Hey friendos, thanks for sticking around for the whole first month! It feels like an anniversary of some kind. After googling, I’ve been informed that a monthly anniversary is called a mensiversary, so do with that knowledge what you must. Happy mensiversary everyone!
How am I doing?
I’m doing OK. I had a bit of a low-energy week, probably on account of the shift in weather. It’s fun to see how the newsletter helps to catalog my feelings over the course of the week! I overheard someone talk about how listening, reading and then writing helps retain and internalize information. I think they might have been paraphrasing the cognitive domain of Bloom’s Taxonomy. Perhaps writing this newsletter will improve my learning capabilities. Either way, it’s a good way to flex my writing muscles!
So yeah, low-energy week. I’ve found myself wanting a lot more than doing. On several occasions, I’ve found myself wanting the thing I was working on to be done. Strangely enough, that didn’t make me want to do the thing at all! I think a lot of times when we say we want to finish something, we yearn for a world where the task is already complete, more than we want to actually do the thing.
So when I said to myself: “I want to finish writing this blog post”, I actually meant: “I want to play video games and take a nap.” And also: “I want this blog post to be finished, but not actually write it.” My mind often doesn’t go further than that first sentence, however. I think that’s why a lot of us are starting at the screen and not making any progress.
Perhaps it’s good to ask yourself, is this what I want to be doing right now? And if not, what is? I felt a lot better after playing some video games and taking a nap. It actually energized me to get back to writing the blog post. In general, I aim to live a life where I can truly answer yes to that question, instead of having to dissect the sentence to find what I actually want.
What am I doing?
Basically, I spent all week on the exact same things as I did last week: writing the Game Scope blog post and editing my YouTube channel trailer. The Game Scope blog post is still not finished, but luckily nearing its end. It was an uphill battle and I can only hope it is going to be an interesting and useful read.
For the channel trailer, it’s out! Go watch it if you haven’t yet. Is it cringe? Yes. Is it mediocre quality? Yes. Does it have a horrible spelling mistake in the title card? Absolutely. This is the premium content you can only get by getting on board as early as you have, so I hope you enjoy!
Why am I doing? (this)
In a week like this, where everything costs more effort than it should, it’s doubly important to ask yourself why you’re doing it. I wanted to get the video out as soon as possible. Publishing the first thing cements the idea into reality. Is the video the quality I want it to be? No, not at all. But now that it’s live and I told people about it, my idea of making YouTube videos has become a reality.
It’s the biggest shift in mindset I’ve had in the past years. I want people to know what I’m doing and working on, not just hide my projects in my little hermit’s corner forever. I’ve decided that want is more important than the other wants. So, now there are 30 subscribers expecting at least another video. And 20 newsletter subscribers who expect another newsletter. And 25 Discord members who expect to hang out a little bit. That motivates me to not give up when inevitably my creative high runs out for a blog post, a video, or a game project.
If I can leave you with a little task this week, try to dissect your wants and see which one should take priority!