Yo, Miss (No. 5)

When No One Is Watching...

Dec 07, 2022

On Sunday, I took my regular spin class with Amanda Katz. She made a comment in class that REALLY resonated with me, so I thought I’d share it with you.

BTW: You need to follow her Substack if you don’t already:

Halfway though class, as I was hitting 180 BPMs riding that spin bike, she said:

It is the work you do when no one is watching that matters the most.

(I am probably butchering what she said, but in my defense I was dying trying to complete some interval at the time.)

I realized that most of my success in life has been the product of consistency and hard work when no one else is keeping track but me. Now, I am very aware of the fact that I am not the most private person. It might seem as though I am Tweeting AND TikToking AND Instagramming AND LinkedInning my every move and thought.

However, don’t be deceived by the lady (me!) behind the social media curtain. I spend a large portion of my days just plugging away without putting it all on display. I think you will find the same for most people who have achieved any level of success in their lives. Happiness - or rather fulfillment - derives from finding an activity or a mission that does not feel like work. But then because you feel so much passion for it, you put in the time every day towards that project or goal, even when no one is watching.

Then, on Monday, two of my students got into a discussion with me about happiness. One student asked me if I thought money could buy you happiness. I asked him to define “happiness” and then we started unpacking the difference between happiness and fulfillment. Here’s a great short read about the difference between the two. Long story short, I shared with him how I have found that focussing more on fulfillment over happiness by staying consistent and disciplined in my pursuit of achieving my goals has been my preferred route in life. A lot of the times, that daily work is done without fanfare or posts on every single one of my social media accounts. Yet, in the times in my life when I was only focussing on short fleeting pops of happiness, it ultimately left me disappointed, anxious and feeling chaotic.

My favorite part of being a teacher - and also a student - are these reflections and conversations.

What are your thoughts on happiness and fulfillment? Do you agree with how I differentiated between the two?