--- ## Notes/Brainstorming ### **✨** In My Life Something cool happened recently, more on that in my rambles :p Ran Wander's first video ! I finally uploaded a video on my second channel more tailored towards anime and my generation, using these mediums for social commentary and advice for self-improvement. This video focused on the anime Chainsaw Man's portrayal of desire, exploring topics ranging from fufilling goals to overcoming exploitation from external manipulation. You can watch it here: ### **🔗** Links to Thinks - [ ] [[Global scale, Tiktok-induced tourettes]] - Sad - [x] ## [[The meaning of life]] - [x] [[The Fake Entrepreneur Epidemic]] - [[People are deprived of encouragement]] - [ ] [[Risk]] - [[The Inner Compass]] - ### **🚀** Actionable Tingz - Annual review - Went over previous annual review with a coworker - Pretty reasonable ngl - Been looking into ways to spice it up, and started crafting an ideal annual review - [[Ultimate Annual Review]] - Outsourced for the first time - I see why a video styleguide is so important but at the same time bruh - It just completely missed the intended vibe alskdjalksdj ### **🤔** Food For Thought - [[Neglecting content creation is selfish and also affects the consumers]] ### 😤 My Ramblings - Authenticity and honesty hasten the getting to know each other process :) - [[Am I happy]] ## 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 ;) I've been having writer's block recently, so just a dump on my main takeaways from these links is all I can offer 😅 I'm considering using voice to text to maybe make the conversational process faster though. ### **✨** In My Life Something cool happened recently, more on that in my rambles :p **Ran Wander's first video !** I finally uploaded a video on my second channel more tailored towards anime and my generation, using these mediums for social commentary and advice for self-improvement. This video focused on the anime Chainsaw Man's portrayal of desire, exploring topics ranging from fufilling goals to overcoming exploitation from external manipulation. **Conversations** Just a friendly reminder to chat with the people you hold close to you before the year comes to an end. I did get distracted from my tasks because of it, but I caught up with people I haven't talked to in months or years, and it's sparked some new ideas and insights that I wouldn't have come across otherwise :) ### **🔗** Links to Thinks **Taking risks leads to security** A little motivational [video](https://youtu.be/VN_wheOoecA) I watched on Earl Nightingale's thoughts, - you have to think the most when you're life is on the line, not when you have some secure paying job - risk taking is what leads to security, there's more potential opportunities since other people are not willing to make the same risks - don't look before you leap, the only thing that certain is the past, just make sure it's something progressive towards your goals and we have experience in the field - The secret of happiness is freedom and the secret of freedom is courage **The fake entrepreneur epidemic** An interview with a [business management professor](https://youtu.be/xngjQlVwdmg) exploring the effects of a rising interest in entrepreneurship - It criticizes the people who try to help others become entrepreneurs as they pay for their online courses, since they're encouraging people who may actually not be qualified or compatible with the lifestyle - entrepreneurship quality is declining despite the increase in education and resources - the more you consume these entrepreneurial content, the higher your confidence will be, but the lower your success will be And I found the comments on the video to be very thought-provoking as well: > I would like to add that all of this entrepreneurship culture wouldn't be as popular today if the majority of the population was doing well financially. This culture to me is just like the beauty industry which targets people's low insecurity of how they look and the same idea with gyms and being out of shape. Now you got a bunch of people selling this entrepreneurship thing and hustle culture to thousands of financially insecure people. > This is key. There’s a ton of mindset coaches out there selling anyone the idea that they are special and just need to feel more confident. But they’re not really asking whether people possess the necessary skills or training. They are there to encourage people of all skill levels to try and make it on their own. I see this a lot in the social media coaching industry. Although I'm chasing this lifestyle, I do agree with it's message, it's an interesting line to be on, between delusional ambition and security **The meaning of life** The meaning of life should just be… [Because](https://youtu.be/1GxE5mSt0Vc). It's more open-ended and the real value lies not in the actual answer but what we gain from pursuing the quest to find it, like the idea of logotherapy in [man's search for meaning](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/4069.Man_s_Search_for_Meaning). **People are deprived of encouragement** From [Why Reading Decreases Happiness](https://youtu.be/X4bej_F0kZA) - people are deprived of encouragement, thousands of people go up to Jordan saying that he changed his life and they're looking for the smallest hint of encouragement of validation for their efforts and they just light up when he gives anything - explores miserable wisdom versus happy ignorance **The Inner Compass** Being a creator always makes you question whether you should create for personal fulfillment or let monetary or fame influences come into the equation. A little reminder I found useful from [More to That's](https://moretothat.com/the-inner-compass/) post was: > To put it simply, I was investing a lot of energy into fulfilling my desire to be validated by others. > The reality is that if I redirected that effort into the music itself, that would’ve increased the chances for it to be heard. ### **🚀** Actionable Tingz **Annual review** Out of boredom, I went over my previous annual review for 2021 with a coworker My recorded reflections are still relatable to now, makes me question whether I made much progress on my systems and mindset 😅 But now, I've been looking into ways to spice it up, and started crafting an ideal annual review Here are some of the reflection questions I added to my existing one, feel free to steal what's thought-provoking! What big questions about my life am I asking myself? If I knew I couldn’t fail what would I focus on? What do I know to be true that I'm not acting on? What do I want for myself? What would I love to learn? Wisest decision Biggest lesson Biggest risk Biggest surprise 3 Most influential people 3 People You Influenced Not able to accomplish Most important thing I did for others How would l love to grow? Forgive yourself for Let go of Mindset section What attitudes, beliefs and behaviors do I want to shed? What activities do I want to walk away from? What do I need to say no to? What do I want to say no to? What habits and behaviors do I want to start? What habits and behaviors do I want to stop? What habits and behaviors will I continue? How will I challenge myself? What permission do I need to give myself? (e.g. it’s ok to walk away from that relationship that isn’t serving me, it’s ok to slow down, it’s ok to put myself first, etc.) What internal obstacles do I need to break down? (e.g. limiting beliefs, creative blocks, etc.) What external obstacles do I anticipate facing? How will prepare? (e.g. layoff, pandemic, tough boss, etc.) **I outsourced for the first time** - I see why a video styleguide and just general systems to teach new employees is so important 😭The vision and video vibe I had was completely off from what he had in mind ### **🤔** Food For Thought **Neglecting content creation is selfish** This [video](https://youtu.be/IjoTYJNr8DA) showcasing the determination and impact of mrbeast, comprehending the scale of only 12,000 people, makes me realize that I am doing more than just neglecting my own personal expression when I'm not creating my content. People's lives can change from delivering them [the right words at the right time](https://youtu.be/R0wZZ6TKQBc), as [people are deprived of encouragement](https://youtu.be/X4bej_F0kZA). It's why people who [pour raw emotion and depth into what they say](https://twitter.com/johnmavrick_yt/status/1600057650573881344) are growing massive audiences. But with AI writing like ChatGPT becoming more accessible, the standard for quality ideas and writing has grown. I dream for the day where innovators rather than imitators dominate the social media landscape. ### 😤 My Ramblings **Am I happy?** I don't know why I openly share these thought dumps to strangers on the internet, but I think that's what makes it fun 🤪 A thought dump from 2022-11-27 I'm surprised I haven't asked this question to myself in a long time or maybe at all throughout this past year. I was inspired to think about this because I was just looking through some Instagram profiles of people that went to my school and it was really intriguing to see someone starting own mindfulness and wellness Instagram page. I think it is a good message, both for themselves and for other people who may need it. But anyways, this question that I find myself pondering was the question they asked. I'm just trying to figure out how I should approach this question, do I go with my initial response or do I think things through on a rational scale accounting for different aspects of my life? if I were to think in 5 seconds and answer whether I was happy I would say no. considering the state that I've been in recently, there is a lot of room for me to spend my time working on the things I want to and just overall improving my physical and mental wellness but if I go maybe in the scope of the way I felt and the things I've done the past year, I would still probably say no and that's because I have high expectations I guess for my quality of life, and right now there's lots of things that are being neglected like my physical , health and the relationships I have internally I guess you may say I'm happy as the art of self-improvement has made me strive to do things that I might have never done before, and that's really only possible when you have the intrinsic motivation but at the same time it'd be nice maybe stop focusing solely on this aspect of my life and more on the other ones as well because lately I've been realizing that I've lost the ability to think at work I struggled to do things independently and solve problems that take more effort due to new problems and solutions when thinking of content to create and spending the time to write my scripts, I struggle to come up with meaningful takeaways that are my own instead of others and when I consume content, I barely spend time reflecting and connecting it with my own life I mean now that I know about this what could I do I guess? I still have a month before this year ends and it'd be nice to do something to make sure that 2023 is happier I think I just need to regain my discipline for the most part. Update as of 2022-12-10: I found something, or should I say, someone 😊 Having someone to be authentic with on all aspects of my unique disposition, from my future ambitions to nerding out on productivity and improvement to being cozy with anime and games, just being appreciated in general, it's nice :) My days are returning to ones of intention, and I've discovered a new deeply rooted reason to pursue my best self. It might mean I won't be as no-life productive as I'll have to attend to this new area in my life, but I think if i were to continue in my isolating path i'd be neglecting something so crucial for a personally fulfilling life. I can't help but be reminded of Montag from Fahrenheit 451's transformation thanks to the people around him, since I think I just found my Clarisse :) ### My Tools for Learning and Growth If you want the most densely packed and actionable book summaries, try out Shortform for free [here](https://www.shortform.com/). If you want to make reading and highlighting easier, check out [Readwise](https://readwise.io/i/john5833) (affiliate link) and sign up for their Reader app! If you want to aggregate the valuable gems from your week like this, or need a place to store your ideas and highlights, you can set up your own [second brain](https://johnmavrick.gumroad.com/l/obsidian-starter-vault).