So this is the very first of my “muse”-letters - thanks for signing up! It’s comforting to know that I’m not shouting into the void, and I appreciate your support. You’ve given me the courage to finally give this a go.

I’m going to try modelling this on what I might want to see in a “newsletter”, although it will be an ever evolving project, so let’s just see how it goes. I’ve already noticed my tendency for perfectionism, and also to feel anxious to produce things which I’ve in some ways promised to the YouTube community. It’s definitely something to work on for this year (or maybe rather, under promise, over-deliver, which is a good approach in general.)

So to start things off, I’m looking at three main goals.

  • Hopefully put a smile on your face
  • Share a little bit of my personal journey (NB not overshare)
  • Inspire calm in a world flooded with information.

For this first edition, let me combine a couple of these things in one resource. I came across this video on a channel that a friend recommended to me, and I have found it to be great viewing. It might be a little bit “dark”, and some parts present an interesting world-view which you may or may not agree with, but take what’s good and leave out what you don’t agree with.

What I’ve been musing about

On the creator side of the internet, you’ll often see the “ra-ra” hype inspirational messages. These tend to come across as inauthentic to me, as it seems the people who push those messages are often trying to sell you something. And this is the great irony, because I find myself in the position of building an online course which I will also need to market at some point. Darn. My goal is to try and do things as authentically as possible, and also cut myself some slack if I don’t do it perfectly.

Additionally, facing this barrage of positivity when you’re not feeling great can be daunting. The start of the year has been a challenging one for me, trying to balance personal life, personal projects and work projects, and then simultaneously being bombarded by content telling me how I should improve my life in 2022. I mean, the easy solution is to just turn off the content, but that’s quite difficult as I try and shape things from multiple sources into one coherent workflow.

More than one friend has recommended metta meditation, or in Western parlance, loving-kindness meditation, and I’ve found this to be a helpful practice over the last few days. I think treating ourselves with kindness is incredibly important, and making space for the fact that we don’t have everything figured out, and the probability that no-one actually does. And when we go out into the world, to remember that everyone is fighting some internal battle, so we should remember to extend that kindness to others as well.

I hope that you have a great 2022, and hope that you can find calm amidst the chaos.

All the best,Dario