The Next Thing

It’s 5 am eastern time as I write and this is headed to your inbox in 2 hours.

I’m getting on a flight to Utah for Thanksgiving in 60 minutes.

And I just finished another Excel model for Lambda School (where I work) that shows how much money we’re going to make. (It took me, oh, 10 hours, but looks like it should have been done in 2.)

I’m looking forward to some explicit downtime but recognize I’ll be bored again soon and will want to get back on the treadmill of action, only to want another escape shortly thereafter.

The longing for The Next Thing is both good – everyone needs something to look forward to – and bad.

By deceiving ourselves into thinking The Next Thing will make us happy we look past the joy we could be experiencing in the current moment.

The Next Thing comes in many forms: when I get the right job, when I move to the right city, my next vacation, when my latest Amazon order arrives.

It comes and we get high for a moment, but that passes as quickly as all the other joys and we are yet again stuck with being ourselves.

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