Day 502 - Why so serious - https://golifelog.com/posts/why-so-serious-1652750324079
I would call myself a serious person. As a kid, I was the serious one. Never the first to laugh or joke. Always the first to observe, learn and do.
I think it carried over to my career and work, and it had served me well… mostly. Being serious about work is favoured by employers of course. But it doesn’t get you much favours from your colleagues being so serious. The social department doesn’t get much capital. And I brought 100% of that into entrepreneurship.
Lately I’ve been thinking I need to change that. It’s one of those funny things that entrepreneurship does to you. From wanting to learn how to better spot opportunities and be lucky, to embracing my identity-based goals of an Opportunistic Trickster, to now wanting to be less serious. I feel like I need to flip my serious to fun ratio around. Maybe it 90% serious, 10% fun. I want to get to 40% serious, 60% fun. Or more.
Why be less serious? I’d invert it and ask back, “Why so serious?”
This line from Osho comes to mind:
“I don’t think existence wants you to be serious. I have not seen a serious tree. I have not seen a serious bird. I have not seen a serious starry night. It seems they are all laughing in their own ways, dancing in their own ways. We may not understand it, but there is a subtle feeling that the whole of existence is a celebration.”
Maybe it’s age. Maybe it’s due to reaching mid-life. Maybe it’s a recognition that time is running out. Maybe it’s what having a kid does to you. Maybe it’s realising that my past serious ways aren’t helping in my work - maybe even holding it back. Maybe it’s witnessing how I’m not enjoying my journey. Maybe it’s a sense that ultimately, what’s the point of being serious if it helps me get to my goals but not my happiness?
Fact is, many of the most successful folks in my field whom I look up to, always look like they are having the more fun than anyone else. If I can’t take a cue from my own life, perhaps I can listen to their’s for a change.
Fun > serious
I think it carried over to my career and work, and it had served me well… mostly. Being serious about work is favoured by employers of course. But it doesn’t get you much favours from your colleagues being so serious. The social department doesn’t get much capital. And I brought 100% of that into entrepreneurship.
Lately I’ve been thinking I need to change that. It’s one of those funny things that entrepreneurship does to you. From wanting to learn how to better spot opportunities and be lucky, to embracing my identity-based goals of an Opportunistic Trickster, to now wanting to be less serious. I feel like I need to flip my serious to fun ratio around. Maybe it 90% serious, 10% fun. I want to get to 40% serious, 60% fun. Or more.
Why be less serious? I’d invert it and ask back, “Why so serious?”
This line from Osho comes to mind:
“I don’t think existence wants you to be serious. I have not seen a serious tree. I have not seen a serious bird. I have not seen a serious starry night. It seems they are all laughing in their own ways, dancing in their own ways. We may not understand it, but there is a subtle feeling that the whole of existence is a celebration.”
Maybe it’s age. Maybe it’s due to reaching mid-life. Maybe it’s a recognition that time is running out. Maybe it’s what having a kid does to you. Maybe it’s realising that my past serious ways aren’t helping in my work - maybe even holding it back. Maybe it’s witnessing how I’m not enjoying my journey. Maybe it’s a sense that ultimately, what’s the point of being serious if it helps me get to my goals but not my happiness?
Fact is, many of the most successful folks in my field whom I look up to, always look like they are having the more fun than anyone else. If I can’t take a cue from my own life, perhaps I can listen to their’s for a change.
Fun > serious