WANTED: Vanity Metrics, REWARD: Peace of Mind

If you don’t read anything else, know this: Things can feel different and not be wrong.

When you feel like something is off but don’t know why, it’s probably just your brain resisting change. We are equilibrium-seeking machines, after all. But as natural as change is, it’s human nature to feel compelled to fight it.

And for good reason! We evolved due to our ability to observe dangerous changes in our environments and respond accordingly.

Is the air getting thick and the sky starting to get dark? Time to pack up camp before the storm comes in.

Hear leaves crunching and feel the ground shaking? A herd of predators, or prey, is likely nearby.

But to the brain, change is change. So what should you do when the looming change is for the better?

You acknowledge it and go with it.

Recently I’ve turned my attention away from books a bit, and it feels strange.

Even if the change is only temporary, I’m still getting plenty of reading daily — it’s just more articles and instructional “how to” stuff these days.

It’s necessary as my goals for the long term have shifted a bit, but it still bothered me for a while.

But then I thought about my goals and what the low-hanging fruit is for me right now.

I read plenty of books. In a down month, I can turn out 4 books pretty easily. If that’s true, the amount of books I read is a pretty useless thing for me to worry about. 48 books per year minimum means that I’ll have the chance to enjoy plenty of books.

When I reflected a bit more, I remembered a quote from Ryan Holiday’s Discipline is Destiny that he attributed to Queen Elizabeth: “If things are going to stay the same, things are going to have to change.”

For me, that means if I am going to keep being able to challenge myself and learn more skills, I can’t keep tracking the same things. I read enough books, so the number doesn’t matter anymore.

MOVE ON.

Worry about the things that don’t take care of themselves already. Focus on the lowest hanging fruit, and keep plucking away until you reach the next one.

Or, the question I like to ask myself: Is this the best use of my time given my goals?

Nothing else matters.

P.S. Funny enough, I picked up some cool books this weekend, so it looks like I have a big reading week coming up! Looking forward to sharing my thoughts on what I’ve read next month!