Eat Noodles, Work Better

Ok this title is full clickbait, I’ll own that. But there is something to it - maybe just a little more indirectly.

Last Thursday, I dragged my feet into my house after a long day and was greeted by the sound of Louie Armstrong playing on vinyl and my housemates laughing in the kitchen.

A few steps further and it didn’t take long for the aroma of Lili’s cooking to hit my nose: vegetarian noodle stir fry.

To preface this, I spent the train ride home working on projects (like I am right now) and had planned to set up my computer and smash out a video edit that evening, effectively ignoring my existence as a human in favour of my existence as a worker.

When I got home, that all changed. I’m bloody glad it did.

Here’s why.

Constant Output is Nothing Without Quality Input

There’s a reason people pay an arm and a leg for top-dollar alcohol to be mixed into their cocktails. No matter how great or terrible your bartender is; good shit is good shit.

When we spend every minute chasing after the to-do list, we leave behind the dream of freedom we were chasing in the first place.

I very easily fall into the trap of working through meal times, being late to a catchup because I was just finishing a project, or trying to cram some type of project into my days off.

It’s an addiction. Probably one that comes from not wanting to sit still for too long.

But when I do spend a moment of pause with the people I love or by myself; when I just stop and look around and think “Geez, this slaps”; I realise that the goal I’m chasing of living a great life is often right in front of me.

Ironically, the moment that realisation hits - my work quality skyrockets.

When you run as fast as you can, the finish line gets blurry.

We’ve all been there. You made up your mind to go after something. The goal was pretty clear when you started.

“I want to be ripped for Summer”. “If I just had $20,000 in the bank, I can finally travel”. “If I got that job, I’d love going to work”.

They’re usually framed up as pretty simple cause-and-effect models and they’re not bad for you. Understanding cause and effect and gaming it for yourself is an extremely useful tool. When it becomes a problem is when you use that dream to neglect how you feel right now.

Environment makes a significant difference in how you feel. But, at the end of the day, if your internal environment doesn’t change - your external environment won’t make a difference. (Read Huzz’s piece on this).

So how do you change your internal environment?

Eat Noodles With Your Mates

Reframing a situation usually requires a moment of divorce from it.

That means that, if your situation is running at full speed by yourself, you need a reason to sit still with other people in a way that you enjoy.

For me, it was eating noodles with my housemates. For you, it might be a picnic, ice skating, playing sport with friends, or a day by the beach. Idk, you do you. What you’re searching for is contrast.

Imagine you’re a scientist trying to disprove your current theory of happiness. Stress test it against anything you can find. That’s how you’ll know whether it actually works and has the wherewithal to hold up for the long term.

Reminder: this isn’t about you changing your mind and resetting everything. It’s about making sure the goals you set are ones you want to keep.

Update on the Side Quest

Heya - if you’ve read a few of these now then you would have figured out I’m trying to do these semi-regularly. While this type of thing (a personal story) lives on the blog live here on the website, there’s actually a whole SECOND article that gets emailed to people who subscribe every Tuesday.

It’s a breakdown of inspiring creative projects, open jobs at companies that care about culture, courses and events in the space, and news stories you should know about.

If you’re wanting to get more creative and live a purpose-led life, maybe chuck it a sub? It’s free 😀

As always, thanks for reading.

Much love,
Haz