WE ARE LOOKING AT LESS — BUT IS IT IN REALITY MORE? A personal reflection after spending time with Ryan Holiday’s higher thinking.

Is today fun? 2021 is proving unequivocally brutal. For many it has been just like last year! Ultimately however taking an introspective reality check it is more a full panorama view with a swooping drone perspective of what less truly looks like?

And this is exactly what the millennial guru Tim Ferris advocates.

And it’s at the root of true stoicism!

For now we are pausing:- And for life’s true adventurers and nomads it can be tough! But is it unbearable really?

Reality check — we can select to give this pain a voice or we can move on through in a flow state!

Enduring a peace … away from our previous non-essential busyness and — in contemplation — was it bullshit?

This moment ,,,

We have had…

Fewer (no?) flights

Fewer (no?) dinners out.

Fewer (or fleeting) face-to-face meetings.

Fewer (for fixed mindsets) sources of income.

Fewer moments of memory-making with friends and family.

For some of this it has has been tragically sad and lonely: for stoics many aspects of our experiences during this pandemic have been unabashedly liberating!

You see when we triage the threats inside the moment — just as Marcus Aurelius did all those years ago- we review exactly how we exist — and maybe even why?

Ultimately we must ask ourselves?

Is this essential?

This moment — from every individuals perspective also — importantly reveals what our own “I want more!’ looks like.

Truly this is the absolute brutality of the last few months we have laid bare the selfish weakness of some. Some we may have previously iconised!

But for all the brutality of this moment in history it’s also meant;

Countless sunrises and sunsets enjoyed in our safe bubbles.

Countless carefully curated meals at home.

Maximal appreciation for our life’s people and pleasure that ultimately really matter.

And also sadly a new comprehension of the memento mori concept! As too many of seen in this minute -that indeed we must in fact die!

But it’s also on us how we live!

This is the message of Marcus Aurelius! And unabashedly what Tim Ferris is striving for us to both visualise and materialise.

When we do less, we get a double benefit. We cut out what is not essential and we have many more compounding moments to devote to what is absolutely essential and just be ultimately infinitely much better humans.