It used to be you could arrive at a state of “enough” and feel content. These days, there is no enough. Never rich enough, thin enough, working enough, optimizing, scaling, outsmarting, anticipating, stockpiling masks for coronavirus, prepared enough for the apocalypse. I believe this relates to venture capital and startups. These days, a business can’t just be profitable and stay that way. It has to scale. It can’t coast at the same good speed; it needs to accelerate. Which means you could always be doing more. I think this has created untold amounts of burnout at work, and it has trickled down into our mental health and the way we lead our lives. There is no more enough. As in: I worked hard enough today, and now I can rest and relax. We’re all on a treadmill where the speed is slowly increasing, and we’re constantly trying to “optimize.”
Try instead to take inventory of all the ways things are enough right now. You have enough material possessions, you’ve worked enough for the day, you’ve done the best you could (within reason), your body is perfectly enough, and, most importantly, you are enough.
You. Are. Enough. Already. Right now. And maybe you don’t need to be optimized or scaled. I believe this is the antidote to venture-capital-induced workism, burnout, and excessive anxiety. Recognize the enoughness of it all right now.
