It’s a wonderful deep life
December heralds a litany of end-of-year reflections and forecasts for the year ahead. Reels recap the year’s ten best and worst, Spotify Unwrapped reminds us of guilty pleasures we’ve binged, and holiday parties inevitably lead to awkward questions about New Year’s resolutions.
My track record on resolutions is mixed. A few have stuck, like eating healthy, while too many have failed miserably. I know I’m not alone in this, and the strategist in me thought there has to be a better way to organize my random goals into a cohesive and achievable plan.
Last January, I learned about the Deep Life StackTM by Cal Newport, author of Digital Minimalism and Deep Work. He defines a deep life as:
“A life lived in radical alignment with your values.”
This life planning system is deceptively simple: focus on what matters and eliminate anything that steals your attention away from what you truly value.
You start by reflecting on your life across “Five Cs”:
- Community. Nurture meaningful relationships with those who matter most. Support and inspire others through genuine connections in your community.
- Craft. Continuously develop your skills and expertise in your chosen field or passions. Strive for autonomy and mastery.
- Constitution. Prioritize your physical, mental, and financial well-being. Make choices that maximize your overall health for a sound mind and body.
- Contemplation. Embrace lifelong learning and personal growth. Cultivate deep thinking, reflection, and exploration to broaden your worldview.
- Celebration. Do the activities that bring you joy simply for the love of doing them. Practice gratitude and appreciation as you cherish life’s precious moments.
From there, you adopt new practices to invest your energy and time. Ultimately, you want to develop strong habits across all five areas, which can be daunting. To lower the barrier to getting started, Cal suggests starting with a single keystone habit in one area that you work on earnestly over a month. Once you’ve successfully incorporated a new habit, move on to another area, add a new routine, rinse and repeat.
Over time, you’ll develop an ecology of practices that stack on one another, putting you on a path to living with more intention, purpose, and possibility. Celebrating small wins builds discipline and gives you the confidence to take on even bigger challenges over time.
I’ve tried this approach to develop a daily reading habit, start a meditation practice, learn Midjourney, and set up a new PKM system. I’m still deciding what my next practice will be. I may try journaling, yoga, or getting back to writing music. No matter what I choose, I feel less pressured knowing I’m starting with a month-long commitment and going from there.
So, if you are wrestling with setting a New Year’s resolution, boost your chances of it lasting beyond January 31st. Reflect on what you want out of life and take the first step to live more deeply and joyfully.
