5 Principles to Let Go of to Find What You Want: When You Force Yourself to Do Things You Dislike, Your IQ Drops by 30%

Those who think, "I want to find what I want to do," often overlook something.

That means you're looking for what you want to do by adding things up. New hobbies, new qualifications, new side hustles—you feel like you'll find it if you just increase your input. But, in most cases, you won't.

The reason is simple: the foundation is full of noise. What should be done first is not to search for "what you want to do," but to prepare the foundation on which it will be built.

①When you force yourself to do unpleasant things, your IQ drops by 30%.

When we’re doing something we dislike, the brain significantly reduces activity in the areas associated with creativity. Some studies suggest that this results in a performance decline equivalent to an IQ drop of about 30 points. Conversely, when we’re doing something we enjoy, performance improves by about 30 points.

In other words, the difference in output between someone who “pushes themselves to do things they dislike” and someone who “immerses themselves in what they love” is as much as 60%. This gap can never be bridged by effort alone.

The virtue of persevering through unpleasant tasks means the brain is being incapacitated. People who can't find anything they want to do should first face this reality.

②Don't trace other people's art.

Many people live their lives unconsciously tracing the "picture of a successful person." Income, job title, family structure, place of residence, how they appear on social media – is that truly the picture they want to draw for themselves?

The true nature of "I don't know what I want to do" is a state where the muscles for drawing your own pictures have atrophied from continuously tracing others' drawings.

To once again consciously recognize the self-evident act of living for oneself. Just by doing that, the outline of what you want to do will gradually begin to take shape.

③Unleash your curiosity. Don't ignore the "that looks interesting."

As we grow older, we tend to overlook the small signals of "this looks interesting."

I don't know if it has meaning. I don't know if it's useful. It won't make money. -- For those reasons, I tend to deny the curiosity in front of me. But that "it seems interesting" is the raw material for what I want to do.

If you continue to ignore signals of curiosity, those signals will eventually stop reaching you. Conversely, if you make a habit of reaching for every little thing that sparks your interest, your sensitivity to those signals will recover.

④Don't live too seriously. Have the courage to be foolish.

If you live earnestly, you'll never find what you want to do.

Seriousness means optimizing within existing frameworks. What you want to do exists outside of those frameworks. Therefore, the arrow of seriousness will never reach it.

Become a little foolish. Let loose a little. Do something a little out of character. That one step can bring forth scenery that seriousness couldn't reveal.

⑤Win the three-year-old race

Three-year-olds are, in a way, the most creative in the world. They don't think about whether something is "useful." They are driven solely by whether it is "interesting."

In the process of growing up, we've suppressed that three-year-old within us. Reclaiming what we want to do is the process of bringing that three-year-old back to life.

Instead of searching through addition, remove the five cages that are currently binding you. What you want to do should already exist outside those cages.

If you don't know what you want to do, check out the YouTube video now!

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