Man’s Search for Happiness
A Letter to My Future Self
Dear Zake,
I’m the 28-year-old of you from 2021, how have you been? Since 2015, I have decided to take a day every month to reflect on work, life, relationship, and mental clarity. This is the 63rd mail that I’m writing to you.
Man’s Search for Happiness
How time flies! I turned 28 this August, and everything seems to be not real.
The good part: I work for one of the largest unicorn tech companies in Shenzhen, get my ends meet and it looks okay for others; I live with my girlfriend Ling and our relationship is loving and strong; I have many hobbies and I’m lucky to try and experience; I make videos of my own free will…
The not-good part: I'm always in a high-intensity high-pressure working state, and lack of sleep; I barely have time and energy for new exploration and things I enjoy, like creating videos, making an impact, hiking and BJJ. It feels that I’m always carrying a big junk of pressure and expectation that doesn’t even belong to me.
Here comes the trigger: when I was planning my trip to Xinjiang during the National Holidays, the flight is over 6,000 RMB, while normally is only 2,000 RMB maximum round trip. This 4K-gap makes me wonder:
Why am I sacrificing my time, energy, freedom for a higher paycheck, only to live an expensive life?
What if I trade the job and money for more freedom? If given more time, energy, could I be more productive, create more work and wealth?
Are you happy?
Every time I take a look at my life and happiness level, I’m happy and content until it comes to my day job. And the discomfort has 2 main sources: lack of sleep and endless energy consumption at work.
These are my top priorities later this year: Rewire myself to a better and healthier schedule, and set boundaries, adjust my attitude towards work. Since I don’t see there would be a better opportunity.
You see, I picked this product manager route back in college, and the decision-making was more following the trend, without many implementations, rather than a thoughtful choice. Looking back, it is a way of surviving and being independent from the family, but it doesn’t mean it is the most suitable career choice for me.
One thing I’m proud to share is that, after I graduated, I kept the habit of learning new things and exploring the world, which always provides me with different perspectives of the world and offers me a lot of new opportunities and career routes.
Life is all about long-term and compound interest.
For me, life could be at least another 50–60 years, so it is more important to think long-term with compounding effect awareness.
Can you be a product manager for the next 50–60 years? Of course that’s unrealistic. But some careers do have longevity. A craftsman usually makes better work in older age or career, rather than when he/her just started.
This is when compound interest kicks in. Your experience, craftsmanship grows with time, similar idea to acquiring stock and funds, you don’t get the most of it at the beginning, but only with long-term compound effect.
And I think the best way to become a master at something, is doing what you love, completing the mission of your life. What’s your mission?
What’s your mission?
I was talking with Ling the other day about our mission to this world, and the meaning of life. She met a friend who are able to tell the fortune of a man based on the date and place of birth, using the tool called Human Design Map.
Without even knowing or meeting me, she told a lot of things about my personality, what makes me happy and my mission, which is all true and aligned with what I want to do late in life.
My mission is about influencing and reflecting others, with my actions, experience and story.
Are you hungry?
One more thing I’ve been considered lately, the question I asked myself frequently: ARE YOU HUNGRY?
If you are hungry for doing something, it automatically increases the quality of your work and the possibility to be outstanding. As Napoleon once said,
Every French soldier carries a marshal’s baton in his knapsack.
For me, the thing is: I’m not hungry for being promoted or part of this hierarchy.
Of course, I’m interested in managing people, having a better title and making more money. Who doesn’t?
But I do not want to adopt the pressure and lifestyle they have, I don’t want to be the person they are expecting me to be, rather than who I want to be, and I don’t want to waste my time on meaningless fights and involution… The company benefits the most, while the individual suffers.
In a word, it is not my company. I do not want to trade my life, my time and energy for something that’s not in my mission.
The three big ones in life are wealth, health, and happiness. We pursue them in that order, but their importance is reverse.
Happiness is there when you remove the sense of something missing in your life.
In this case, I’ve already found my happiness, and pursue these 3 topics with the right priority.
Review July & August OKR
KR1: Lifelong learning on running an online course and community- 30-Day challenge completion rate 50%, overall joining rate 75%
Due to the very intense workload this summer, I do not have any spare time and energy to start a new workshop.
KR2: Grow my channel to 80K and make at least one more 100K-view content
When I’m writing this letter, my subs are 62K on bilibili, and 2.52K on YouTube. I realize these metrics cannot really tell how I did during the past 2 months:
- Views and subs cannot directly represent the content quality and the positive influence;
- I’m not creating content only to drive more traction at this point, while passion and exploration are more important.
This KR does not work for me, only brings me anxiety every time when I’m writing this review. My metrics could simply change to a question:
Are you proud of this piece of content and would love to share it with new friends who you respect but not familiar?
I have to be proud to introduce it to people, in a way of getting to know the most real part of me or what I’m capable of creating.
KR3: Gaining muscle on the pectoralis and biceps (in a way of improving my swimming and BJJ, then)
There’s a swimming competition in September and a BJJ tournament in November. So all of my training are around fixing my swimming techniques and BJJ drills & sparring. The gym part is put off until I hit the basics and when I need it.
OKR for Oct, Nov & Dec
Annual Objective: Become a self-reliant, confident human being who has more freedom over his life
My 3 Big Topics: Health, Happiness, Wealth
KR1: Increase morning productivity 50%+, form a long-term healthy schedule
- Have a 6.5–7 hour sleep every weekday night, bedtime 12 AM
- 7:30–9 AM: morning study with me or morning exercise
- 9–10 AM: Breakfast & office
KR2: Do things I enjoy every day for at least 30 minutes
- Prepare 3 time slots: 7:30–9 AM, 1:00–2:00 PM, 11:00–11:30 PM
- Video editing: BJJ 100-day challenge, rap music video, project HUMBLE, how to find happiness…
- Exercise: swimming mornings, or BJJ night training
- LIFE IS A DRUG workshop: Course updates and sign-up campaign
KR3: Explore new ways of creating wealth with my passion, while maintaining health and happiness
- Financial management&studies: books, videos and classes
- Digital products demo: 30-day challenge tool-kit, video courses, etc
What I’m Digesting
ALMANACK OF NAVAL RAVIKANT || A GUIDE TO WEALTH AND HAPPINESS
This is one of my favorite books I’ve read in 2021. I’ve been a fan of Naval since his presence at Tim Ferriss’s podcast back in 2019, his knowledge, outlook on life, wealth and relationship, provides me with a lot of inspirations for how I treat myself and life better.
This book collects pretty much all the valuable information he mentioned on the internet in the past couple of years, you won’t regret reading it!
The Part-Time Creator Manifesto
《见识》《态度》- Dr. Wu Jun
LIFE IS A DRUG. LOVE IT. LIVE IT.
Zake
