Life can be daunting. What keeps us going? I've been asking this question to friends who have been giving me so many great answers. Today, I wanted to ask you this to help me create the topics I will cover in the upcoming essays, and to I spire on my own healing journey.
What keeps you going when life gets tough? What keeps you going when there are too many obstacles in the way of your goal, or when your initial excitement about a project is gone?
Excited to see your answers in the comments or simply reply to this email. Could be a single word or a whole thesis. All appreciated!
The external: relationships pull me outward from myself - family and friends are the key for me. I lost sight of this during covid and am working on getting my social mindset back to healthy levels.
The internal: exercise has helped me find my reset button! I think Murakami's 2 cents on novelists needing to develop physical strength and stamina really resonates with me...it's a long, long road and 'training' helps me cultivate a longview, while also hitting my reset button to make the rest of my day endorphin-filled and bouncy.
You truly lead by example and continue to inspire me in life and work brother. Thanks for breaking it down to external and internal.
A lot of people keep saying that other people inspire them the most. So I love how you then dove into the internal world and forced us to ask that question to ourselves. I'm eternally grateful to you for gifting me my first Murukami novel. I am creatively rejuvenated by Kafka by the Shore.
My first Murukami book was his memoir on running. His detailed gruesome transformation from cafe owner who smokes 2 packs a day to a global contender in Marathons and Triathlons and the other crazy shit that he has done to stay fit and maintain his creative juice.
I feel you on the endorphins. Thanks for your writings and your newsletter and thoughtful choice of words and thoughts Naveen!
The more you create the more I'm inspired. Excited to witness your story and read all of the stories you will tell.
I believe for so many Fear is quiet a powerful hidden motivation, that is buried down but creates wonder. Sometimes I feel that this quote always hovering somewhere in the collective minds of corporate life.
“Every morning in Africa, a gazelle wakes up, it knows it must outrun the fastest lion or it will be killed. Every morning in Africa, a lion wakes up. It knows it must run faster than the slowest gazelle, or it will starve. It doesn't matter whether you're the lion or a gazelle-when the sun comes up, you'd better be running.”
This definitely got my adrenaline going Yara! I do wonder how many actions I take in my life out of fear and how many out of love. It would be interesting to see a visual of that. Like is one at 80% fear and 20% love? Or am at more of a 40:60? Is anyone able to be 80 love? What happens what someone gets to 100% love?
A sense of duty @work and optimism elsewhere. I feel responsible for the promises I made to the people I work with, and choose to push myself to follow up to them. And somewhere, deep down, I keep a belief in better days alive ;)
Interesting! Especially that belief deep down inside of you. I think we can use a lot of that in our lives as a species to counter all the doomsday narratives we love repeating.
I am trying to think of what keeps me believing in better days ahead… I think for me the ability to write does that. No matter what happens if I am alive and can write about it then that future will always be better than the present.
I think a lot of rhetoric exists about being in the moment and forgetting the future, but you deep whisper of Better Days Ahead is a vital tool for us to use when the present moment is hard and shitty!
The external: relationships pull me outward from myself - family and friends are the key for me. I lost sight of this during covid and am working on getting my social mindset back to healthy levels.
The internal: exercise has helped me find my reset button! I think Murakami's 2 cents on novelists needing to develop physical strength and stamina really resonates with me...it's a long, long road and 'training' helps me cultivate a longview, while also hitting my reset button to make the rest of my day endorphin-filled and bouncy.
You truly lead by example and continue to inspire me in life and work brother. Thanks for breaking it down to external and internal.
A lot of people keep saying that other people inspire them the most. So I love how you then dove into the internal world and forced us to ask that question to ourselves. I'm eternally grateful to you for gifting me my first Murukami novel. I am creatively rejuvenated by Kafka by the Shore.
My first Murukami book was his memoir on running. His detailed gruesome transformation from cafe owner who smokes 2 packs a day to a global contender in Marathons and Triathlons and the other crazy shit that he has done to stay fit and maintain his creative juice.
I feel you on the endorphins. Thanks for your writings and your newsletter and thoughtful choice of words and thoughts Naveen!
The more you create the more I'm inspired. Excited to witness your story and read all of the stories you will tell.
I believe for so many Fear is quiet a powerful hidden motivation, that is buried down but creates wonder. Sometimes I feel that this quote always hovering somewhere in the collective minds of corporate life.
“Every morning in Africa, a gazelle wakes up, it knows it must outrun the fastest lion or it will be killed. Every morning in Africa, a lion wakes up. It knows it must run faster than the slowest gazelle, or it will starve. It doesn't matter whether you're the lion or a gazelle-when the sun comes up, you'd better be running.”
- Christopher McDougall
This definitely got my adrenaline going Yara! I do wonder how many actions I take in my life out of fear and how many out of love. It would be interesting to see a visual of that. Like is one at 80% fear and 20% love? Or am at more of a 40:60? Is anyone able to be 80 love? What happens what someone gets to 100% love?
A sense of duty @work and optimism elsewhere. I feel responsible for the promises I made to the people I work with, and choose to push myself to follow up to them. And somewhere, deep down, I keep a belief in better days alive ;)
Interesting! Especially that belief deep down inside of you. I think we can use a lot of that in our lives as a species to counter all the doomsday narratives we love repeating.
I am trying to think of what keeps me believing in better days ahead… I think for me the ability to write does that. No matter what happens if I am alive and can write about it then that future will always be better than the present.
I think a lot of rhetoric exists about being in the moment and forgetting the future, but you deep whisper of Better Days Ahead is a vital tool for us to use when the present moment is hard and shitty!
Thanks for sharing your thoughts Hegazy!