Being Sick Sucks

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Initially published on October 5, 2022

Being sick sucks. No one will dispute that. I've been sick for a few days now, and my one single wish is to not be sick. I talked about this idea of mindset and perspectives before. This came in to my mind these past few days.

It's just funny how our biggest problem can change so easily. I was feeling perfectly fine, going out, then all of a sudden started feeling like shit and couldn't do anything. Maybe I'm just being soft, but I couldn't get any work done at all. That feeling of doing nothing and then falling behind in school only piles onto the stress that you feel, but it feels like there's nothing I can do about it until I get better. Now maybe I'm just being soft, but that's just how I felt. As I've started feeling better, I've been able to do more- like do some reading and write this blog post.

As I'm writing this and thinking about the idea of shifting perspectives, I'm reminded of a podcast I watched yesterday: Ryan Holiday on My First Million. It was a really fun episode to watch and one thing Ryan and Sam talked about was having a number. That is, having a certain number that once you reach, you'll be set (as in making $X). But Ryan has never seen anyone reach that number because the goal posts always shift. Sam said that's been his own personal experience. I don't think that's a bad thing. You can still be satisfied and happy with your career and success, and be proud of yourself, but your goals can keep moving so that you continue to work hard, push yourself, and achieve even more. There's another idea that came up that I think can be an even more important lesson.

In my previous post I linked above, I talked about the conclusion being about balance. Most things are best in moderation, balance is key to life, especially to prevent burnout. I still think this is true. Something I also believe in is to grind and work hard, especially if you want to be successful. But something I've noticed from observing other successful people is consistency (and the discipline to show up and do the thing everyday even if you don't "feel like it" is the most important thing). Ryan Holiday's new book is called Discipline is Destiny, and while I don't know what it's about at all, I assume there may be a similar lesson in there. While grinding and simply just working harder and more than others is important, I think the discipline and consistency (which is a part of that) is more important. You can still have balance in your life doing that. In the podcast, Ryan talked about what impresses him most about all the rich, successful people he gets to meet. That is their normalcy. Two examples he mentioned are Manu Ginóbili and Chris Bosh. Both have multiple rings and are simply superstars, but they're still pretty normal people. What I think is part of that is the idea of having balance in life because Ryan contrasts this to the likes of Michael Jordan and Tom Brady, who might be getting divorced and sacrificing family for football. These two guys have sacrificed other things to achieve their greatness, and maybe that is what it takes to be the greatest of all time, which those two are, in my opinion. But Ryan says that narrative of sacrificing everything else in your life isn't necessary to achieve greatness, as shown by Manu and Chris.

I guess I have a similar conclusion: balance. You can still have balance and be a normal person while achieving greatness. But I think what's even more important, if you want to find success, especially in doing something like creating content, whether that's blog posts, books, podcasts, YouTube videos, etc., is output. That is the quantity of output. This is another thing Ryan and Sam discussed. Some people want to prioritize quality, but to reach that high quality you need the quantity. The only way to get good at something is to do it, and hopefully receive feedback from and have a back and forth with your audience. If you want to be a great writer, you probably have to put out a lot of blog posts or books. If you want to be a great basketball player, you have to go out and play.

What that means for me is to write and publish more, whether that's blog posts or tweets or whatever. And if I want to make videos and a podcast, you just have to start and focus on the output, specifically the quantity. Then the quality will follow.

Noah's Picks

• I randomly came across a Casually Explained video on YouTube, and I can't stop watching them now.

• Cody Ko made a new channel focused on training (for marathons, triathlons, etc.) called Cody Trains (sorry, no model trains here) and I love it. It's super motivating and just fun to watch the journey

• The Twitch and just general internet drama is crazy- if you want to catch up, just watch some of the recent videos from Mogul Mail and Charlie

  • the internet really went crazy over the Dream face reveal. he probably doesn't deserve it, but it's kind of hilarious. he had a really interesting marketing campaign as well

• I'm starting to read this guide from David Perell. I expect it to be good, but only time will tell

• also Guga Foods and just other cooking videos and channels have been satisfying to watch