I have ‘organically’ started a Rich Aunt series on TikTok. A fantasy of how to live the good life, a slow life. Rich Auntie is a woman who designs, reads, has endless funds, which she spends on the right stuff, she gardens, hosts small intimate dinners, goes on trips that she curates like no else can.
I might be a dreamer, but it is much nicer to dream big than to steadily become a boring productive predictable adult. My biggest worry right now would be to have a lifestyle my 16-year-old-self would be ashamed of.
I think it is a good exercise to question if you’re on your right path, by thinking how your younger self, who did not have a fully developed frontal lobe, would think about doing that new thing.
The book Grit, written by Angela Duckworth, talks about interest as one of the four psychological assets that shapes Grit. Interest, in other words, is intrinsically enjoying what you do. Because you will have to endeavour for a long period to reach that dream you imagined.
Then how do you find interests?
‘Interests are not discovered through introspection. They are triggered by interactions with the outside world. The process of interest discovery can be messy. You can’t will yourself to like things. One of the huge mistakes people make is that they try to force an interest on themselves. Without experimenting, you can’t figure out which interest will stick, and which won’t.’
Hereby proving to you, that just logically being a productive adult, because you think this is what you are ought to be, might be the most counter productive move.
Rich Auntie, would advise you, but also couldn't care less if you would not follow her advice, to do some random experiments that are foremost unproductive.
No tracking just enjoying, it’s summer after all.
