Do Less of What Makes You Feel Dead Inside

A personal project to make a new sort of “motivational” book to remind us to deal with things as they are, look for the good, and do more of what makes us happy.

I highly recommend doing less of what makes you feel dead inside - this has been a personal mantra for several years after I realized I spent way too much time doing all sorts of things that made me feel dead inside. I’m not saying I never do, life is life and sometimes it sucks, but I try to get back to doing less of that stuff and more of the things that make me feel curious, interested, relaxed, joyful, or exhilarated whenever I can.

The idea for my personal, somewhat sarcastic motivational book came from a little gift book I impulsively purchased at Barnes & Noble a few years ago. Called Do More of What Makes You Feel Alive, it was full of somewhat trite and overly saccharine suggestions for how one might feel happier. Not being a particularly sweet person, I found it a bit off putting, though I liked the overall idea of finding ways to feel better instead of just waiting for happiness to come wandering by.

Taking the idea and turning it on its head, I started carrying a small notebook around and whenever the mood struck or a situation inspired a thought about Doing Less of What Makes You Feel Dead Inside, I added a bit of advice for myself.

I was shooting for dark humor wherever possible, since part of my complaint with the original was taking itself way too seriously and doing so would defeat the purpose of the whole project. Over the years I’ve continued to add bits of advice, snark, observations, some video and a few pictures here and there.

The whole project comes down to one key point - you should do less of what makes you feel dead inside today.

Be curious, be interested, be observational, find a way to be funny and have fun. Go looking for what makes you feel connected and engaged and alive.