The Checklist View of Life
From R3ciprocity.com - Prof David Maslach: Innovation; Research Life; Striving Towards Happiness · 00:08:47
Show by David Maslach
We are sold a very modern checklist view of life. Get the degree. Get the job. Make good money. Be practical. Go on the trips. Exercise. Meditate. Do all the right things and somehow you are supposed to feel whole. But for some of us, even when we do a lot of that stuff right, there is still a longingness. There is still that quiet feeling that something is mismatched, that you are chronically behind, that there is something more you are supposed to do with your life.That is what made thinking about a doctorate feel so confusing to me. On paper, it looked irrational. More school. More uncertainty. Less money. Less approval. It looked like moving backward when I was supposed to be moving ahead. But the strangest part of adult life is that the checklist life does not fix that deeper ache. I do think some checklist things help. Exercise helps. Family helps. Doing the basics helps. But none of it fully resolves that deeper yearning if you are the kind of person who keeps searching for meaning, depth, truth, and a more genuine impression on the world. You can know not to pay attention to other people and still not fully know how to do it.So if you are in that exact same spot, wondering whether wanting a doctorate after a Master of Business Administration means you are foolish, I would say this. Maybe you are not making the stupidest choice of your life. Maybe you are finally being honest about the life that feels true to you. The hard part is that this feeling never fully goes away. There is no perfect checklist that wins the game. There is only trying to live your life as fully as you can, one day at a time, while remembering that even with the longingness, you may still be doing pretty well. Sometimes that is the real work. Not checking every box, but getting back up and trying again
More episodes
- Success Isn’t About Maximizing One Thing.
- How to Curate Your World for a Happier Life
- The Psychology of Going Viral
- Education Is Not a Guarantee. It Is Access.
- Life Is More Random Than Successful People Admit
- The Most Important PhD Skill Is Ignoring People
- What High School Teaches Us About Social Class
- The Hidden Penalty Of Caring In Academia
- How To Keep Building When People Doubt You
- Why Academic Entrepreneurs Stop Believing Words
PodSearch is a free, independent podcast search engine. Read about PodSearch, the privacy policy or contact us.