Weekly newsletter
I. Prompts for motivation
If you were to write a book based on your story, what would be the biggest lessons you would take from each chapter? Are there any specific moments that stick out to you and why?
Do you struggle with the feeling that the best version of yourself—your energy, mindset, and potential—is all in the past as you look back at this stage in your life? Can you think of any ways to shift this paradigm in order to see that anything you hope for always lies ahead of you?
II. Thoughts for intention
Nothing can lead us to ruminate with unnecessary stress more than when we get hung up on a rigid path or timeline. We set ourselves up for negativity and unhealthy comparisons based on unrealistic standards of perfectionism. The more we learn about those who’ve gone through this experience before us, the easier it is to understand that life rarely moves in a straight line. Instead, much of our progression is filled with nonlinear moments that may not make sense until we’ve given it enough time.
Everyone manages in the way that works best for them. While you might find certain people checking off boxes from their personal goals in such an organized and meticulous way, you’ll also notice others simply going with the flow of what life has to offer in the present moment. No matter where or how you started in the beginning, the road is paved with setbacks, rejection, and failure. This is why we can help reduce any anxiety by letting go of expectations and learning to work with the mystery of serendipity.
III. Ideas for preparation
One way to appreciate new learnings at any point of our journey is to apply the “crescendo” concept from Steve McCovey’s book, Living in Crescendo. According to him, living in crescendo means to live by the philosophy that your best is yet to come. The term derives from a musical context in which the aim is to gradually increase in volume or intensity as you grow rather than deferring to the outdated idea of peaking or settling based on your age. Regardless of any preconceived societal notions, your destiny is in your hands whenever you’re ready to rise and defy the odds.
Nothing is permanent, and no day is the same. So as our individual experiences take us through new environments, transitions, roles, and challenges, this ongoing dynamic forces us to adapt, uncover hidden strengths, and reshape our perspectives. Over time, we can take these past experiences and transform them into wisdom. Ultimately, life is the teacher that can bring about endless personal transformation when we put in the effort and willingness to learn from what it always puts in front of us.
IV. Quotes for inspiration
“After those bohemian days, he went back to college, and returned to academic life. He never went on a long trip ever again. As far as I know, he’s spent his time since just shuttling back and forth between home and his office. It’s strange, isn’t it? No matter how quiet and conformist a person’s life seems, there’s always a time in the past when they reached an impasse. A time when they went a little crazy. I guess people need that sort of stage in their lives.”
― Haruki Murakami, Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage
“The Master and the boy followed each other as if drawn along the wires of some mechanism, until soon it could no longer be discerned which was coming and which going, which following and which leading, the old or the young man. Now it seemed to be the young man who showed honour and obedience to the old man, to authority and dignity; now again it was apparently the old man who was required to follow, serve, worship the figure of youth, of beginning, of mirth. And as he watched this at once senseless and significant dream circle, the dreamer felt alternately identical with the old man and the boy, now revering and now revered, now leading, now obeying; and in the course of these pendulum shifts there came a moment in which he was both, was simultaneously Master and small pupil; or rather he stood above both, was the instigator, conceiver, operator, and onlooker of the cycle, this futile spinning race between age and youth.”
― Hermann Hesse, The Glass Bead Game
