Friday Flow #34: “Good addiction”

Hey,

So I’m still running twice a week from work and loving it. I finished my first run this week on a high: it was a warm afternoon after a cold day and I stayed steady throughout the run. But the day of my second run it was colder and grey to boot and my mind was saying no. But my body? My body was saying yes. For once it was the flesh that was willing when the spirit was weak.

I decided to go with my body. As I pounded the pavement, I reflected on why my body had a different take on going out, and it struck me it was the same basic principle as addictions. My body’s “memory” of a high from my last few runs left it wanting more even when my mind saw the experience as one of denial and difficulty. Without intending to I pushed myself a bit harder than on my last run and ended up faster.

It felt good to realise my body was getting “addicted” to something actually good for it. Yes, I’m still a little high from it. I even took a photo.

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Essay: Precision and power

This week, I wrote about how communication is a dance between precision and power. My main argument was that we should aim more for power in our communication than for precision.

I go on to explain:

By precision, I mean communicating with a focus on neutrality and exactness. The extreme would be something like legal documents, and we all know how exciting those are.

By power, I mean communicating for emotional impact, whether of the idea itself or through the medium it’s conveyed with (powerful words, images, music and so on). An extreme would be someone screaming “FIRE!!!”

To clarify further, let’s see how they’re different…

Keep reading here: Do you speak with precision or power? And when you have, I’d like to know your thoughts.

Quote: Love

I loved the first season of For All Mankind on Apple TV+ and was excited to see Season 2 appear at the end of February. I caught up with it over the past week, and was struck by this brilliant line by one of the characters in the second episode. He was talking to someone who questioned his abandoning what used to be his lifelong desire to do something “great”.

"It means something. I know it's not pushing the envelope, but—I dunno, sometimes it's more important being with the people you love than doing what you love.” — For All Mankind S2E2

Worth thinking about, no? Do you find yourself wrestling with this?

💪🏾 Proverb: Tattoos

Here’s just the proverb to close out this week’s letter:

Words are like tattoos in the mind

Talk soon,

Doc Ayomide

PS. Don’t forget to check out this week’s essay. The Being Human website and the Friday Flow weekly newsletter are both completely free, but if you’d like to buy me a coffee—or more!—you can use the button below.