🔋 TREE 467: I consume personal growth media so you don’t have to

This is a longish one – 450 words instead of 250.

I read and listen to quite a bit of personal and business growth stuff. I learn useful things from the people who create it. I can’t do it all the time though because most growth people leave me feeling vaguely angry.

I think I’ve figured out why.

THESE PEOPLE ARE FREAKS.

They are not normal. They are at the ends of all the spectrums. They leap out of bed before five AM and drink a gallon something green and powerful while immersed in ice and doing journalling with key members of their power team. During their six AM workout they start six companies and smilingly say no to 16 others as their radiant teeth reflect dancing light around their office gym dojo temple kitchen which overlooks a waterfall that has been tuned to the perfect harmonics for stimulating creativity. They studiously avoid all social media while simultaneously creating 75 pieces of social media content daily— I’m actually getting annoyed now.

They live their freakish lives then turn to you and say, If you want to be successful, you must… and they list the freaky things they do.

Is that how you want to live?

I don’t.

I don’t want to be Tim Ferriss or Ryan Holiday or Benjamin Hardy or Jocko Willink or Shane Parrish or Ed Latimore or…

But I do have a hypothesis about what may be the ultimate lesson to learn from these folks. Because they are intense, end-of-the-spectrum type humans, they don’t have any option but to let their freak flags fly. They don’t own a normal setting.

You and I are closer to the middle of these various spectrums. We find it easier to shut down our weirdness and go with the general flow of culture. I think the big lesson here is: Let’s not.

(Alert! The following list is full of my biases.) If your own personal, not-quite-so-extreme weirdness is saying radically change your diet for the better, do it. So what if you look weird at restaurants? Quit social media. Take up shortwave radio or printmaking or curling. Throw away your television. Watch only French films from the 1970s. It’s fine. It’s better than fine. It’s how you will grow. It’s how you will find your success.

Stop buying the weird other people are selling and do your own weird. Come up with your own criteria for what success looks like. They won’t be as extreme as the growth guys’ measures, but that’s okay. Their growth measures won’t meet your growth needs.

The majesty of the horse never ceases to enthral me.

“Throw away your television / Take the noose off your ambition / Reinvent your intuition now” (You can of course listen on Spotify but watch the live performance.)

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Rob Bell and I seem to have latched onto the same idea this week. I highly recommend this episode of his podcast if you want to do some more thinking about your energy.

Grow slowly
Jeff