So, milestone birthday achieved, I find myself wandering along the lakefront in Queenstown, pondering why I feel better than I have in the past year. It seems the decision to leave psychology is a key factor. Not that I'm ungrateful for my career as a psychologist, but I was done and had been for a while.
Another reason is my choice to stop juggling many tasks and focus on doing one thing well. This explains my absence from Substack and why I'll continue to be an infrequent poster in whatever form—be it audio, text, or the occasional video.
Focusing on one task has given me a different sense of time
When you try to cram many things into single moments, time feels like it slips through your fingers. Suddenly, hours and days pass by as you engage in countless tasks across various domains. Being focused on one thing means I'm not so scattered. I've worked at a fast pace at times, but there's satisfaction in seeing one project at a time through to a sense of closure.
I've found that I can linger more on moments during the journey rather than compartmentalising my consciousness and moving on to the next task. This way, I'm not disengaged from everything else around me. By doing one thing at a time, I'm more open to other rhythms of time—weeks, months, seasons, natural rhythms, including other people's anniversaries and birthdays. These are events I registered but didn't truly acknowledge when multitasking like a demon.
No matter how good you think you are at multitasking, it's probably not the long-term path to happiness. Not for me, anyway.
What about you?
By the way, ignore my email about paid subscriptions yesterday. All my posts will be available for everyone - whether free or paid. But, if you can afford to pay and choose to, well, I’d be grateful for sure.
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