→ Underachievement and happiness
Ryan published an insightful post over at 43Folders on New Years Eve. It’s one of the better resolutions I have come across recently.
He writes,
I’ve always felt that striving, however futilely—for perfection and transformative self-improvement—was the way to find happiness and purpose in this brutish and fleeting existence of ours.
Yet I’ve lately been wondering whether all this struggling against the inevitable through yes-saying, list-making, and project-contemplating isn’t in some ways contrary to my ultimate goal of finding some satisfaction “when I’m here.”
Extreme expectations apply extreme stress and create extreme resistance and procrastination. In so doing, they undermine our ability to get anything we want. We forfeit perfectly serviceable rewards in the pursuit of enormous and unattainable ones.
And quoting The Underachiever’s Manifesto: The Guide to Accomplishing Little and Feeling Great,
stop worrying about being perfect. Dedicate yourself to the pleasures and benefits of mediocrity.
