TEJI TUESDAYS 
Issue #039 · 23 July, 2024

Hi All!

Here is your weekly dose of TEJI, a weekly round up of what I’m pondering and exploring. Feel free to forward along to a friend if you think they might enjoy.

Opportunity is everywhere

Huge thank you to Domengo for submitting the video below to be featured in this weeks newsletter. It’s a fantastic video on how to break our habits and notice the little details in life that are actually just opportunities hidden in plain sight.

That thing that’s been annoying you for the past six months? There’s a business there waiting to be found, or perhaps a product you didn’t even realise you needed. It isn’t until we wake up from this psychic trance that we often go about our lives in that we can spot opportunity and abundance all around us.

For anyone in a rut

If your upset or feeling some kind of way, just sit with it. Accept it. Feel it and let it run it’s course.

Culture is evaporating

By now you would have noticed everything in culture is becoming overly simplified. We have traded maximalism and artistic expression in favour of minimalism and conformity. Every brand uses the same type face and hardly anyone is daring to break outside of the conventions.

Everything has become so hyper optimised to the viewers experience. If it isn’t delivered in seconds the audience doesn’t want it. I’m grateful that people like everyone subscribed to this newsletter still exist who enjoy reading.

Most people can no longer be bothered putting in the effort to learn something new or create something beautiful. It’s become too easy to take the path of least resistance and live a life of no meaning.

If you’d like to see more examples like the one below about how we’ve lost so much beauty in the world around us please check out this post I found here.

Why Story Matters

When I first started reading when I was a kid I fell in love with the fictional stories I saw myself in. I imagined myself as that wimpy kid starting out at school or a spy trying to save the world. I used to use my imagination to visualise these worlds and put myself right in the middle of them. 

However, now that I’m older I’ve pivoted to reading mostly non fiction. I’ve unfortunately developed this mindset that fiction is a waste of time and that non fiction has more direct and actionable information and while this may be true to some extent. I’m beginning to realise the importance of narrative and storytelling in human life.

I could tell you 101 things we all could be doing to live more meaningful lives, but for most of the time this information is noted and then neglected.

It isn’t until we’ve gone through something ourselves or saw first hand someone else go through some form of hardship, that we begin to develop our own internal meaning and motivations towards achieving anything in life.

You could read all the self help books in the world and still feel lost. It’s isolating and you feel like you’re at this alone. However when you read or watch a great story you feel like you are seen and heard.

A great story captures the human spirit in all its forms. The struggles, the triumphs, the contradictions, the blessings, the curses, the list goes on.

Life is fucking confusing, it’s weird and it’ll lead you down a path just to take you right back to where you started. So when you hear the stories of someone else be put through the fire and still manage to make it alive.

It gives you courage to venture on, knowing that while it may be hard, it’s possible. Not only do great stories capture the monumental things we can achieve as mere mortals but they also provide comfort to those experiencing the devasting nature of reality.

You can have all the answers in the world yet still not know how to solve the problem. Story fixes this. It forces you think and to process what you’re reading or even seeing. It makes you come to your own conclusions. It doesn’t tell you what to think, it lets you form your own internal judgments.

If you can, try pick up a story or tell a story. Try to relate to someone else. Tell them about your life or ask them about theirs. Make up a story yourself. Dream about the world you want to see exist. Or paint a picture of the world you don’t want to live in. The options are endless, story is infinite and it’s the thread that ties us all together as human beings.

Something beautiful I read last week

Feel free to give me feedback on Twitter. What did you like? What do you want more of? What do you want less of? Other suggestions? Please let me know. Just send a tweet to @TEJITOPIA and put #TEJITUESDAYS at the end so I can find it.
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Hope everyone enjoys their week!
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Love
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TEJI (@tejitopia)

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