Being the best you can be

Someone asked me something like “Do you like work?” and “Why do you work?” I thought about it for a few seconds and then spontaneously said, “I’m trying to be the best I can be.”

The next morning I read these words by Joseph Conrad (who was one of the greatest novelists of the 20th century) – “I don’t like work – no man does – but I like what is in the work – the chance to find yourself.”

By “working” we mean a classic job and/or working for a cause or goal which takes labor of the mind and/or body. What becomes of a person who does not work?

I think work is a path to being the best version of you by finding out what you can do. What do you think?

The Foragers' Secret

Before the agricultural revolution, humans used to forage for food. The foragers’ secret of success, which protected them from starvation and malnutrition, was their varied diet. Farmers tend to eat a very limited and unbalanced diet. Especially in premodern times, most of the calories feeding an agricultural population came from a single crop – such as wheat, potatoes, and rice – that lacks some of the vitamins and minerals and other nutritional materials humans need.  

The typical peasant in China ate rice for breakfast, rice for lunch and rice for dinner. If she were lucky, she could expect to eat the same the following day. By contrast, ancient foragers regularly ate dozens of different foodstuffs. The peasant’s ancient ancestor, the forager, may have eaten berries and mushrooms for breakfast; fruits, snails and a turtle for lunch; and rabbit and onions for dinner. Tomorrow’s menu might have been completely different. This variety ensured that the ancient foragers received all the necessary nutrients.

One unquestionably negative trade-off of the agricultural revolution was the reduction in the variety of foods we eat. Add the industrial revolution and we have a diet that mostly consists of “edible food-like substances” that did not exist 150 years ago.

Maybe we should eat a greater variety of raw real food, ehh?

The limits of your own abilities

We are all talented – and in different ways, sure.  But there are limits of our inherent talents, especially in today’s world where getting ahead means using more brain and less brawn.  

When you have bumped up against the limits of your own abilities, the only way to go farther is to get out of your comfort zone and learn things from others and try things you aren’t good at YET to be all you can be.

Reach outside yourself.

Blue light at night

We humans are programmed, like a lot of animals, to be up in the day and sleep at night. When the sun is high the sky is blue. When we see blue light our brains manufacture cortisol to keep us awake.  When it’s dark, our pineal gland in our brain makes melatonin to make us sleepy.

What color light comes from laptop screens, smart phones and tablets? Blue.

Get a better night’s sleep and keep those things off when you get into bed.  

Better sleep, better day after.

Habits for a life you may not want

Do you have goals to grow into?  Do you have habits you formed a long time ago?  For most people it’s yes and yes.

Consider your habits may have been formed for a life you no longer have or want.  First we shape our habits and then they shape us.

What habits do you have that are incompatible with the future you that you are trying to be?

Is it time to replace them with the habits of the person you want to be?

Start out as a phony

Knowing what you want is the first step. Then act like you already have it or are it. 

Of course, you don’t and you ain’t; you’re a phony.

But if you fake it and work your way into being real, that’s how you change and be what you want.

Who do you need to start acting like?

Sleep deprived?

An estimated 80 million American adults are chronically sleep deprived, sleeping less than the recommended seven hours of sleep a night.  

Not getting enough sleep affects our alertness and performance.  You know this.

Do you get enough sleep?

Energy – Have it… or create it?

When you wake up in the morning and “don’t feel like it today”, and have trouble summoning energy, maybe it’s not that you “have no energy”; it’s more like you aren’t generating any.

Besides diet and exercise and sleep, we generate energy when we are really, personally, looking forward to what we are about to do. So, can we do things that we look forward to every day? Can we schedule in time for things we love? Can we do our jobs in a way that is unique and novel and experimental? 

Can we run our life in a way that we look forward to each day?

I think we can. What do you think?

The best version of you

We were born with inherent talents and ambitions. If we ignore them, and try to be someone we aren’t, we will likely find ourselves unhappy.

Mix virtue and best effort with who you already are. I think that’s the recipe for happiness.

What do you think?

Comment with the orange button!

We like consistent forward motion

If we made no money for nine years and then made a million dollars in a year, we would be less happy than if we made $100,000 a year.  If we had nine dull days in a row and then one fantastic one, we’d be less happy than if we had small daily rewards and satisfactions.  

Most people know this and develop daily vices and habits that provide satisfaction in the short term, but not necessarily in the long term.  People who delay gratification in favor of “paying the price” for long-term goals (hopefully that’s you) can be a lot happier if they break down rewards (the fun, the celebration, and soul-satisfying recognition of progress) into small chunks fit for daily consumption. 

Enjoy the journey.