THE JRNY 004 - Good of Something > Best of Nothing
Hey Reader 👋,
Today's song of the moment is: drivers license - Olivia Rodrigo
I honestly don't understand the people that compare her to Taylor Swift or Lorde. All I know is that this is a dope ass song and she's only 17 !! Can you believe it?!
Why Logical Answers Don't Work For Emotional People
Listen, as much as I hate to admit it, I'm a pretty emotional person. By that, I don't mean that I get worked up easily or that I cry all the time (except for movies and shows) or that I can suddenly go from super happy to super sad in an instant. Here, I'm talking about making decisions with my heart instead of my head.
Like, there's a reason why I went from a software engineering job to working minimum-wage at Nike. It certainly wasn't because I listened to my head.
But even though I know that I mostly follow my heart for major decisions in my life, there's still this part of me that resists the idea and believes that I can logic my way through decisions.
Writing this newsletter / blog is yet another example of me following my heart (and being more happy about it) instead of doing what was logical. Let me explain.
What I'm currently up to
About a week ago, I decided to completely change my mentality and dedicate the next 5 years to simply trying out a bunch of things and see what sticks so that in the next phase of my life, I can concentrate on building something for myself (with the ultimate goal of having more freedom). That's why I'll be playing a lot of finite games from now on.
Finite games, for me, are simply activities or goals that are considered finished once I accomplish them. For instance, one of my future goals is to release a music EP. It's just something that sounds like fun and that I'd like to try out. But once the EP is released, I'll be done with it. I'm not going to continue making EPs 'til I die you know?
Contrast this to infinite games, where there isn't really a goal. There's no point where you get there and you're like "okay, time to move on." Infinite games are meant to be played... well forever ! For example, people who consider themselves real musicians or artists (music) plan to make music forever. They're not like, okay, after 25 songs, I'm done with this music shit. Or after I make 20 million, I'll stop. They just make music 'til they die or switch to something else later (usually not planned).
If you want to learn more about these terms, you can read "The Infinite Game" by Simon Sinek. I haven't read it, but it talks about infinite and finite games too.
Now, something you have to know about me is that I'd like to inspire as many people as possible. I thought to myself that documenting all the finite games I play and sharing them is an excellent way of not only inspiring people, but also building an audience at the same time. The only thing left was to find the perfect medium.
I was supposed to be a Youtuber
As soon as I had this thought, my mind immediately went to YouTube. It was the perfect medium. As an individual, I prefer watching YouTube videos (instead of reading blogs for example), I already started a YouTube channel and had the equipment for it, the growth potential of a YouTube channel is insane and if everything goes well, I'd even have the perfect tool to gain my freedom. In theory, everything made sense. It was the most logical answer.
Except there was one tiny, minuscule problem with this. I actually don't like making YouTube videos. I mean sure, if I'd have someone follow me all day every day to film me and then have someone edit my videos, I'd LOVE to just have video ideas and execute on them. But the reality is that, unless I want to spend 100% of my salary to hire a crew, I'd have to do everything by myself for AT LEAST 1-2 years. And I just can't. My heart isn't in it. When you find yourself procrastinating in the worse ways possible just to avoid doing something, it's probably because you don't like that something.
But Instead "I'm a Writer"
The potential of writing was just so much lesser than starting a YouTube channel. Blogs are in a decline (even I barely read them anymore), there are way way too many of them, the growth and outreach aren't as big, building an audience is harder, etc. There are so many reasons why I thought writing was an inferior medium to video, but at the end of the day, writing had something over YouTube. Something crucial.
That thing is that I actually like writing. I actually do it. Give me creating a blog post over making a YouTube video ANY DAY. And in a world that rewards production and not ideation, having a good of something is always better than having a best of nothing.
Besides, as my brother said, we also live in a world where making money is relatively easy. The hard part is finding what you like. This is why I'm really trying to find things I truly truly like doing instead of focusing on things that can make lots of money.
To conclude, that is why self-awareness is so important, why I decided to write instead of doing YouTube and why logical answers never work for me.
PEACE.
Hey you ! Thanks for reading, I hope you enjoyed this post.
If you like something in the article or simply want to discuss with me or give me some constructive feedback, feel free to email me @ onlythetruenjhs@gmail.com
We'll talk more next time and until then, don't forget to enjoy your life! ✌️
— Nicholas