Hey friends,
In one of these emails a few weeks ago, I included an excerpt from Oliver Burkeman’s Meditations for Mortals, which referenced another book Choosing Easy World by Julia Rogers Hamrick. This was the excerpt:
The New Age author Julia Rogers Hamrick once wrote a book, Choosing Easy World, in which she argues it’s as simple as repeating a mantra: ‘I choose to live in Easy World, where everything is easy.’ When some daunting challenge barrels into view, just decide that you’re going to experience it as easy instead. I realise that sounds like the worst kind of denial of human limitation, as if you could get your way merely by commanding the universe to fall in line with your desires. In fact, though, it can be surprisingly effective – because it functions not as a mystical command to the universe but as a reminder to yourself not to fall into the old habit of adding complications or feelings of unpleasant exertion where neither need exist.
Firstly, what was very cool was that Tim Ferriss himself somehow read that, and re-shared the quote in his own newsletter with a “hat tip to Ali Abdaal” link to my YouTube channel. I can die a happy man now.
Secondly, I decided to read the book Choosing Easy World and finished it last night. So in today’s issue, I’d like to tell you about one concept in it that I’m struggling with.
Basically, the book’s core theme is that in each moment, we have a choice between whether we’re living in “Difficult World” or “Easy World.” Difficult World is where most of us spend our time – it’s about struggle, forcing things, resistance, and the belief that we need to push ourselves to get anything done. Easy World, on the other hand, is about flow, alignment, and trusting that when we follow our energy and inspiration, everything works out better.
Nice idea in theory. Very inspiring. I made a tonne of highlights as I was reading it, nodding along and thinking: “Yep this makes perfect sense. In each moment, we ultimately do have a choice about whether we choose to approach whatever we’re doing as if it were easy/fun/joyful vs hard/painful”.
But then there was a chapter towards the middle of the book about taking action. And Hamrick’s advice in the book was basically: “only do something if you feel inspired and energised to do it”.
This is clearly, a pretty radical suggestion.
Hamrick argues that we’ve been conditioned to believe we need to force ourselves to take action, even when we don’t feel like it. But according to her, this forcing is actually counterproductive and keeps us trapped in “Difficult World.”
She suggests that when we’re aligned with our true nature (in “Easy World”), we naturally feel inspired to do the things that are truly meant for us to do. And if we’re not feeling inspired or energised to do something, that’s actually a signal from our higher self that it’s not the right time or maybe not the right thing for us to focus on.
She writes that when we only take action from a place of inspiration and energy, we’re actually more effective, more creative, and we get better results with less struggle. And the things that truly need to get done will get done, because we’ll naturally feel inspired to do them when the timing is right.
Obviously, this immediately set off all my productivity alarm bells. Only do things when you feel like doing them?? Isn’t that just relying on temporary bursts of motivation?? There are so many things in life that benefit from consistency, from doing the work even when you don’t feel like it. There are plenty more things in life where you don’t have much of a choice… when I was a doctor, if I only showed up to work when I was feeling inspired and energised to do so, I’d have been struck off the medical register within a week. If I only made YouTube videos when I felt inspired and energised to make them, I’d have quit a long time ago. If I only went to the gym when I “felt” like going, I’d be in way worse shape than I currently am. Right??
Well, not according to the book. Hamrick writes:
You’ll discover that one of ego’s favorite tricks to pull you back into Difficult World is to tell you that you’re being lazy when you do only what matches your energy to act. Don’t buy it. When you relax and know that you’re always provided with the exact right amount of energy for you to do your part at any given time, you will experience the magic of Easy World and see that all gets done effectively, with efficiency, and in perfect time.
But hey. You know what? I’m an open-minded guy. Yes, this is a book that’s squarely in the “woo” section of the bookstore, but given that I’m reading it, I might as well run the experiment and see how it goes. So that’s what I did.
I decided to test the Easy World theory to only act when inspired and energised. And interestingly, last week I actually did film 2 videos when I felt inspired and energised to do so. Which was nice, because I didn’t have the usual ‘suffering’ and ‘pushing’ and ‘struggling’ that often comes with filming.
And ALSO on Friday last week, I decided I wasn’t feeling inspired or energised to film, so I was randomly reading articles on my phone, and randomly stumbled upon a random substack post that might form the basis for my next book… I read that random substack post, and immediately felt inspired to write up a book proposal and send it to my agent based on it. And that wouldn’t have happened if I’d been trying to force myself into making another video. (More details on that substack post and the various thoughts it sparked another time).
So the interesting thing was that by following my energy, I actually got more done last week than I normally do – just not in the way I would have planned it.
I’m continuing to run the experiment this week as well, and only doing stuff when I feel inspired and energised to do it. Right now, I “should” be working on a video that has an imminent deadline, but I felt like writing this newsletter, so here I am. Maybe I’ll film the video afterwards. Or maybe not. Depends how I feel about it lol.
I’m not sure if this is going to be long-term sustainable, or even possible. But I’m intrigued enough to keep going with this experiment. So I’m going to continue only doing something when I feel energised and inspired to do it and see how it goes. If my business collapses and I lose all my subscribers within a week, at least it’ll make for an interesting newsletter story. And if it actually works? Well, that would be pretty revolutionary.
Have a great week!
Ali xx
