Sean D’Souza, by most measurements, is living the ideal lifestyle. He is healthy, wealthy and has made enough time for himself to be able to take a holiday 3 months of the year and pursue his hobbies as much as he’d like.
As founder of Psychotactics, his own marketing strategy company, Sean is passionate about analysing life and psychology to understand how people can create an optimal lifestyle. While our chat on the latest episode of Get Invested covered a heap of information, I’ve grabbed a few pieces of key advice Sean shared as a highlight.
Understand What Is Important In Life
It’s a cliche, but too many people focus on money. They work themselves down to the bone, bumping up their income every year without any increase in happiness or reduction in stress. What’s crucial is understanding that time, not money, is our most valuable resource. Instead of packing our life with stress just to make more money, we should learn how to use the money we already have to live our best life. Are your needs met? Good, now think how you can use the excess money to make passive income and devote your time to things that really make you happy.
Find The Right Teacher
A great teacher, among other things, shows you how to save energy when doing something. They will show you brilliant shortcuts and hacks that help you learn something much quicker than if you did it by yourself.
Why is this important? For Sean, there is a simple progression when it comes to learning a craft. You put in energy, you gain confidence by practising and then you end up with a skill. A teacher brings you much closer to that end goal by circumventing frustration and wasted time.
Do More In Less Time
So how does Sean take three months holiday every year? The key, he says, is being realistic about how much time something takes. If we’re given a month to complete a project, we’re likely going to take the entire month. But what if we could complete it in two weeks? That would give us two weeks to use for ourselves. That is the essence, working hard and completing his yearly tasks within nine months, and using the remaining time to travel and enjoy life.
Seize Things For Yourself
When Sean was in college, he knew he wanted to draw cartoons for newspapers and magazines. So what did he do? He went into well-known publications in Mumbai and asked them if they needed cartoonists. He was often met with rejection, but he kept going back and persisting through negative feedback until he received assignments.
This is an attitude that can be applied to any circumstance. Are you unhappy with your job? Well, what could you be doing right now that would move you towards a happier existence? You could start teaching yourself or interviewing those working in your desired industry. The reassuring thought is knowing that there is always an option.
Listen to my entire conversation with Sean here.
