Is it just me who feels rushed to jump from one task to the next, from one meeting to the other, from one location to another? Who feels this internal pressure to get the most done out of every single minute I have?
To be in a rush and get from point A to point B as fast as possible?
To make money as fast as possible, to lose 20 lbs as fast as possible, to read a book as fast as possible, to cram our vacation with as much stuff as possible.
To be so rushed in doing the thing that we forget the joy of doing the things.
I recently heard a quote from Alan Watts that really resonated with me on this topic and it goes like this:
“In music, though, one doesn’t make the end of the composition the point of the composition. If so, the best conductors would be those who played fastest. And there would be composers who only wrote finales. People would go to a concert just to hear one crackling chord - because that’s the end! ... We thought of life by analogy with a journey, a pilgrimage, which had a serious purpose at the end... But we missed the point the whole way along. It was a musical thing and you were supposed to sing or to dance while the music was being played.”
Now looking back at my life, through my years supporting my late partner through cancer, through starting my business exactly 6 years ago today.
I smile at the times that I was stressed out of my mind. When I didn’t know if things were going to work out. For context, I started my business when my partner at the time was at peak pain from her cancer, I had just lost my corporate job (the car that came with it which I was using to drive to cancer treatments), I was 70K in debt from treatments, loaded credit cards, no job on the horizon, COVID shut down everything and I had exactly $34.37 in my bank account, rent was due in 20 days and I was eating at the local food bank.
Talk about a shit show, but now looking back I’m grateful for all that chaos because honestly that’s what it took for me to step up and be the sort of man that gets himself out of that situation and that creates a better situation for his family.
I’ll be honest it wasn’t always easy to enjoy the music along the way, especially at the beginning and obviously this is business so there are still moments where I can’t hear the music because you forget to listen for it.
But looking back is when I can recognize and appreciate the steps along the way.
And I’ve arrived at a different place in my life now where I have more “space” — I believe would be the best way to put it. I’ve created space for myself and my wife Ivy over the past several years to create from a place of intention versus obligation and it’s really making me reflect on if I’ve been able to enjoy the music over the past few years.
I know I have at times but I’ve certainly been stuck in the hustle culture of more is bigger, better, faster… Only to leave me feeling anxious and a little unsatisfied.
The culture promised me and us a destination that would make us feel… enough.
But when I got to my destination, I didn’t.
I was just in a better position, smarter, more knowledgeable and able to create better things because I had access to more leverage. But the enough cup hadn’t been filled like I was promised.
That’s one of the reasons I decided to turn this Substack into my personal reflection board and I wrote last week that I was done seeking or accomplishing for the sake of feeling enough.
I just am now and honestly since writing that, life has been feeling different and it’s an incredible feeling.
One of the big things I’ve been learning over the past 2 months of traveling and realizing things about myself and how I want to live my life is that I really just want simplicity.
And so I’ve been working on doing that in my personal life from things I own or used to own me, to my weekly and monthly schedule, to my business, our processes, projects we are working on, etc.
It’s been such an interesting challenge to lean out my life and to simplify things because I’m realizing that it is an art form to simplify things down to a point where everything still works without all the fluff and identifying what the fluff is and what the core that makes it all work, that makes you happy, peaceful, etc. is actually really challenging and beautiful in an odd way.
It forces you to think about what you truly want for yourself, for your life with the people you love, for the impact you want to have in the world and how you actually want to go about it.
Because success without fulfillment is failure whether that is in relationship, sports, business, career, health, etc.
Anyways I think that’s enough rambling from me today, I think I got everything in my head that I wanted to share with whoever is going to read this.
And what’s beautiful about this Substack for me is that it’s the first time I do something personal like this online for myself. I genuinely like writing and sharing like this so whether zero people read it or 100, I’ll still keep writing and sharing.
So for those of you who have made it this far, I appreciate you. I hope something resonated and I’m now off on my monthly 7-day digital detox that I do on the first 7 days of every month.
No social media, no work, just reflection, rest, building core memories with my wife, recharging and checking in with myself to make sure I’m still heading in the right direction I want with my life.
You should give it a try, it’s life changing. I’ve been doing this for over three years now.
Have a good rest of your week.
Sincerely,
Maxime