Prompted: Do Stuff
Keeping it simple and getting out in the world.
Do Stuff
The most important thing is to live an interesting life. Keep your eyes, ears and heart open. Talk to people and visit interesting places, and don't forget to ask questions… you need to drink in the world around you so it's always there in your head.
- Michael Morpurgo
Recently I saw a sticker on my aunt’s water bottle with some cool branding. It said, “Drink Coffee Do Stuff”. Immediately, I jumped to their website and bought the mug pictured above (thank you Gina!).
The message resonated because of its simplicity. I love coffee, and I need to do more stuff.
To me, “Do Stuff” refers to “meat and potatoes” activities. It’s not doing anything; it’s doing something of substance. It’s not googling “Best Hikes near me”; it’s finding a trail and getting outside. It’s not agonizing over what to do or how to do it; it’s just doing it. Simple. Easy.
Sometimes we get to the end of our day and realize we didn’t “do” anything. We ate a few meals, went to work, and maybe watched TV or scrolled on our phones before bed. But what did we “do”?
We all have things that we never regret investing time in. Walking, running, biking, swimming, fishing, hiking, conversing, surfing, gardening, reading, writing, climbing, rowing, knitting, journaling, woodworking, singing, painting, composing, dancing, playing with kids, and much more, I’m sure I missed, but you get the point.
If we all did more “stuff”, I think we’d be better off. It doesn’t take much to turn an average day into one we can feel proud of. How much better do we feel after exercising, getting out in nature, or creating something?
Most of what we do in a day is neutral. It doesn’t provide much value, and it’s not detrimental, but if you’re reading this, I imagine you’d like to do more than coast through life in neutral.
This type of “stuff” is so powerful that we often overcomplicate it. We plan meticulously and want to make the investment of time worth it, but the more we think about it, plan it, and try and make it perfect, the harder it becomes to do it.
I think we all aspire to live meaningful and interesting lives and to do that, we need to get out there and do things that are worthwhile. We should find the things that light us up and do more of them. We should try new things. We should become okay with messiness and imperfection and glorify action instead.
Drink coffee. Do stuff.
This has become a mantra that reminds me to keep it simple. We don’t need fancy gear or perfect planning, we just need to do something worthwhile. When we take action, we make each day count and give ourselves the opportunity to become a bit better.
Prompts
What stuff do I want to do more of?
How can I make time every day to do stuff?
How do I feel after going through a day without doing any stuff?
Deep Dive
A newsletter sharing thought-provoking wisdom encouraging us to do hard things written by a great human.
Cool gear and great coffee.
Thanks for reading! I’ll see you next Sunday.
Kevin
Absolutely! I tend to let stuff get in my way of doing stuff. Some days I look at the clock and think what the heck? It can't be that late, can it? Excellent suggestion as usual.