[2/5] Pursuing What Matters Most

Organizing and improving our lives with Worthwhile Pursuits.

Dopamine is not about the pursuit of happiness, it is about the happiness of pursuit.

Dr Robert Sapolsky

Welcome to part 2/5 in our series breaking down Prompted’s framework for becoming better. If you missed last week’s edition check out here.

[1/5] A Framework for Becoming Better

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This week we’re digging into an idea that comes up over and over again in the newsletter, Worthwhile Pursuits.

In trying to become a bit better each day, the desire to improve our lives is the highest-order goal.

Nested underneath this are all the different areas of our lives like Family, Career, Health, Finances, Fun, Spirituality, etc.

Improvement in each of these looks very different which requires us to balance many different pursuits across the most important areas of our lives.

These pursuits consume our time and energy, but they are only worthwhile if they are helping us become better and they are done for their own sake.

Moving Past Vanity

Some pursuits are solely for vanity's sake. They’re like posting on social media, we only do it because we want credit. We wouldn’t do it if other people didn’t see it.

If we’re only doing something to post it online or tell other people about it, then we probably shouldn’t be doing it at all.

Even if we’re improving our lives, when we realize we're doing something primarily to please others or curate our image, there's likely a better way to achieve the same improvements.

If we spend a year on a pursuit, accomplish our goals, and make significant improvements, but no one else knows about it, that is a truly Worthwhile Pursuit.

These pursuits emerge naturally as we try to become better and we should embrace them as an opportunity to improve in that area of life.

The most difficult part of Worthwhile Pursuits is balancing them in a way we can make meaningful progress without being overwhelmed.

Establishing a Primary Pursuit

With so many important areas of life, a Primary Pursuit is a helpful designation to balance all of our endeavors and goals.

A Primary Pursuit is the most important pursuit in the most important area of our life. If we could only do one thing, it would be our Primary Pursuit.

Once we establish a Primary Pursuit, we can build our lives and structure our days around it.

With one thing leading the charge, we can prioritize and plan everything else around it without the constant stress and anxiety of all the important areas of our lives pulling against each other.

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If we think about our efforts to become better like a company, then we can think of each area of our lives as one department and each Worthwhile Pursuit as the most impact project for that department.

Revisiting our thesis (below) for becoming better, we’ve now covered what it means to become a bit better each day and Worthwhile Pursuits. Next week we’ll tackle what it means to make Meaningful Progress.

We can become a bit better each day by making meaningful progress towards worthwhile pursuits with balanced and intentional daily action.

As always, let me know what feedback you have on the series or Prompted in general!

Prompts

1. What are you pursuing for vanity? Should you stop, or do it for a different reason?

2. What are the 3-5 most important areas of your life?

3. How can you use the idea of a primary pursuit to simplify your life?

Deep Dive

• James Clear on Keystone Habits

  • The idea of a Primary Pursuit was inspired by the idea of Clear’s keystone habits.

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Thanks for reading! I’ll see you next Sunday.

Kevin