Hi there! If you don’t know me, I’m Mike.
I’m also known as the guy who quit his corporate job, traveled the world, and THEN slipped into a terrible depression (while living in an idyllic ski town and skiing 100 days a year).
Ironic…don’t you think?
This photo, from 2017, shows some of the discontentment I was concealing under a seemingly-happy exterior.
As I mentioned in last week’s edition, according to a wonderful mentor of mine, Anthony DeMello:
“Having a good job, being famous, and having a great reputation has absolutely nothing to do with happiness or success. Nothing. It’s totally irrelevant.”
But I NEEDED that jarring experience in my life.
I needed to have done all the things I wanted to do, such as quitting the corporate grind and leaving an office building in Queens, New York, to spend my days traveling and exploring…and yet STILL be unhappy.
I needed to viscerally feel that the search for external happiness is like a dog chasing its tail or a donkey chasing a carrot…exhausting and futile.
That experience taught me to look toward the one place I had never explored: inside myself.
But I didn’t find happiness there. Happiness is a fleeting thrill. What I found was a sustainable joy. This is the joy that can only come from knowing oneself, embracing stillness and silence, and learning to cultivate peace within.
So why do we care so much about outward experiences? I’ll sum it up in one word:
PROGRAMMING.
We’ve all been programmed as children to behave in certain ways to get the things we want in life.
This teaches us to wear masks, acquire and do the things that we’ve been told will make us happy.
But here’s the scary part…we’re STILL being programmed every day.
Don’t just take my word for it, but instead, I beg you to start paying more attention to what you allow into that brain of yours.
The news programs us into FEAR.
Commercials and ads program us into LACK.
Most people, as a mass generalization, program us into WORRY and STRESS.
And it’s ALL distraction. It distracts us from our true purpose and meaning in life: Peace and Presence.
How to stop this incessant barrage of crap? Two tips:
Awareness - Simply begin noticing what you allow in your life; be it negativity, gossip, complaining, etc. Meditation is the first step to becoming more aware (try Headspace or check out one of the free meditations I’ve created here)
Set Boundaries - Commit to not watching the news, not checking emails first thing in the morning, not tolerating gossip, and so on. It’s your life (and your sanity), and perhaps it’s time to treat it and protect it as such
Will you try it? Or will you remain a hamster on a wheel? Or perhaps more relatable…will you remain a human on the “Hedonic Treadmill”, stuck on a neverending, exhausting, and ultimately futile quest for more?
Mike’s quote of the week:
“Success attained without joy proves the ultimate failure.” - MM
What I’m pondering:
“Autonomy. Mastery. Purpose.” - Dan Pink from his Ted Talk “The puzzle of motivation” (on the real factors that motivate us…not ‘better carrots’ or ‘sharper sticks’)
Things I’ve shared recently:
“Show me a boy of seven, and I'll show you the man.”
You can’t be present later this summer. Here’s why.
Ladders climbed often lean against the wrong building.
The elusive peace you’re searching for is simply NOT THERE…
Do you find value in these stories? Consider forwarding this email to friends, family, and coworkers…I truly appreciate you!
Enjoy the journey,
Mike