Be sincere, not serious

[00:00:00] Well, hello. This is The Daily Five with Aurooba, that's me, where we reflect on creating our best lives a little bit every day. Here we go.

[00:00:16] I think today might be a little shorter than usual. We'll see. I have a quote stuck in my head today. It's, "be sincere, not serious." Or something to that effect. And it's attributed to Alan Watts. I read this quote in a book recently, and I found myself thinking about it quite a bit. The question of, do you take life seriously or sincerely?

[00:00:53] I suspect a lot of us accidentally fall into the trap of taking things a little too seriously, you know? When something sucks or is hard or too much, I invite you to ask yourself the following question. What would I change if I was sincere, not serious?

[00:01:15] Actually, when I first started thinking about this phrase, I was reminded of a scene from Ted Lasso. Or, well, not a single scene, but rather a storyline. McAdoo is a character on the show, and when he becomes the captain of the team, he starts to take the whole situation very seriously. If you haven't seen the show, the team isn't doing very well in their season. His brow was constantly furrowed, he yelled at his team, and his performance on the field was suffering, hardcore. He was taking every win and every loss so seriously that it was actually impeding his performance and his ability to be a good captain.

[00:01:59] So Roy Kent, previously the captain of this team and now one of its coaches, pulls him out and has him play one night with a group of neighborhood soccer players. Or football players, as they would say there in England. And he tells McAdoo to get out of his head and just have some fun. During the next day, during the game they have, McAdoo has a smile on his face. He does this really fun and very cute warm up with his team, and their whole team spirits are high, and their performance is better too. I mean, they still lost that game, but it was a solid turning point for McAdoo as a captain.

[00:02:45] And yes, Roy told him to have fun, and he did. Also, as a result, he let go of his seriousness, and instead, he just became sincere. His sincerity brought back his humor. It helped him focus on team building and nurturing trust. And he played better, too. He was focused. He cared, because not being serious doesn't mean you don't care.

[00:03:12] But every game wasn't like the end all be all. When we are sincere, instead of serious I suspect we tend to focus, but not treat every situation as a zero sum game. Instead, we perhaps enjoy ourselves a little more, do a better job, or maybe even a great job, and we care, and we improve.

[00:03:38] In my own life, I often say that I care, but I'm beginning to think that maybe the right thing to say instead is, I'm sincere. I'm sincere in what I do and what I say. And when we are sincere, we are perhaps at our best in the most authentic way. And there is magic to be seen and felt and experienced when that happens.

[00:04:04] So, as you create and attempt improvements in your own life, think about how you would do them or approach them if you were being sincere rather than serious.

[00:04:15] And yes, this may mean getting out of your analytical, overthinking mind a little bit. As a perpetual overthinker, I can attest to how difficult that can be sometimes. The approach of sincerity is perhaps one with a bit more heart and a little bit less mental ness of some kind. And I think that there is value in that.

[00:04:39] Some kind of balance there is probably a good thing. So, yeah, not everything is finite. Be sincere, not serious.

[00:04:54] Thanks for listening. Same time tomorrow?