Every so often I question my core goals in life and what I should focus on. Should I spend my best hours working on my business? Programming? Chess? Golf? Pleasure? Having kids? Family? Advancing science?
Let’s have a look at each:
- Business is what I have spent most of my life focused on so far. I started a company at 17 doing landscaping, went to college for business, worked three and a half years at an agency, then started my own company at age 25. Nine years later this is probably my best skill set. Business is definitely the area I can add the most value to the world. I get a little bored sometimes, but generally there is enough challenges to keep me working six to ten hours a day, six or seven days a week.
- Programming is an area I get a lot of happiness from as I really enjoy solving problems and puzzles. Programming is a clean area where I can truly and permanently solve a problem unlike business which is often fuzzy or dependent on other people. I am an okay programmer and there are lots of people better than me.
- Chess is a time filler activity I play on my phone. My game has mostly remained at the same rating with some improvements. I am a pretty mediocre player with only a 1700 rating on lichess. I do like the clear feedback on performance here.
- Golf is my new sport. Previously, I did a lot of rock climbing for several years, before that I did Crossfit, before that basketball, before that football. I like that golf is safe and I won’t injure myself like I did with rollerblading or run high risks like with rock climbing. Golf has a clear feedback and scoring system which makes it fun to improve. I am a newbie at golf, but improving quickly.
- Pleasure is something that I feel like if you pursue it as it’s own goal leads paradoxically to a lack of happiness. I could drink, party, go to Vegas, all that sort of stuff. Not interested.
- Having kids is something Laurel and I really want to do. Biology has not cooperated with us much so far, but we remain hopeful. I have heard from many people that having a family is a deep source of meaning.
- Focusing on family outside of my own wife and kids is also important to me. I really enjoy spending time with my brothers, my aunt and uncle, and my grandparents. I don’t see them enough and it is probably because I have prioritized my work and my sports too high.
- Advancing science is something I would like to do. I am especially fascinated by computer science and by microbiology. I have no experience in either area, but I think it would be fun to spend a few years catching up then helping advance a field.