Dr. Kentaro Fujita

I want to exercise, watch out for my health, I want to indulge my artistic side, I want to indulge, you know, all these different goals.

They're kind of what my friend Abby calls invisible goals.

They're goals that we're pursuing but we aren't necessarily aware that we're pursuing them.

And as a result, we're not actually maximizing and giving them their fair due diligence for us to be the well-rounded humans that we want to be.

So you were mentioning balancing work and non-work.

I think this is fundamental, but when we think about what is success,

We go back to that single goal mind, right?

That single goal mode.

And one of the things, again, I think that's why people prefer abstinence over moderation.

They think they're thinking about the one goal that is most important to them and they're going to subordinate all the other goals, sacrifice all the other goals that they have for that one goal.

But there might be something really healthy and wholesome about understanding that you're actually pursuing multiple goals and then realizing that you have to divvy your effort among them.

And doing so systematically might end up helping all the goals

in a way that's better than just pursuing the one and sacrificing all the others.

In other words, the gain from pursuing all of them might be more than the gain of pursuing the one.

And I think the philosophies of abstinence versus moderation kind of speak to that tension between do I pursue the one that's really important versus do I spread my effort among the many.

And I think we can be okay with that duality in our heads.

Like, you know, there may be goals for which you pursue in that single-minded way.

And because they're so important to you, as long as you're aware, you know, so sort of like, do I want to be a specialist or a generalist?

And...

You can't be both.