--- ## Notes/Brainstorming ### **✨** In My Life - Big channel update - Been wanting to do this for a while ### **🔗** Links to Thinks - [[Why Procrastinators Procrastinate]] - [How elites abandoned the masses](https://app.raindrop.io/my/0/item/464043652/preview) ### **🚀** Actionable Tingz - Trying out akiflow - https://app.akiflow.com/en/referral?name=Sm9obg%3D%3D&referral=PBnc9bUljfMm0iVblOBu8d1iSylIlm - In a huge rut - [[Dealing with mental ruts]] - Reaching out - Felt really heard - Eating a ghost pepper ### **🤔** Food For Thought [[men are having their strings pulled by cheap dopamine]] ### 💬A Cool Cat ### 😤 My Ramblings Past few weeks have been the worst of my life in a while, worse than my high school breakup xd - Idling a shit ton - Feeling lost - Unsure on where to pivot for YouTube and online persona - Unsure on where to find a potential significant other - Depressing INFJ moment - Hella introverted - Lack of reaching out to people - I only reach out if I need to qq The biggest travesty in the world is people preventing and limiting themselves from expressing who they really are because they’re afraid of what other people think. ## Publishing Copy Welcome to another edition of _Weekly Wondering_, a sacred time where I share the resonating links, reflections and learnings from my past week to influence your next one ;) ### **✨** In My Life **The big rut** I've been in a huge rut recently. Due to an overwhelming blend of withdrawal from dopamine, feeling neglected, and my uncertain future, I ended up escaping these issues by succumbing to mindless media consumption. At one point, I even hit 20 hours of leisure/mindless living in a week (and yes it's not that much but I haven't done that in months, especially considering the gravity of my current dilemma). I found myself doomscrolling during all transitory phases in my day, from waking up to coming home from work or waking up from a nap. The last time I felt this way was after a break-up in high school 😅 But fortunately, thanks to the support and inspiration from both in person and online companions, I've been reflecting. A lot. And it's led me to one major decision which I think will help me explore myself better: The vision for my content and personal brand. To learn more about me and the new change, you can watch my channel update here: https://youtu.be/qyRXMYYqYUQ If you like my vision and want to help, I've opened up subscriptions for my YouTube channel :D So far there's only basic perks, so I won't blame you for not batting an eye :p ### **🔗** Links to Thinks **Getting out of a rut** While venting about my personal rut to my coworkers, I was recommended the infamous 3-part blog series by Wait But Why, starting with [Why Procrastinators Procrastinate](https://waitbutwhy.com/2013/10/why-procrastinators-procrastinate.html). And it really helped. The way Tim Urban conceptualizes these abstract concepts with memorable characters, connecting them through easy-to-understand analogies helped provide a mental picture on how to overcome my situation. And his reason for doing so was even more inspiring: > _Why do I think about this topic [procrastination] so much, and why did I just write a 3,500-word blog post on it?_ > > Because defeating procrastination is the same thing as gaining control over your own life. So much of what makes people happy or unhappy—their level of fulfillment and satisfaction, their self-esteem, the regrets they carry with them, the amount of free time they have to dedicate to their relationships—is severely affected by procrastination. So it’s worthy of being taken dead seriously, and the time to start improving is now. > … > It’s also the world’s loss. For every Steve Jobs or John Lennon or J.K. Rowling or anyone else whose talents have enhanced our lives, there are thousands of people with just as much potential who never achieve much for the world because they waste away their time in the wrong quadrants. In a sense, this is what made me want to pivot my channel to a greater cause, to help my generation live more fulfilling lives. But if you ever wanted a read on how to overcome the friction of dopamine-driven attention spans (blog 1) deep work sessions (blog 2) , or frequently changing life priorities (blog 3), all things I'm currently facing, then I would highly recommend reading the entire series. **Letting the unfulfilled people cope** I came across an interesting read on [_How elites abandoned the masses_](https://app.raindrop.io/my/0/item/464043652/preview). I would paraphrase it, but the highlights I took seem to paint a decent picture of the idea: - They have stopped celebrating the habits and structures that they abide by in order to be successful, and have indirectly encouraged the opposite. - new elites are in denial that they’re elite - think aristocracy is evil and that they personally are fighting for the little people. - Lions are proud, forceful aristocrats who explicitly own their position as leaders. Foxes, however, are humble servants who will forever deny that they’re in charge. While lions want to run the world, foxes want to save the world. - old elites used to share a sense of common responsibility and noblesse oblige — not just to give back, but to expect the masses to act in a way that would let them rise up as well - While it may have good intentions, the people you pity are not the people you respect. - And unfortunately, that’s exactly what new elites are doing today: they’re implicitly encouraging people to take little responsibility for their outcomes while taking maximum responsibility in their own lives. They’re criticizing the same accountability structures that they themselves use to rise up. I just found it a neat observation, coming from someone who might be doing something similar when reflecting on their self-improvement journey and sharing it with others. So instead, it's inspired me to once again double down on the new channel pivot, and to be truthful and non-surpessing of my inner workaholic. ### **🚀** Actionable Tingz **A centralized hub for daily task and time management** I use Todoist for tasks and Google Calendar for scheduling and time blocking, but I always wished there was some simple way to have a system that combined everything. But I think I found something more. Thankfully, as I was choosing a time to meet with a cool cat (see the new added newsletter section!), I came across a new app called Akiflow. The price is steep at $15/month, but it lets you manage all these things in one place, and paired with the intuitive hotkeys and user interface, I think it genuinely will save me the 2 hours a day the app claims to. If you want to try it for 7 days free, you can use my [referral link for a $10 coupon](https://app.akiflow.com/en/referral?name=Sm9obg%3D%3D&referral=PBnc9bUljfMm0iVblOBu8d1iSylIlm). I'll keep trying it this week and maybe make a video on it too :p **Eating a ghost pepper** The CEO of the company I'm interning for _hates_ his workers. It's the second time ### **🤔** Food For Thought > The biggest travesty in the world is people preventing and limiting themselves from expressing who they really are because they’re afraid of what other people think. > > - Jim Kwik, Limitless, A thought that I found relevant during my channel pivot, surfaced by first ever self-help book in 2020 B) Here's an [effective reminder](https://twitter.com/johnmavrick_yt/status/1585861484575612928) to help you do so. ### 💬A Cool Cat Thanks to the interconnectedness of the internet, I get to meet with new, like-minded people on their lonely ambitious paths. \*\* And this week's catch was [Dante Kim](https://dantekim.com/), an entrepreneur building the gamified meditation app [MindGarden](https://www.mindgarden.io/). And boy must I say it was refreshing to hear both insights related to his startup and self-development journey. The conversation was superfluous stream of next steps and much needed mindset recalibrations that further lifted me from my mental rut. Similar to my vision of hooking people with my generation's interests and leaving them with the desire for self-improvement, he wants to promote healthy habits like deep work and meditation through gamification. And after seeing a review on his app saying that they've uninstalled their mobile games because of it, I'm a firm believer. I just found it crazy how similar our life trajectories and introduction to self-improvement were, going from gamer to book reader to FAANG employee wannabe to entrepreneur in the "great online game". If you're reading this Dante, I really do appreciate the "brick-wall" conversation :) ### 😤 My Ramblings I've been typing too much depresso stories on here so I won't bother going too in-depth into my rut. But it seems like, some of the more major concerns have turned out to be magically worked on? Either by me or thanks to new opportunities that arised. I realized that despite how hopeless and uncertain it may feel, that either the power of the subconscious mind can help you slowly steer your direction back onto the right path. Maybe that's why time heals all wounds. But yeah, if only I didn't start writing these on the verge of passing out would I have more coherent and insightful writing 😭