1-1-1: you have always been good enough
read about how to rewire our mental shortcuts with behavioural science and a new podcast episode!
september, 2023
edition 34.
helloooo i am absolutely exhausted from my first day of orientation (aka ‘freshers week’ to my uk people) but it was so lovely to meet people from my cohort and feel like i’m finally settling into a routine here!
no major updates except that i’m feeling pretty burnt out and figuring out how to balance social-instagram-school so bear with me during this learning curve!
p.s. if you were interested in reading a slump era newsletter, check out this one :)
you can expect one email from me every week containing:
one quote that has been inspiring me
one journal prompt
one piece of advice*
* = if you want to submit a question for my upcoming emails, you can find the form here.
podcast
new episode (finally!) out!! just an introduction to season two and my hopes for the podcast — listen to it here <3
one quote
“the theme that always resonates with me the most in stories is ‘the world is cruel; therefore I won’t be.’”
—headspace-hotel on tumblr
one journal prompt
dear recovered me, …
one piece of advice
“I’m feeling like I’m not good enough and worthless.”
as much as I hate to say this, it is such a common feeling to feel behind or worthless or not good enough. we are literally surrounded by companies who profit off of our insecurities. social media provides us with everyone’s highlight reels in a way we never had access to before and that makes us compare, compare, compare.
if you were living your dream life right now, would you be happy?
if you looked around you and you were in your dream house with your dream pet in a dream relationship, would you finally feel satisfied?
the truth is, you wouldn’t be. human nature means that we’re always striving for the next thing — a life without purpose is a boring life. our goals and aspirations should be there to inspire us to do more with our life; they should never feel paralyzing or unattainable (if they do, it might be time to re-evaluate or pivot your goals).
a happy life is one that has a balance of pleasure and purpose. (trust me, i just read an entire book about this.) our belief that we could be happier in different scenarios is a heuristic (mental shortcut) called a focusing effect. basically, if you’re thinking about something, you overestimate how happy it will make you feel. the example the book used was comparing the happiness of californians and midwesterners — they are the same level of happy even though californians have better weather! because californians are always immersed in good weather, their happiness isn’t dependent on it. midwesterners have below freezing temperatures for a few months and, for those few months, mistakenly believe they would be happier in warmer weather.
in other words: our happiness is caused by what we pay attention to.
if good weather is the norm, sunshine won’t automatically increase your level of happiness. if cold weather is the norm, a sunny day will definitely increase your level of happiness.
(sorry to geek out on behavioural science for a second but this is literally what i’m studying for my masters degree haha)
ultimately here is the bottom line:
our society profits off of your feeling of inadequacy
you wouldn’t be any happier if you were living your dream life
happiness is caused by what you focus on the most
we can literally trick our brains into feeling happier by changing what we focus on. how frickin cool.
and ultimately, I hope you take this away: you are good enough. you have always been good enough. you, just by existing, are good enough. you don’t have to do anything to deserve the title of worthy because being worthy is your birthright.
reading updates
currently reading: the defining decade by meg jay (my favourite book ever)
finished this week:
n/a (starting my program = no time to read :( )
if you want to keep up with my reading throughout the week, this is my goodreads :)
I also made a book club channel on instagram! I ask you for recs, you choose my next read, and overall we just talk about books. feel free to join via my profile on ig!
enjoyed this edition?
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until we meet again,
katie
Can I just ask what book are you mentioning in this edish? Thanks
Thanks Katie. It was quite refreshing reading your post. Been feeling slightly inadequate seeing peers & siblings' succeed. Ive learn that they are in their own timeline. I have recently changed my career; thus, I should not compare my own process to achieve my goals. I want to explore more and persue something that I feel confident and inspired to help others in my own way. Take care now Katie.