“[W]hen we reach the end of our days, our life experience will equal what we have paid attention to, whether by choice or default.”
― Tim Wu, The Attention Merchants: The Epic Scramble to Get Inside Our Heads
Tag: Priorities
Why We Shouldn’t Judge Others Based on Perceived Health
A few days ago, I came across a word I hadn’t heard before: healthism. I was curious, so I looked it up. The word describes a kind of philosophy I’ve noticed in recent years. It’s ubiquitous on social media, and it most often rears its head in the form of fat shaming. Healthism refers to several related ideas:
- Health is a virtue in and of itself, something that should be an ultimate goal, rather than a means to other ends;
- To be unhealthy, or to practice unhealthy behaviors or habits, is a character flaw; and
- The state of a person’s health can be determined from their appearance.
Quote of the Week
“You cannot get through a single day without having an impact on the world around you. What you do makes a difference, and you have to decide what kind of difference you want to make.”
—Jane Goodall
Big Picture Goals vs. Checking Off Boxes
I’ve written a lot of posts about steps I’ve taken to improve my day-to-day life and overall wellness, like reading books, meditating, language-learning, and exercising. I’ve even described myself as a bit of a self-improvement junkie. I am constantly consuming media about the latest health-related studies and how to become more efficient and effective in my professional and personal life.
I believe this continual learning and experimenting adds value to my life, but it’s easy to let these habit-related, day-to-day pursuits distract me from long-term planning. Setting big goals and grand-scale intentions is something that I haven’t done very often in my life, though I know it’s important. I’m talking about envisioning my life decades from now and asking myself what I want it to look like. What contributions will I have made to the world? What kind of lifestyle will I be living? If I could call myself an expert at something, what would it be? Read more
Quote of the Week
“Close some doors today. Not because of pride, incapacity or arrogance, but simply because they lead you nowhere.”
—Paulo Coelho
