💌 You don't (really) need much in life

5 hobbies for a balanced life, Occam's razor & bad money habits

Hello from nice sunny weather in Toronto!

I'm finally back from my 18-day travel nursing assignment.

It was supposed to be a 14-day assignment, but I decided to extend it for four days because, you know, mullah…and I really liked the work I was doing.

During my trip up north (i.e., in the middle of nowhere in Canada), I realized that I don't need a lot of things in life.

I didn't have any phone signal and had weak Wi-Fi. There weren’t coffee shops (a priority for me), no restaurants, good places to see, and nothing to do. Sure, I had a shelter, ways to make food, and a decent-paying job. But it was such an isolated community that I wouldn't dare to live in for more than two months.

On my days off, I'd work on my YouTube project and spend time reflecting. You could hear yourself think just by walking outside.

One of the things I wanted to work through during the trip was the fact that I thought I needed to keep chasing more to feel happy or fulfilled.

I wanted to go to the U.S. because I heard you could make more money as a travel nurse there.

But that desire keeps fading as I learn to prioritize what matters to me.

And after some reflection, I learned I want to pursue an intentional, fulfilling, and creative life.

But what exactly does this look like for me? 

I want to spend a lot of time writing, making YouTube videos, traveling, and building deeper relationships with my friends and family.

Nowhere in there says that I need to uproot my life, go to the U.S., learn a whole new healthcare system, and make my life more complicated to make more money. 

I realized that I was chasing other people's dreams—something I saw my peers or strangers online was doing.

I once read that you need five hobbies to have a happy and balanced life.

1. A hobby that makes you money

2. A hobby to keep you in shape

3. A hobby that makes you creative

4. A hobby to build knowledge

5. A hobby to evolve your mindset

For me, this narrowed down to freelance nursing, running, yoga, writing, building my YouTube channel, and traveling for pure joy.

I can honestly say I've come so far from being the anxious, unemployed nurse I was. I look forward to waking up and creating and doing freelance nursing on the side to sustain the lifestyle I truly want to have.

Now it's just a matter of maintaining this kind of mood as long as I can.

I'm curious, is this something you've thought about?

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🧚 3 Fairy Tips for Multipassionate Creators

On Writing: Your ideas aren't truly yours, so you better do something about them when they come.

I currently picked up Elizabeth Gilbert's (author of Eat, Pray, Love) book, Big Magic, because I want to know what it's like to pursue a creative life.

It's a bit woo-woo, but I love these types of books. In the first chapter, Gilbert talks about how ideas have their own entities, meaning they have a life of their own. If you catch an idea, you must learn how to respect it by doing something about it. 

Otherwise, it'll find a rightful owner who will be more than happy to manifest it into a reality. 

I thought it was such a refreshing take on taking advantage of the ideas that come to you.

On entrepreneurship: The cheaper route is sometimes the more expensive route in the long run.

Recently, I've been looking for a camera to support my YouTube and photography journey.

I'm tempted to buy a cheap camera, and when I learn the fundamentals, I thought I’d upgrade. But I realized that doing that would cost me more time and money because I would have to go through the same process twice.

It's better to be intentional from day 1 when it comes to self-education. You maybe spending more money and time in the short run but save more in the long run.

On life: When faced with two options, choose the simpler thing.

In this newsletter issue by Sahil Bloom, I learned about the principle of Occam's razor. He says,

"One of my favorite decision-making razors, it says that when you are weighing alternative hypotheses, the one with the fewest necessary assumptions should be chosen. Put simply, the simplest explanation is often the best one. Simple is beautiful. Remember this the next time you want to believe the answer to a problem is some extraordinarily complex chain (when there is a much simpler possible answer."

It made me realize how I make my life unnecessarily complicated.

But in the next six months, or however long it takes, I'll make a lot more effort to simplify things. 😊

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✨ Latest Work On The Internet

🎥 How Quitting 3 Bad Money Habits Made Me Happier

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🤔 A question for you this week:

Do you feel like you have enough in life, and if not, why do you think so?

Photo by Anna Nekrashevich from Pexels

With online love 💌 ,

Jerine

Btw, Ship 30 for 30 is starting its next cohort on August 8th. It’s a writing program that helped me be unstuck as a nurse, so if you’re in the same boat…(get it?), you might like this transformational course. I made a post here and a video here about how this course helped me. If you’d like to get $100 OFF of the next cohort, don’t hesitate to use this link.

P.S Some links are affiliate links, where I will get a commission at no extra cost to you. But rest assured that I truly believe in these products. :)