Would you do it if you were alone in the world?

Here's the litmus test for doing things that are aligned with your personal goals

Reminder: if you don’t want to continue receiving weekly emails feel free to unsubscribe at the bottom of this email!

A lot of times we end up doing things, buying things, and saying things (to others and to ourselves) due to some kind of outside pressure, even if we don’t know what this outside pressure really is.

This could be anything from buying a certain brand of clothes to taking certain vacations or choosing a certain career path.

The thing is, we don’t do it intentionally or with the idea of giving in to peer pressure. We don’t even know who we’re trying to impress — it just feels natural and so we don’t really even think that we’re giving in.

And then at one point you realize that you’re not really happy and can’t really understand why.

Me, alone in Étretat, France, in 2016.

The way around this

Start practicing this — before making any decision, big or small, step back and ask yourself “is this something I’m personally aligned with? Would I still do it if I were alone in this world with no one but myself to judge my actions?”

If the answer is yes, go forward.

If the answer is no — stop yourself. Try and figure out what your intentions really are.

I’ve been doing this for many many years now, after realizing at one point that I wasn’t truly happy with many of my decisions. And by doing this, over time, I started to live a more intentional life.

---

Video of the week

Inspiration of the week

I love Seth Godin. I love Chris Do. Here’s both of them having a conversation about storytelling, education, and the creative world of business.

---

Thanks for reading! And again, if you don’t want to receive these emails every week, feel free to hit unsubscribe!

Cheers,

— Mayank