my own life deeper, and I found it to lead somewhere unexpected a new.
How much better could we live if we carried less in our emotional lives, but more in our physical lives.
Which medications would be made redundant in a generation? Which ailments would dissappear?
I wonder if I have been too easy on my body, but too harsh on my self for so many years.
I am, for sure, enjoying altering that trend.
And though I do not believe that the purpose of life is to be happy, I do believe that a purposeful life is filled with happiness.
Thanks for stopping by, good luck traveling lighter and carrying heavier.
