Can you skip the hustle phase in life ( going straight to balance and flow)? Thinking about life, purpose and goals.

Where I’m at right now - "Trying not to be lazy"

A Brief Update

The move to Substack is more or less complete.

The good news is that I have pretty much organized the first HIAX Guide on Health here - as well as all the articles listed out in order, I’ve also shared all the resources I’ve accumulated over the last few years including the tracking spreadsheet and the blood testing guide.

The less good news is that since moving from ConvertKit (and changing the address I’m sending emails from), fewer people are getting the email <sad face>. Also, it appears that SubStack randomly emails people, with my newsletter recommendations for example - to stop that you have to unsubscribe from Substack notifications as it has nothing to do with me!

Onto the email…

Today is a reflection on success and the balance between striving for goals/delaying gratification… and going with the flow/living in the moment.

I love goals but I know that I have a tendency to be ‘all or nothing’ - I can’t just stop if there is more that can be done. However, I am wondering more and more whether finding a balance here is the key to happiness…

Setting goals feels good - but is it just cheap dopamine and distracting us from flowing and enjoying life

I am continually battling between the need for goals and the desire to go with the flow.

I’ve run off goals my whole life. They are fuel. But undoubtedly they are not the goal themselves.

What I mean is, that setting and hitting goals is not the goal of life. I know this because I’ve set and hit a lot of them and it hasn’t done it for me.

When I set a new goal I feel the familiar dark energy - that desperation and anxiety - “Will I, won’t I?”, “What does it mean if I don’t hit it?”, “What will people think of me?” “What will *I* think of me?”, “Is there any point to it?”, “Why am I doing it?”

And this doubt and insecurity is inevitably interspersed with feelings of being on top of the world and being able to conquer anything.

I think it was Alex Hormozi who said something along the lines of “All of the most successful people have both a push (away from failure and fear) and a pull (towards achievement and success) driving them forward.”

So, I’ve hit the goal - then what?

This is great and all and it does the job of driving me forward for sure.

I’d wager that most of us can relate to this duality when it comes to goal setting.

But then what?

Then I hit the goal - there is a moment of euphoria, far too quickly followed by the pain and hollowness that settles in until I choose the next goal… and back on the rollercoaster I go.

In my experience, the less time between hitting one goal and setting the next one, the more likely that goal is to be arbitrary and reactive.

This is because the reason for that next goal is to fill a hole. To get rid of the pain of not having a goal. Not because I care about it or it is in any way meaningful (beyond the façade created to give it meaning).

This means that the goal is usually mimetic or externally influenced rather than being something that will actually bring me fulfillment this time around.

It’s not my goal - just something that is deemed worthy by society.

The endless cycle of distraction

Is this a problem? To endlessly chase pointless goals? Isn’t everything pointless anyway? We’re on a rock floating through space in a universe with an expiry date, after all…