The journey

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Dear Reader –

Earlier today, as I was cleaning my windows, I was watching a video about how to get better at reading.

One of the things that stood out was how often we like to “have read” rather than “reading” itself. When the text gets difficult or slow, we get frustrated and give up. It happens because we are in it not for the process of reading, but for the end result, which is having read.

I think this is relevant on a larger scale: in life, in general. There are so many times when we take something on for the end result.

“I want to become a doctor so that I can make a lot of money,” we tell ourselves. Or, in my case, I may have said, “I want to become a computer scientist so that I can work remotely and have time and place freedom.”

But is that really what I should set out to do? Perhaps my reason should be that I enjoy the process of building things with code. The money, the freedom, and the impact are all positive side effects of pursuing that process.

Similarly, for YouTube, the reason to start shouldn’t be the possibility of financial freedom, although it certainly can help you with it. If your reason for doing YouTube is the money, when it gets difficult, which it will, you will give up and move on to the next shiny object. Perhaps this is the reason why so many people burn out.

This past week, I also got to know some of the seniors better (including my friend from a recent issue), and learned that they had changed their majors because they enjoyed those things more. Changing majors is not something I’m considering for myself, but this is a good example of pursuing the process rather than the outcome.

Perhaps it is time for us to consider if the things we are doing are only for the end goals or also the process.

I’ll see you next week.

Warmly,
Suraj

If you'd like to hear more from me, here's my YouTube channel where I share lessons, experiments, tools, and resources to make life just a little better.