I don’t know about you. But all this self-help, personal development, productivity stuff is sort of tiring me out.

I just feel like I am never enough. No matter how much I fine tune my morning routine, how many more yoga sessions I take, and how many times I tell myself to love myself, I still feel like I’m standing still and the world is whizzing right by me.

Does anybody else feel that way?

In moments like these, I like to think of some of my idols. J. R. R. Tolkien, Einstein, Hitchcock. The thing is, I really doubt they read that many self-help books, and even if they did, they didn’t read nearly as much as I have, simply because of the fact that they didn’t exist.

So what did they do instead? Were they less equipped to handle the world they lived in? Did they do lower quality work? Were they less as human beings?

I don’t think so.

And I also don’t think we really need to read, yet, another self-help book, or do another yoga meditation session, or a juice cleanse.

If anything, all of these things are just a way of distracting ourselves from the fact that the world is moving faster than ever, it bothers the hell out of us, and the only thing we can do about it is to sort of make ourselves feel slightly better by reading a book about how everything is going to be okay, and yadda yadda yadda.

I know I sound paradoxical right now. After all, much of what I write falls right under the personal development category. But I’m not knocking it. I’m just trying to put things in perspective, mainly for myself, I’m human after all. Not everything I say will make sense (unfortunately) or, rather, fortunately. (Thanks, Lewis Carroll)

So what do we do? 

I'd do what I think J. R. R. Tolkien, Einstein, or Hitchcock would do. And that is not to read another self-help book, not to listen to another motivational talk. Instead, to go for a walk in the woods. Spend a quiet morning writing in our journal. Enjoy a nice cup of hot tea and stare aimlessly out the window. Taking solace in the fact that nothing will ever truly go your way, and finding comfort in the fact that that's still okay.

by Jason Lam