You don't need the drama

[The Joy List]

Fellow traveler,

One of the most resonating pieces I read this week is a short one by Seth Godin. Let me paraphrase it: productivity isn’t measured in drama. It’s a lesson I keep reminding myself too.

Enjoy these links as we flourish together.

With joy,
Damola

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Worth reading

> Want to succeed? Stop comparing yourselves to others

“Life is about accepting that everyone’s situation is unique. We’re all on our own trajectory. Our careers, families, relationships, mental and emotional health, and so forth are different from others. Other factors like talent, stress tolerance, financial and social resources, educational background, and so forth also come into play. Too many people forget about those things. So when things don’t work out, they get discouraged and depressed.”

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> Endless uncertainty

“The idea that uncertainty is higher now than it was, say, one or two or five years ago is a strange one. It implies that the future was more predictable in the past, before the pandemic struck and inflation spiked and the war broke out. But it wasn’t, of course. The risks were always there. People were just blind to them. The future is always endlessly unpredictable. What changes isn’t the level of uncertainty, but the level of people’s complacency.”

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> Productivity isn’t measured in drama

“If the deadline for the project is tomorrow, not today, you don’t have to sweat it. If the guests aren’t arriving for an hour… Sometimes, we choose to use the urgent crisis as fuel. We set up our lives around creating these deadlines, reminding ourselves that if we cross that line, we’re dead. And then we allow the world to do it to us. To create urgencies simply to take our attention and focus. Productivity is a measure of the value of what we ship in the time we’ve got to invest. It’s not measured in drama. It’s possible to do great work without putting everything in jeopardy.”

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> The opportunity in adversity

“Our mission is the same: to align with the present moment, with whatever is happening here and now. The upheaval that we’re experiencing at the present time probably will not be the last upheaval that’s going to come on a collective level. However, it is an opportunity—because although this is a time for upheavals, it is also a time for awakening. The two go together. Just as in an individual life, you need adversity to awaken. It’s an opportunity but not a guarantee. And so what looks tragic and unpleasant on a conventional level is actually perfectly fine and as it should be on a higher level; it would not be happening otherwise. It’s all part of the awakening of human beings and of planetary awakening.”

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Video for the week

From Joy, Inc.

> The “Dear God, We Need to Talk!” tour is coming to a city near you. Lagos and London were blissful. Manchester is next, and it holds on June 18. Visit event.withchude.com to register.