We are all looking for something deeper than our goal!
What's under every goal we have, a favorite newsletter, and a beautiful TED talk on focus
Hi friend!
Last week, I had to submit a last-minute India visa and I'm so happy to report that the visa came back this week! Visa approved and ready to go. We're back on track!
This month, I'm exploring the east coast before my first meditation destination at Insight Meditation Society in Barre, Massachusetts. Headed to Miami, Carribean (cruise ship) and Austin. I'm determined to keep this content up while on the road. If you don't hear from me, I may have either been kidnapped or simply not on top of it. Let's hope it's neither and I ask you to keep me accountable.
A few weeks ago, I found a fascinating insight. Have you ever wondered what motivates you to make goals? What drives you to have aspirations?
Think about this: When you think you desire an item or result, what you're after is the feeling it produces.
Deep down, we all just want to feel.
Each aspiration that I've had, whether it's something results-related or materialistic, I was chasing the feeling it produced. When I first started off in my career, my goal was to manage a team and get a higher title. Really what I was after was the feeling of respect and belonging. Focusing on cultivating those feelings will make me far happier and more satisfied.
Been posting various content on my social channels to see what is resonating. YouTube has been the most difficult beast to understand and with each video, a new lesson. Trying a new thing this week where I remove the story, shorten the length of videos and get straight to the lesson. Let me know what you think! 🙇 (Aiming for 3 min videos max)
An Mindful Chart
Stumbled on this chart on virtues and principles on Shane Snow's blog.
Virtues: Setting these up trickle down into the things we do every day. We should work on developing these to help influence how we react to daily events (behaviors). Some examples of virtues are love, kindness, integrity, creativity and humor.
Principles: These are the rules that govern our behavior based on our virtues. For example, “do onto others as you’d like them to do onto you” is a principle.
I love his simple and logical approach toward mindfulness. (Who doesn't love charts?) Shane also sends out a monthly newsletter with a new post that I also subscribe to. Highly recommend.
Speaking of Newsletters
With everything at our fingertips (social, tv, podcast), I still love email. I subscribed to The Skimm while I was back in New York and it has become one of the few I religiously open each morning.
Each morning, The Skimm sends out an easy-to-read, hilarious email on politics, pop culture and tech. It takes me less than 5 minutes to “skim” the email and catch up on news.
An Insightful Video
When it comes to multitasking, I am queen. Did you know that I can bake 48 cupcakes in 1 hour? 🧁 But after years of half-completed side projects, I've found that my baking strategy does not fare so well on everything else.
I found this talk on TED that about blending focus and multitasking. As a creative individual, I find that focusing on one major project with a few running in the background works best and this video helps to explain what I've been thinking about for years.
As always, thanks for reading!
P.S. If you enjoyed this, share or sign up here: mindfulmoments.substack.com
Anything else? You can always hit "reply" to email me directly. 💌
Have a beautiful day!
Metta (loving-kindness),
Steven