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Sometimes success isn't worth the pain 😕

2024-02-28 · Short · Ali · recording, 0:56 · watch on YouTube

Topic: Mindset, motivation and happiness (also: Medicine and his doctor years) · mode: Reflection and life update · tags: His medical past, Feel-Good Productivity thesis

Ali recalls asking doctors whether they would keep working if they won the lottery and hearing high achievers regret the hobbies they let go, and argues that success reached through a grind that costs your health and relationships is not worth the pain: the journey matters more than the destination.

What is said

The parts of the video and what is said in each (★ — how much it matters to the video).

00:00:00 — Asking doctors about the lottery and hearing them regret the hobbies they lost

  • ★★ From his first year of medical school, Ali asked doctors he got on with how much they enjoyed the job and whether they would keep doing it if they won the lottery; often high achievers told him they wished they had had more of a life, having let their hobbies go because work got in the way. — 00:00:00

00:00:24 — Journey over destination: success is not worth a life out of balance

  • ★★★ Ali says that success without recognising that the journey is what ultimately matters tends to feel hollow for most people, and that from early on he held the journey to be more important than the destination. — 00:00:29 · journey before destination
  • ★★★ Hitting the bestseller list brings a flash of joy, Ali says, but if getting there was a grind that did not feel good and neglected your physical and mental health and relationships, many people say the success is not worth the pain of a life out of balance. — 00:00:29 · Mental health, journey before destination

Threads in this video

  • retold · Ali asks doctors whether they would still practise medicine if they won the lottery — From his first year of medical school, Ali asked doctors he got on with how much they enjoyed the job and whether they would keep doing it if they won the lottery; often high achievers told him they wished they had had more of a life, having let their hobbies go because work got in the way. (00:00:00)
  • refine · Should productivity be about efficiency or about enjoying the work? — Hitting the bestseller list brings a flash of joy, Ali says, but if getting there was a grind that did not feel good and neglected your physical and mental health and relationships, many people say the success is not worth the pain of a life out of balance. (00:00:29)
  • restate · How do you become happier? — Ali says that success without recognising that the journey is what ultimately matters tends to feel hollow for most people, and that from early on he held the journey to be more important than the destination. (00:00:29)

Mentioned

Central: journey before destination

Also: Mental health

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