In order to live life to its fullest potential I have to spend my time wisely. As I am limited by time, I believe I have to maximize doing the things that bring me joy and / or meaning and minimize the time spent on things that don’t. Even though I try to do that every day, I sometimes find myself in a position where I don’t spend my time as I would prefer. I want to transition from deciding on the go to a written down vision of my life in order to steer more clearly towards it and organize my thoughts.
Firstly, I have to find the activities that bring me flow. So far I have figured out that the most amount of flow I experience when doing sports. As a kid when I was playing football or other sports in school, later on skateboarding, while loud music was on, striving to learn a new trick. The intense focus and the rewarding joy after learning a new trick or just enjoying the flow brought me great satisfaction. Then as I got into reading I enjoyed flow while reading some books, but not all of them, only the interesting, well written and illuminating ones.
Secondly, I need to figure out what is meaningful for me or makes me feel that the time was spent well, not regretting doing the activity in hindsight. So far, these activities fit the category of some sort of personal growth or doing something for me in order to improve. It could be physical like a morning stretching routine, doing sports, healthy eating or efficiently relaxing and it could be more learning or creating something like reading a new book on a topic that interests me, watching videos that satisfy my curiosity or creating an amateur website that visually appeals to me.
These were the things that I consider are worth the time of their pursuit. Focusing more on the future I want to envision the life that I consider well lived from my point of view and list all the things that could help me achieve it. I think that a productive morning sets the pace for the rest of the day, so a morning routine that would energize me, wake my body up and improve my health would be of benefit. It could be a morning stretching routine while listening to a podcast of interest or relaxing music, followed by swimming / a run / a workout and a healthy breakfast. After the routine I would like to work on something that I find interesting and exciting as well as meaningful. Something that adds value to the society, improves lives of others or is just something that I enjoy doing and working on. It could be building a company, investing in companies, philanthropy or just a hobby. I am yet to find a professional route that I want to take, as of now I don’t specialize in anything. Investing caught my attention but I don’t know if that is the path most desired by me. I am willing to try it since I am learning about how businesses work that could be helpful when starting my own company, not sure if I could handle that either but as I have discovered I don’t like being bossed around and working for somebody so I may try going on my own out of necessity. So the information gathered from researching companies could be helpful. I was thinking about researching industrial companies and finding a niche there so I could apply the knowledge when starting out myself. Another professional option would be to invest in new ventures, which is meaningful for improving lives as well as an interesting career, or so I think. After coming back from my job I would like to read interesting books or socialize with friends and family. As well as do sports such as cycling, running, swimming, surfing, skiing.
Surrounding environment also influences my wellbeing. It is important for me to be woken up by natural light so a house with windows that let that morning sun in is necessary. As I am interested in aesthetically pleasing houses I would like to live in one in the future. The house should not be very large only to contain possible guests but still keep its coziness. I would prefer a modern concrete house with a view into the tree crowns or nature. In the best case with a swimming pool where I could do my morning swimming laps regardless of the weather and a wellness room with a steam and / or sauna. The house should be situated somewhere where the neighbourhood / neighbours are nice as well as close to hiking routes / cycling routes / running routes not so far from the city where other options of leisure are located.
From a family standpoint I would like a big family if I can support it. I would like to have a wife that is passionate about something and I could help her with that and see her grow. I would like her to be ambitious and sporty.
In conclusion, I want to focus on things that will let me squeeze out the most of life and I think the key to that is to think and reflect on things we do, why we do them and how we feel about them. My preferences may change through time but I felt the need to write this down even though it is not so insightful for others and I may edit it in the future.
thoughts
decision making
how to make rational decisions when the outcomes are uncertain?
how to judge a decision (good or bad) if you cant know what would happen if you decided for the other options?
can decisions be attributed to the skill of a person in a world full of complex and unpredictable forces?
how to live life optimally? what to focus our energy on?
are the decisions decided for us by the environment we live in and the inherent biology of our body and thus creating an illusion of control and merit?
cost signaling
why do people have an inherent tendency to show status? and even fake it?
does it have evolutionary roots?
will the tendency
evolution
how are our actions influenced by evolution?
is evolution the best predictor of human actions?
what are our inherent human needs?
why are we numb to all the forces that shape our actions when not actively thinking about it?
what if we were free of biological constrains? is it possible or is our consciousness just a representation of our biological structure? could we transcend into a different world?
arguing
why do people argue for the sake of arguing? does it have an evolutionary explanation?
what is arguing for if the ones arguing arent willing to come to a conclusion and learn from it in order to not make the same mistake the next time?
how to navigate through an argument where facts are overlooked? what if the facts arent aligned with the emotion of the other one? should you respect their emotion and set aside the facts?
do emotions stand in a way to come to the conclusion?
why cant people just isolate the problem from their oneself?
what if someone has a different framework for reaching conclusions? how to reach a conclusion when someone is not focused on the facts?
systems
why does pareto distribution exist in our world?
could pareto be in conflict with fairness principles embedded in us?
why is linear thinking the default system for humans? what problems arise from it?
other
why dont we spend more resources on prevention rather than the cure?
could we abuse our human biological weaknesses in order to propell civilization forward rather than to manipulate people and make money by gambling, advertising, etc..
do civilizations go through cycles: using resources well to wasting? is rich western civilization in its late stage where it wastes?
in what way social networks shape our actions and values? what are the implications?