Lessons from my 20's
My 20's
My motivations have been diverse throughout my 20’s, leading me to a rapidly changing set of pursuits. I have pursued many things with the idea that doing the activity is very significant. Often when starting a new activity, believing that the activity is a very significant activity I devoted more than half of my time to the activity. I decided to analyze how my energy has been spent in the past 8 years. Below is a brief summary of some of my ambitions, the ages I pursued them during, the level of energy I’ve devoted to them, and the relative importance I gave to them.
The Data
Intention: Age: % Energy: Importance
Painting: 22–23: 100% — 50%: 10
Making video games: 23–24, 26–27: 100–40%, 20%-40%: 10
Making interactive art: 24: 30%: 5
Writing music: 20–21: 60%: 8–7
Writing comedy: 19–20: 40%: 4–6
Acting: 19–20: 70%: 8
Coding in general: 20–28: 50%: 6
Coding iPhone apps: 24–28: 60–70% : 6–9
Designing iPhone apps: 25–26: 40%-70%-50%: 7
Teaching: 26–28: 100%-o%: 8
Writing: 20–28: 40%-65%-30%: 3–7–3
Buddhism: 21–28: 30%: 4–7
Findings
I am actively pursuing 6 of the 12 activities listed. For the sake of analysis, I’ll refer to Data Set 1 as those activities I am not currently pursuing and Data Set 2 are those activities that I am pursuing.
Data Set 1:
Activities: Painting, Making video games, Making interactive art, Writing music, Writing comedy, Acting
Average length of pursuit: 2 years
Significance: 6.666
Energy: 53.6%
Data set 1 includes activities that have a medium high significance, have taken up more than half of my energy, and haven’t lasted for very long
Data Set 2:
Activities: Coding in general, Coding iPhone apps, Designing iPhone apps, Teaching, Writing, Buddhism
Average length of pursuit: 5.16 years
Significance: 6.41
Energy: 49.1%
Data Set 2 includes activities that have a medium high significance, take up less than half of my energy, and have lasted for a long time.
Synthesis
Both data sets contain highly significant activities. Data Set 2 activities started with less than 50% of my energy devoted to them where Data Set 1 activities tend to have more than 50% of my energy devoted to them from the onset. It would appear that I need to start slowly with a new activity and even if its an above average level of significance I’ll more likely find out if I can sustain it by giving it less energy. Once I find out I can sustain it, I can then gauge if I can sustain a lot of it.
On the whole, I can sustain significant activities for years on end as long as they don’t take up the majority of my time.
Conclusion
Significance is dictated by the amount of energy I give to an activity over time. I can give an activity all the significance in the world and devote 100% of my time to it but if I can only keep it up for a few weeks, it won’t ultimately be a significant thing for me. The significant activities are the ones I can sustain over time. These are activities I have a relationship with, and they include (in no order): meditating, socializing with friends, hanging with my family, chilling with my boyfriend, playing guitar, playing video games, cooking and eating, bathing, working out, having sex, praying, work.
I can maximize the level of significant activities I engage in based on these findings. It would appear that I can sustain activities that have a medium to low level of significance if a medium to low % of my total energy is devoted to them. I can sustain highly significant activities, but devoting less energy at the onset of the activity is crucial to its sustainability.
So if I find a balance I can sustain all sorts of activities, many of which are highly significant.
Two examples of proposed life energy delegations
Life 1: 20% buddhism — 40% family — 30% work — 10% physical/social needs
Life 2: 20% buddhism — 30% of family — 30% work — 20% physical/social needs
I could continue to break down life energy delegations in an attempt to try to maximize the significance of each part of my life to ultimately develop a more significant life.
