31. Thirty posts, Thirty quotes (Part 1)

Guys, I'm not going to lie to you, as we approach Christmas, my motivation to write anything new is about as high as my desire to consume anything that doesn't contain cheese or booze.

As such, in the guise of celebrating getting to 30 blog posts, I thought we could have a look back over these with a top-line summary and a quote from each one.

Sound fun?

Hmm, maybe don't answer that. Either way, here we go!

Blog 1: here

The point: A look at one of the potential evolutionary reasons why we can be susceptible to all the fun things in life such as anxiety, feeling down and generally not feeling good enough.

A quote: “We all operate from the vantage point of our own deep fears, and we stand guard against any threat to them”.

Blog 2: here

The point: This post is a bit of a build on the first one. Here, we see how, via a series of cognitive/neural passageways, we can spiral from a random trivial thought to suddenly obsessing about an insecurity.

A quote: “Everyone is happy, popular, beautiful, thriving and having an amazing time other than me!”

Blog 3: here

The point: Adversity. Something we don’t tend to welcome with open arms, but also something that’s been the catalyst for many of the greatest feats, movements, inventions, works of art, and general achievements throughout history.

A quote: “A smooth sea never made a skilled sailor”.

Blog 4: here

The point: The first of 2 blog posts about the Stoics. The first is centred around one of their key thoughts: focusing on the things we can control, of which there are only two.

A quote: “Us humans have an exceptional talent for doing exactly the opposite of that, and placing a large portion of our emotional wellbeing on things that are fundamentally out of our control - how many likes we get on social media, what our colleagues think of us, that stupid thing we said last week, and not constantly looking like a Men's/Women's Health cover model.”

Blog 5: here

The point: Stoic post 2. This one is focused on another of their key ideas: that it’s not what happens to us that affects how we feel, merely our own perception of it.

“You can take away my wife, you can take away my children, you can strip me of my clothes and my freedom, but the one thing you can’t take away from me is the way I choose to respond to what you do to me. The last of one’s freedoms is to choose one's attitude in any given circumstance”. (Viktor Frankl, Jewish psychiatrist and Auschwitz survivor)

Blog 6: here

The point: A simple look at the relationship between expectations and happiness, and the potentially counter intuitive benefit of low expectations.

A quote: "Happiness equals Reality minus Expectations."

Blog 7: here

The point: Self-esteem diversification. This is a phrase I coined when thinking about the importance of having a range of things upon which we base our self esteem, as opposed to just the one (and the emotional volatility of that).

A quote: "Diversifying well is the most important thing you need to do in order to invest well”.

Blog 8: here

The point: This was posted in early January, with New Year Resolutions in full flow. I was keen to have a look at one of the reasons why a lot of us fall off the bandwagon when we start a new venture.

A quote: “If there’s a strong enough reason to do something, we’ll do it”.

Blog 9: here

The point: A brief look at ‘Ikigai’, a Japanese concept for finding meaning and happiness.

A quote: “In English, ‘Ikigai’ roughly translates to ‘a reason for being’”.

Blog 10: here

The point: Down time is obviously great. However, I’ve found that too much can be a very slippery slope towards my brain drifting off to all sorts of anxious, doubtful and generally destructive places.

A quote: “The secret to being miserable is having the time to contemplate whether you’re happy or not. The cure for it is occupation”.

Blog 11: here

The point: What on earth are we supposed to do with our lives!?

A quote:

“Do we buy a one-way ticket to Bali, and go off travelling for the foreseeable? No, then we’d be too far behind in our careers!

So instead, do we smash out regular 80 hour working weeks to fast-track our careers? No, we can’t do that, we’d be wasting our youth!

Got it, we #yolo and spend our 20s on the lash!

Can’t do that, imagine how disappointed our parents would be!”

Blog 12: here

The point: Titled “Help, I'm so far behind in life!”, which is something I’ve felt pretty regularly over the years. So, as a reassurance job (to myself more than anything), this has a quick look at some people doing remarkable things at an older age.

A quote: “Michelangelo. When he created the architectural plans for the Church of Santa Maria degli Angeli, he was 88”.

Blog 13: here

The point: A discussion about some of the pros and cons of stress.

A quote: “When we work hard on something we believe in, it's called passion. When we work hard on something we don't believe in, it's called stress”.

Blog 14: here

The point: A look at extrinsic and intrinsic motivation, and how this can affect our enjoyment and longevity of doing something.

A quote: “I mean, largely, I enjoy writing this blog… but does a cheeky like or follow add a bit of extra motivation? Of course (and no, not just cos they’re so rare)”.

Blog 15: here

The point: A look at two types of goals; outcome goals and process goals, and similarly to the previous post, the impact these can have on our motivation and enjoyment.

A quote: “Perhaps happiness is found in the journey uphill, and not in the fleeting sense of satisfaction awaiting at the next peak”.

Thanks for reading. Grab another mince pie and check out part 2.