Every Relationship Involves Sacrifices

Hey readers 👋

I had an interesting conversation with someone earlier this week. The crux of our discussion was that every relationship involves sacrifices, irrespective of whether or not the other person was previously known to us.

Giving spare change to a homeless person involves a sacrifice. Travelling a couple of hours to spend my weekend with the parents requires sacrifices. Spending time with our friends requires sacrifices. You get the gist.

The more we care about someone, and the more they matter to us, the more we are willing to sacrifice for them.

Our most fulfilling relationships also tend to be those that involve the most sacrifices - either directly or indirectly. These sacrifices are an investment in the relationship.

It’s why parents would do anything for their children or families spend thousands of pounds to treat their sick pets.

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Who would have guessed that there were a lot of lessons to learn from setting myself an arbitrary goal?

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3 Things I've Enjoyed This Week

1. Ted Talk | Shashi Tharoor: Why nations should pursue soft power - India’s rise to becoming a superpower isn’t a result of economics, trade or politics. It’s a result of “soft power” i.e. culture - food, film, music and technology.
2. No need to be precise and slow, be ‘roughly’ right & fast - To have a successful career, don’t follow the “usual” path. Remain unique, authentic and take risks, especially early in your career.
3. On Needing to Find Something to Worry About - Our natural quest for finding something to worry about, where there is nothing especially awful on the horizon is partly due to having not dealt with the original trauma. We then redistribute this worry to when we don’t really have much to worry about.

Tweet of the Week

This Week's Wisdom

“One of those realizations was this: that life itself is a form of suffering. The rich suffer because of their riches. The poor suffer because of their poverty. People without a family suffer because they have no family. People with a family suffer because of their family. People who pursue worldly pleasures suffer because of their worldly pleasures. People who abstain from worldly pleasures suffer because of their abstention.”

- Mark Manson, in the book: The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck

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I also share interesting articles, book quotes, and the occasional speech or TED talk to help us all get smarter, wiser, and live better.

I follow my curiosity at SamuelObe.com

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