2 Quick Questions You Need To Ask This Week
How To Automate Your Life
My favorite thing to do in December is to reflect on the past year and look forward to the next year.
It's also one of the most useful things I do. The 2-3 hours I set for the process is life-changing and so much fun.
Over the next few newsletters, I'm going to help you do a lazy version of an annual review (I need a new word for it though because "annual review" sounds bleh, boring, and corporate af).
There is a right way and a wrong way to do an annual review. The wrong way is to make it way too complicated, with way too many bells and whistles. The wrong way is to stress out and make it all about "productivity." I'm not interested in that type of review.
This week, I want you to set 15 minutes to answer 2 questions. But first, here are some reasons why you shouldn't do an annual review.
5 Reasons You Shouldn't Do an Annual Review
You want to make the same mistakes year after year
You want to live a life of deep regret
You rather daydream than make your daydreams a reality
You want to forget all the joyous, beautiful, and loving moments of the year
You think that it's not worth it to spend 2 hours to make your life happier and more meaningful
Ok maybe that was slightly snarky, but the reality is that if you do it right reflecting and reviewing is really frickin' dope. So now that you're sold...what's the next step?
Well it's pretty easy. This week block out 15 minutes on your calendar. Answer these two questions:
What would your future self (10-year older version) think about the life you're currently living? How about the 20-year older version? 40-year older?
If you died in perfect health at the end of the next year what would you like your next year to look like?
Answering these two questions will get your mind ready for the 5 2020 reflection questions and the 5 2021 lookahead questions we will talk about over the next couple newsletters.
Be More Alive
Most of my favorite movies are a melancholic ones. There's something about wistfulness, nostalgia, and the happy-sad that seems to encapsulate life for me more than anything else.
It's a vibe. Here are some example stills from happy-sad movies I love..
I love happy-sad movies because they teach us that feelings can't be boiled down to one word like "happy" or "sad." For humans, all happy things are "sad". Because even pure happiness is bound by time. For humans all sad things are "happy". Sadness is beautiful, teaches us great lessons, and when felt properly deepens our ability to feel happiness.
In fact, even happy-sad doesn't classify the feeling I get from these movies. The best movies are like poetry. The definition for the emotion you feel while watching the movie, is the movie itself.
To that end, I made a list of 5 Happy-Sad Movies for the Holidays. Especially since we'll be indoors more, I thought you might appreciate it.
Hope you fully drink in the mixed cocktail of feelings this month. And enjoy the finale to one of the weirdest and most profound years of our lives.
<3,
Pranav