Issue 53 - Slowing Down

Welcome to Issue 53 of Deep Life Reflections, where I share five things I’ve been enjoying and thinking about over the past week.

I’m writing this week’s edition from the beautiful mountainous island of Phuket in southern Thailand, where I’m enjoying a relaxing holiday while continuing my recovery and rehabilitation. It’s the perfect setting to explore this week’s theme of embracing a deliberatively slower pace of life.

In this issue we tap into the insights of Cal Newport’s latest book, Slow Productivity, which offers a fresh perspective on navigating the hectic pace of modern life, embark on a journey Into The Wild to rediscover the significance of human connections in our pursuit for purpose, and contemplate the importance of how we invest our limited resources, recognising that every opportunity comes with its own cost.

Join me as we explore this week’s Friday Five.

1. What I’m Reading

Slow Productivity. By Cal Newport.

In a world consumed with speed, hustle culture, and the need to show how busy we are, many find themselves drained, disillusioned, and on the brink of burnout. This reality has been well documented, particularly in the wake of the pandemic, where economic trends such as ‘The Great Resignation’ and ‘Quiet Quitting’ emerged in response. But, if anything, the pursuit of busyness, hustling, and never-ending productivity has only intensified. As a business and life coach, most of my conversations with clients reflect this bottleneck of daily pressure. So, it’s with genuine enthusiasm that I welcome Cal Newport’s latest book, Slow Productivity: The Lost Art of Accomplishment Without Burnout, onto bookstore shelves.

Newport's concept of slow productivity challenges the current narrative that equates productivity with constant activity and rapid output. Instead, he advocates for a radical shift in mindset, emphasising three core principles of slow productivity:

1. Do fewer things.

2. Work at your natural pace.

3. Obsess over quality.

By embracing these principles, Newport believes we can cultivate a sense of calm, clarity, and creativity in our work and lives by tapping into our more natural rhythms. He recognises that as human beings, we still yearn to do meaningful things; after all, we feel an inner sense of satisfaction when accomplishing tasks that hold significance for us. (For me, completing this newsletter every Friday brings a strong sense of fulfilment, knowing the effort I invest and the potential value it offers to readers.)

Drawing on his expertise as a computer science professor, Newport takes an evidence-based approach to exploring the history of productivity and its evolution within the knowledge economy. He shows why productivity became increasingly challenging to define as we moved from the measurable assembly lines of the factory to the individual autonomy of the office.

From practical guidance for implementing his principles to real-life stories of individuals who have embraced slow productivity, such as the Pulitzer Prize-winning author John McPhee, Newport challenges us to consider an alternative approach to modern work culture—a path to live a deeper, less frenetic life while still achieving more of what matters.

This is a path I walk. It’s what inspired me to create Deep Life Journey and Deep Life Reflections—platforms where I can share insights and reflections with others. This is something meaningful to me.

I invite you to reflect on your own journey and whether now could be the time to embrace a slower, yet still meaningful, way of living and working?  

(If you're interested in exploring more on this topic, I delivered a keynote talk for King's College Hospital Dubai in November 2022, and published this essay, Redefining Success in the Era of ‘Workism’ in Arabian Business Magazine.)

2. What I’m Watching

Into The Wild. Directed by Sean Penn.

“Happiness only real when shared.” - Christopher McCandless [written in his book]

Into the Wild, written and directed by Sean Penn, is a film adaptation of Jon Krakauer’s non-fiction book of the same name. It’s based on the true story of Christopher McCandless, a young man disillusioned with society’s materialism and constraints. After graduating from college, he abandons his possessions and donates his entire $24,000 life savings to charity. Hitchhiking his way across the heartland of America, McCandless is driven by a singular goal: to reach the untamed wilderness of Alaska, hoping to live simply off the land. Along the way, he meets with various individuals who shape his journey and reflections.

The film, released in 2007 and set in the early 1990s, highlights the timeless human pursuit of freedom and meaning. Through spectacular cinematography, Into the Wild captures the beauty, power, and occasional terror of nature. It presents the wilderness as not just a physical landscape but also as a place of solace, reflection, and spiritual renewal, especially for McCandless. McCandless is the dreamer we can all recognise in ourselves, albeit in varying degrees. While we might admire his courage, we may also condemn his selfishness, such as leaving without telling his parents.   

Sean Penn captures this energy and idealism of youth—as well as the danger of pushing love away. McCandless revels in being alone. He says at one point, “You don’t need human relationships to be happy, God has placed it all around us.” This duality, epitomised by McCandless, lies at the heart of Into The Wild.

Later in his journey, McCandless meets Ron, an older man portrayed by veteran actor Hal Holbrook, whose performance earned him an Oscar nomination. Ron intuitively senses a conflict within McCandless regarding his relationship with his parents and offers him a valuable gift: insight into the healing power of forgiveness on the road to compassion, enlightenment, and human connection. This powerful scene leaves a lasting impact on McCandless, leading him to inscribe the quote into his book: “Happiness only real when shared.”

Into the Wild celebrates the dreamer in all of us—and also the danger of dreaming alone.    

3. What I’m Contemplating

In Walden, his 1854 reflection on simple living, Henry David Thoreau wrote, “The cost of a thing is the amount of life which is to be exchanged for it, immediately or in the long run.” It’s an articulate formulation of what economists would later call the opportunity cost of any choice—all the things you can no longer do with your money and time once you’ve committed them to something else. For example, if you choose to spend an evening replying to emails, you cannot spend that time going for a walk, and you can’t spend that time on something else. This emphasises the fundamental reality of economics: our finite resources of money and time shape much of our life experiences.

Last night, I went for dinner at a lakeside restaurant. I had the pleasure of meeting the owner, Robert. Of Dutch-Brazilian origin who moved to Thailand twenty-five years ago to pursue his dream of running a restaurant after two decades in hospitality, Robert epitomises intentional living. As we chatted, he showed me the coconut trees he once planted that now stand tall around his restaurant—living symbols of his commitment to his chosen path. Robert spends his days chatting with diners from around the world, savouring coffee and deep conversations with friends, and doing his daily exercises to stay fit and healthy. His lifestyle is a great example of embracing slow productivity and finding fulfilment in simple, meaningful pursuits.

As we journey through life, embracing the lessons of Into the Wild and the principles of Slow Productivity, we can acknowledge the value of slowing down, connecting with others, and finding fulfilment in shared experiences and meaningful endeavours. In a world where every choice carries an opportunity cost, it makes sense to choose wisely how we invest our finite resources, knowing that whatever we choose, we never get that moment back.

4. A Quote to note

“It seems like the benefits of technology have created the ability to stack more into our day and onto our schedules than we have the capacity to handle while maintaining a level of quality which makes the things worth doing. ... I think that’s where the burnout really hurts—when you want to care about something but you're removed from the capacity to do the thing or do it properly and give it your passion and full attention and creativity because you're expected to do so many other things.”

- Steve, a strategic planner responding to Cal Newport’s readership survey on productivity, which featured in his book, Slow Productivity.

5. A Question for you

What's something meaningful to you, and how might the principles of slow productivity help you achieve it more purposefully every day?

Thanks for reading and being part of the Deep Life Journey community. Have a great weekend.

James

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Don’t forget to check out my website, Deep Life Journey, for full content on my Pillars, Perspectives & Photography. And you can read all previous issues of Deep Life Reflections here.