Chase Dubs Not Dreams

This blog aims to tackle the difficult question of why we are motivated to do things, and how we can maximize this motivation.

Whenever we start something new, we are either inspired to, or forced to. Both are completely valid reasons for doing something, and life will definitely hit us with both constantly. But after the impetus, maintaining the desire to continue doing something is much harder. 

Here we come to the idea of dubs, which is short for W (double-u), which is then short for Win, or the term I prefer more: Victory. Victories are times when we accomplish something hard, like doing a new skateboarding trick or solving a hard math problem. But the most important part about a Victory is that it should be repeatable (otherwise it becomes a dream).

A repeatable victory is something you can incrementally improve on, like a progression of skateboarding tricks or finishing a math problemset. Having small victories you can that you can repeat keeps motivation running for a lot longer.

And to this end, I believe that some structure is required in anything that one pursues. Having at least some vision of what you want makes it so much easier to push harder. This structure can either come from people around you, or it could be defined yourself. But honestly this isn’t a big problem most of the time.

Alongside structure, you need some inherent randomness. Randomness that pushes you to explore side quests, try abnormal things, and blaze your own path. This randomness is often, and probably solely, the result of the intrinsic motivation people have to do things. And this comes from true inspiration.

Inspiration is practically impossible to describe, but you’re usually inspired to do something if you chose to do it yourself. Because regardless of external factors, there is some part of you that voluntarily values it. I genuinely think everyone has things they are inspired to do, we’re just not active enough about seeking them out. A good way to do this is to think about what you would do if everything that pushed you was gone.

The reality is, extraordinary success doesn’t come from well-structured activities. Structure gives you hope, purpose, a feeling of productivity. But while structure sets a floor, it also sets your ceiling. When you meticulously plan your Victories—or worse, your dreams—you’ve sold yourself short to the narrow purpose you’ve defined before even starting. 

I do think that people (me included) are generally lacking passion more than structure, mainly because society is built around structure. Grades are probably the biggest example of this in high school, and money the biggest in real life. These aren’t bad things, but these make for terrible Victories that are unsustainable in the long run. You’ll probably learn more from prioritizing what you actually care about.

Thanks to Vividh, Emily, and Yaamini for thoughts that are in this blog.