Sorry, I don’t want to ‘maximize every minute of my day’

“A bare-chested muscular man pouring water into his mouth in a garage” by henri meilhac on Unsplash

I chose this cover photo because it’s ridiculous.

I’m the guy that goes to the gym and basically laughs at everybody.

I’m serious.

Sure, I guess I wish I had a little more muscles (muscle?), but I truly feel bad for people that make lifting weights and going to the gym their entire life.

My grandfather went to the gym everyday for 4+ hours. Or something.

He was a Senior Olympian and won the gold medal a few times I believe.

I still don’t remember ever having a meaningful conversation with him.

At his funeral the gold medals hung on a display next to his casket. It was his proudest achievement. He dedicated his whole life to it, really.

I never approached the casket to say a final goodbye.

I never knew the man.

I Don’t Want To Maximize Every Minute Of My Day

There’s a lot of stories that I read online that have to do with maximizing every single minute of every single day.

How to achieve “optimal performance.”

I get it, and I don’t think this is necessarily a bad message to put out into the world.

Many a great thing was invented/created on the back of somebody sleeping very little and using every minute to their collective advantage.

But this whole thing seems exhausting as hell quite frankly.

I’ll Trade My ‘Best Self’ For Happiness Any Day Of The Week

You see, I could wake up at like 6 AM every day.

I could go outside right after and run 10 miles, then go cook myself an extremely healthy breakfast.

I could do all that, and all that activity would probably make a significant impact on my mood.

But, it’s just, I like sleep, okay?

Life Is Meant For Living, Not Working

I’d say a lot of people that are into personal development ARE, in fact, enlightened. When I read Do Cool Sh*t (by Miki Agrawal) 10 years ago it changed my entire life.

In short, people that write about personal development kick ass. They BELIEVE and KNOW something the rest of the world doesnt:

You can live any life you want to as long as you work hard as hell to attain it.

Break the rules. Start a business. Travel the world. These are the messages I keep getting from these books/authors all the time.

But.

I think a line needs to be drawn at some point.

You see, we all have an expiration date. Some of us are closer to that date than others, but we all have them nonetheless.

My philosophy is simple:

Don’t spend your entire life working — even if you love your work.

I don’t think that’s the route to true happiness.

I find a lot in my own life that unless I stop to look around, entire months will pass me by without me even noticing.

“The present moment is filled with joy and happiness. If you are attentive, you will see it.”

― Thich Nhat Hanh

It Doesn’t Matter If I Don’t Realize My Full Potential

We could all work harder. We could.

Imagine lying on the floor, COMPLETELY exhausted from a workout to the point that you can’t move. Just imagine that. Do you think you could get there?

Where you’ve spent all your energy? None left?

Good.

Now imagine you see one of the big gym lights above rattling about. A screw shoots out from the frame and now the huge lamp light plunges down from the ceiling towards you.

Do you think you’d have enough energy to move out of the way?

The answer is yes.

We’d find the energy to get the heck out of the way.

This story was told to me at a wrestling camp when I was 16 years old.

The moral? There’s always more effort we can put in.

Even if we’re maximizing our time, there’s probably ways we could put even more effort in.

And when your only goal in life is to squeeze every drop of time out of every hour of your day, you’re shifting focus away from what really matters.

And that’s being human.

Being “here.”

Smelling the roses.

Taking time to just take time.

Sucking the marrow out of life.

That’s what I believe in.