Really enjoyed this and think Mario is wise. But to expand a lot on the idea of views affecting one’s mood/self-esteem: High performers — people who are often friends of mine either because of YouTube, or because they’re doctors/surgeons who I went to medical school with — can sometimes have a disposition to beat themselves up over poor performance. It’s common. I think a “growth mindset”, and also maturity as a person, is realising that outcomes (views) and inner peace are two different things. The people who I find are next level in terms of performance, don’t have the weight of internal toxicity on their shoulders — because life is already super difficult when you’re doing hard things. Battling yourself internally just makes a hard thing harder. So to face them, you need to cultivate optimism just bit by bit. Then to mix that in with the fuel of ambition. I feel it’s a great myth to believe that suffering needlessly will be helpful. Pain should be used to reflect and help one see where they need to improve. Beyond that though, the people who I know who are not just really really good but best in the world…they’re driven by winning, not avoidance of suffering. You move faster if your soul is lighter. For those who claim that they “must”do something that results in their suffering…I would consider thinking about what systems you have in place currently, that need to be optimised to make your life better, and buy back your own time first. Many of these specific issues are actually the failure to build good systems creatively, rather than an issue with the individual. Yes, as creators we often think “only I can do this”, and that’s genuinely true a lot of the time — to be practical. But there’s often more than you think you can do to increase your asynchronous power (work productivity that isn’t dependent on your time). And if that’s an issue because of resources (e.g. no money to hire)…just force yourself to figure out a way to get more resources first. When only two paths are illuminated, just actively looking for a third will often yield the third one. Going back to ambition and internal strife: if you’re smart and hardworking enough to achieve your goals anyway, why not do it whilst also being decently happy? Optimism is not just a disposition, but a strength to be cultivated in a few microseconds of self-awareness and appreciation. Instead of thinking “what could go wrong?”, to shift to “what’s the one thing I can do right now to increase the probability that things go right?” Lastly… In my medical career, I’ve always found it fascinating how people are forced to intuitively understand this when they’re facing death. When there’s a time limit to your life, suddenly things that once seemed super big and important just melt away. And these people realise that rather than chasing pots of gold at the end of a rainbow, instead to realise the vibrant color of every step they can take today. (Of course, people have different ways they want to live their life, that’s just how I’ve been thinking I should live mine recently and maybe it’s helpful to someone else.)
A serious message to all YouTube creators
