I think the moral dilemma that I'm faced with most often is whether or not to choose convenience I'm not just faced with this moral dilemma on a weekly basis or even a daily basis no I'm faced with this moral dilemma on an hourly basis okay almost every single decision I make throughout my day somehow relates to this moral dilemma and I find that fascinating because if I had been born 200 years ago I'd never fa this moral dilemma whether or not to choose convenience wasn't a moral dilemma back then because life was incredibly inconvenient and anytime convenience was an option it was common sense to choose it whereas now life is unbelievably convenient I mean listen it's still in some ways inconvenient but compared to how it used to be life is unbelievably convenient okay we can order anything to our door whenever we want unless you live in like a random tiny house house in in on a on a deserted island you can probably order something and it'll probably show up in less than a week okay there's an appliance for everything for everything you you need help with something there's probably an appliance for that and on a daily basis I am faced with the choice to take the convenient route or perhaps the less convenient route but this was not always a dilemma that I faced I briefly paused this episode to let you know that this episode of anything goes is presented by Temptations cat traits your cat will come running for the perfectly irresistible Temptations creamy pay and temptations lickable spoon cat treats the best time to feed lickable cat treats to your cat is anytime feed by hand for a playful moment in a bowl for a creamy treat or as a Topper to make Meal Time fun visit Temptations treats.com to learn more now let's get back to the episode when I was younger and my prefrontal cortex was less developed I always just automatically chose convenience I ordered food delivery I ordered everything online I socialized through looking at social media and watching YouTube videos I wore pajamas and comfy clothes as often as I could that was the way I lived for a really really long time until I started to notice that these convenient choices were actually making me feel depressed and unhappy it was sort of isolating me you know like if you're ordering everything to your door you never have to leave the house also I noticed I was not healthy I wasn't eating healthy I wasn't moving my body very often I was very sedentary and I was eating a lot of unhealthy foods that I was getting delivered that were delicious but you know or like eating Cheez itss for dinner because it was convenient like I wasn't healthy I didn't feel healthy and I just overall felt sort of depressed by it it took a bit of time to realize that perhaps the feelings of depression were caused by how convenient my life is which sounds ridiculous because I think most of us think of convenience as like something that enhances life makes life easier and better and gives us more time to do you know the things that we really want to do but that wasn't my reality what had happened to me was convenience didn't give me more time to do things that fulfilled me and and made my life worth living but instead just made me lazy and and I wasn't really doing anything I sort of came to the conclusion like wait this is not the way I should be making decisions anymore my default shouldn't be convenience I need to sort of rethink this and so very intuitively I made the decision to start considering less convenient options to open my mind to inconvenient options to kind of push myself to be more of a functioning human being who actually like does thingss you know just to see how it' make me feel and it it it truly did help me at the time I did this all very intuitively like I wasn't thinking about it I wasn't like this was truly just me noticing a pattern and myself me noticing that like certain behaviors are making me unhappy and then making a change but I actually did research on it recently because I was like I don't know is anyone talking about this and people are talking about it I found this incredible article from Betsy Reed at the guardian and let me read some Snippets from it and then we can discuss evolutionary mismatch is the notion that we evolved for a hunter gatherer lifestyle and that while our circumstances have changed drastically our brains and bodies haven't it says that our instincts are often horribly incompatible with our environment this almost makes me feel better about the fact that for so many years I chose convenience as my default we're clearly wired to do that none of us we don't need to be feeling guilty about the fact that we we we love convenience we're literally wired to Love convenience so let's all be easy on ourselves okay we're not that lazy we're lazy but we're Lazy by biologically like this is we're supposed to be this way we were born and bred this way anyway back to the article resistance was a necessary counterbalance to the intense flurries of activity that punctuated hunter gatherer life forging for food in driving rain or running to escape a dangerous animal it's the reason we still ask do I really have to be doing this shouldn't I save my energy the people who are inclined to remain sheltered during a blizzard when the prospect of obtaining food was low were more likely to live in past pass on their genes to the Next Generation and since those guys are our ancestors we've inherited that disposition right it's like come on you guys we are lazy for a reason we're prone to laziness for a reason so be be gentle with yourself okay okay back to the article more Advanced Technologies undoubtedly have their pleasures and opportunities too but there's evidence to suggest that contemporary hyper convenience can also make our lives more not less difficult the sense of safety you get from staying home can make it more anxiety inducing to go out later the relief of avoiding an uncomfortable conversation with your spouse makes that conversation even harder to have subsequently using a dating app to avoid the awkwardness of flirting only weakens your social skills over time modern hyper convenience is a kind of deal with the devil it is seductive because it appeals to our instincts but it's Serendip serendipitously that is a word I can't read but it's serendipitously depletes us it has made it easier to get by but in many ways harder to truly succeed human flourishing and happiness is not just about substance but also depends on growth Dynamic problem solving in solidarity through hardship in the technological world we have fashioned we must sometimes make a conscious effort to act in opposition to our instincts as a culture we must remember and remind our young people that while convenience feels good in the moment our capacity to adapt in overcome challenges is part of our evolutionary Heritage too and Central to the adventure of Life what a beautiful an incredible article from Betsy Reid at the [ __ ] Guardian she just spoke truth with that it was kind of comforting to read that in a way because I was like oh this all makes sense there is a scientific explanation for why that lifestyle makes me depressed no I'm not the problem it's sort of an evolutionary mismatch with who we are today and how we were wired to survive in the past how beautiful it is to be explained by science I also found a little article from the National Library of Medicine on the negative side effects of a hyper convenient life to summarize our diets are worse we're less Physically Active we lack social skills and we lack an essential skills like cooking and sewing and I don't know problem solving in general moral of the story is the hyper convenient life that we have found ourselves in is not necessarily good for us we've taken it to an extreme and in life is now just a little bit too convenient and that's not good for us in our brains in our bodies um and I CAU on to this on my own by some miracle like I felt that and I was like okay I I need to to fix this and I did and over the last I don't know few years maybe I have reintroduced inconvenience into my life in a multitude of ways and I've found so much Beauty in it and I'm going to share some examples with you you know I noticed this the other day when I was making my morning coffee because I recently switched from a a sort of automatic coffee machine espresso machine to a super manual espresso machine okay so like what I used to have was it was a brevel incredible machine I loved it uh where basically the machine would dose out the perfect amount of coffee grounds for you you Tamp it with an automatic tamper there's like you know normally at like a cafe or something you'll see the Barista weighing out the beans and like doing all the stuff and like uh you know tamping it by hand with that tamper like they put their elbow up in the air and they squish it down you know this thing literally had an automatic tamper so you press a button for all the grinds to come out and then you have this tamper on the side and you press it down and then you just twist it into the machine and press another button and next thing you know you have beautiful espresso okay so easy but I recently after many years I finally felt ready to upgrade I'm ready to truly Master the art of being a barista I'm ready to learn I'm ready to elevate to the next level you know I I don't I don't need to be a home Barista anymore okay it's it's I I can let's level up okay I have a [ __ ] coffee company for [ __ ] sake like let's level the [ __ ] up so I did to a very fancy machine like a barista like Cafe level machine this is something that as a coffee company founder I should have [ __ ] got a long time ago but I had to do so much research to figure out how to use this machine properly it was like multiple weeks of of learning to even just prepare for the machine to arrive and then the machine arrived and it was like okay now I actually have to use it and working out all the Kinks of using it and and mastering not even mastering sorry being able to even just use the machine took like it I'm still figuring it out but you know what's really funny even though my morning coffee routine takes probably 5 10 minutes longer than it used to even though I went from like honestly two steps to closer to like 10 I have never enjoyed making my morning coffee more the experience is so detailed to like the gram of beans to the like millimeter uh size of the of the coffee grounds like it's so detailed it's so intimate and it's so manual like I have to do every single little thing myself I'm measuring the grind size and getting it perfect I'm doing the tests with the machine and with the grinds to like get it to the perfect I'm doing it all and it's so much work and sometimes it's [ __ ] 7 in the morning and I'm tired and because there's like too much moisture in the air now for some reason like the coffee the espresso is not extracting properly the grinds were too like small and like I don't know like weird [ __ ] happens like that that I don't even fully [ __ ] understand still and I have to go and readjust things manually and and use my knowledge I [ __ ] love it the whole experience has truly connected me to my coffee so intimate I feel so much more excited about my coffee every day it feels special it feels like this little work of art I worked so hard on this little shot of espresso it gives it brand new meaning in in my heart and in my mind I mean but the same thing goes for matcha like I used to use the electric whisk for the matcha which is not how it's you know traditionally done traditionally you use a bamboo handheld whisk but I was always too lazy and I used the electric whisk because I use the electric whisk for many different things in my caffeinated beverages routine and I was like well you know I'll just use it here to no I I'm totally on the bamboo whisk now it's it's there's something about the the manual nature of it that just connects you with the beverage next I have started taking road trips okay I used to almost always choose a plane ride over a road trip like if I was say going to Northern California that's a 6-hour drive in a 1H hour flight I would always choose the flight but I found that road trips are so much more fulfilling there's something about a road trip that is so fun like stopping to get gas going into the gas station getting a snack calling people when you're on the road or if you're on a road trip with somebody else having long fun conversations you know entertaining yourself with an album or a podcast or something like there's something more fulfilling about a road trip you're grounded on the earth in a meditative State you're getting to see the world like out your window you don't have a choice you're forced to stare at the world around you for you know however many hours there's something really beautiful about it and even if you're going on a long distance sort of road trip no worries break it up into three stops you know you don't have to do it all in one go enjoy the journey stop in a random City for a night this is is my new Vibe it's absolutely less convenient and it doesn't always make sense like if I'm traveling for work if you know I have a tight schedule okay it doesn't always make sense but when I can I'm road tripping and I've found that it's so much more adventurous it feels so much more adventurous and I I I end up having more fun I also have kind of a crippling fear of flying on planes these days so that is an added bonus but that's not why I pivoted towards the road trip and it's ironic cuz driving in a car is technically so much more dangerous but I don't know I'm loving the road trip road trip when you can okay um I really don't order food delivery anymore I used to order food delivery for almost every single meal when I first moved to Los Angeles it was like what kind of fun meal can I have now like it was it was too fun but like I was ordering a lot of fancy meals because I could cuz it was all on Postmates and there's a lot of fancy food in Los Angeles like if I wanted to order like a gorgeous breakfast with like gorgeous potatoes that took four hours to make and like you know perfectly scrambled eggs and like you know like I could do that and I did a lot of times and it made me like I I stopped appreciating the art of a beautifully cooked meal because I was eating a beautifully cooked meal all the time I was eating restaurant food so often that going to a restaurant I was like this is literally just my normal diet I eat this food all the time and that's not how it's supposed to be unless you are an actual Chef yourself or you're married to a chef or something that's like not normal not only did it make me feel like [ __ ] physically like I just genuinely felt bad but I was actually unhealthy like I I was it was not a healthy lifestyle at all it started by like okay I'm going to order food delivery less and Order healthier options and I did that for a few years and then more recently I just deleted food delivery apps off of all of my devices okay so that's not even an option and if I really for some reason like have to order food delivery for some reason or it's like really a fun idea like a good example would be recently my friends and I were watching an award show and we were like oh like let's order dinner and it was like a fun novelty like [ __ ] it let's order some pizza and it was a delight but I appreciated it so much because I never get to do it but I will go eat out at a restaurant because I absolutely love it but guess what because I'm not ordering restaurant food all week long on food delivery apps when the weekend comes around I'm so excited to eat out I'm so excited and it's such an incredible experience and the food tastes even better and I'm just it's great but that's not the only type of food delivery okay there's also grocery delivery this I definitely do use a bit more often however I try not to I really try to only use grocery delivery when it's like okay I just worked a 15-hour day or something doing something like I was at a shoot or something or you know I am about to travel and I have to get a certain amount of things done I have like deadlines for things and I need to finish them so I'm like working for a long time and and I just don't have time to go to the grocery store you know there are times when to me it makes sense to get groceries delivered because I'm still ultimately cooking everything from scratch but I I avoid it as much as possible and you know when it comes to grocery shopping like I love the experience of grocery shopping and I always have like I this is not even a new thing but it's always been like I love the experience of grocery shopping but I'm too lazy now it's like okay last resort we're ordering the groceries or like it's an emergency not an emergency like oh my God I forgot to buy this one thing I need to get it now but that's rare you know like majority of the time I'm going to the store I'm I'm walking through the aisles myself I'm socializing with the people not really socializing meaning like smiling at somebody they if I catch them looking at me or something or like saying an extra warm hello to the to the cashier like whatever but it's just nice to be in that environment to be around other people you know another sort of change that I've made is I've gone from primarily shopping online to primarily shopping in person okay so like yes I talked about food in in groceries and all that this is like about like clothes or I need to pick up like stuff from Sephora you know what I'm saying this is like everything else I used to be the most insane online Shopper okay and I'll be honest I still online shop there are things that I can only get online there are times when you know I really just don't have time to go to like listen yes but I would say that my default mode of shopping nowadays is shopping in person and whenever I can shop in person I do and that was not always the case Okay I really do like that it gets me out of the house and and puts me in the world I also love that you know I get to see and touch and feel things in person like if I'm buying clothes or buying makeup or something it's so nice to be in store and to touch things and to feel things and to see new products and you know to to truly experience the shopping experience whereas when you're shopping online it it's very twodimensional you just get to see it you don't get to feel it you don't get to look at it with a flashlight if you want you don't get to like try it on you don't get to do any of that you just have to use your [ __ ] imagination and majority of the time when it shows up you're not even 100% satisfied with it because it rarely lives up to your expectations it's so helpful to experience a product before you buy it and not only does this make you a smarter Shopper but again it gets you out in the world like running arands being around people even when you're not talking to other people is so comforting it's weirdly rejuvenating in a way like being around people being at home by yourself around no one all the time is in my opinion depleting that will deplete you even if you're introverted at a certain point that will deplete you you know there's something nice about being around people and you don't even need to socialize with them right it's just nice to be around people to see people to walk down the [ __ ] Street and these are all things that used to be standard we all did them all the time but more and more so we don't have to do them anymore and it's so important to get back out there and go to the [ __ ] store I briefly paused this episode to let you know that this episode is brought to you by Walmart the rumors are true girls this spring Walmart is making it easy to dress like the main character you are with top trends in cool new closet Staples effortless skirts the perfect jacket viral handbags these are the Styles you need right now now basically if you want to look cool without trying too hard this is your moment shop the latest spring Trends and find the looks you love at walmart.com Trends now let's get back to the episode Another lifestyle shift getting dressed before I leave the house I used to wear sweatpants and pajamas anytime I could like anytime it was remotely acceptable I would and that's also somewhat of a new thing it used to be completely unacceptable to wear pajamas out to wear sweatpants out years ago [ __ ] no even like 5050 years ago probably not it was unacceptable now you can wear whatever you want you can wear your pajamas you can wear a sweat set all you want and listen if I'm going to a workout class or I'm coming from a workout class and I like stop at the grocery store okay listen I'm not going to be wearing an outfit I'm not g to I'm going to be in sweatpants because I just went to a workout um and I'm grateful for that convenience I'm grateful that it's like socially acceptable now oh if you are watching the video episode of this you can see that I now have or I did for a brief moment have two cats on my lap and that is where I draw the line um Frankie you're blocking the camera okay whatever it's fine um I am grateful that it is now socially acceptable to wear sweatpants in public because again post-workout if I want to run an errand I'm glad that I don't need to put like a fancy outfit on after you know getting super sweaty like that's unnecessary to me but majority of the time if I'm you know going to get my nails done or like going to run an errand or whatever I will put on an outfit and like I still have like comfy outfits like don't get me wrong I'm not like in a suit okay but I'm not wearing full on pajamas you know what I'm saying I really try to get dressed as often as I can and I have a few pairs of these pants okay I'm actually wearing a pair right now that are technically sweatpants but they actually look like a Chic cotton straight leg pant those are technically but to me those are like dressed up like I would even wear them to dinner perhaps maybe not maybe not but to lunch to brunch sure so like I have my ways to be comfortable and convenient even when getting a bit dressed up but like it feels good to feel presentable and that's something that I didn't always value but I find that I feel more confident I feel more myself cuz I'm like expressing myself through my clothes it's fun to like put on an outfit whether it's a new outfit that I just put together or it's an outfit that I've worn for the last two weeks that I just really like and every time I put it on it makes me feel good there's just something about it that I think is empowering and I like getting dressed even though it is sometimes a bit of extra work it's maybe a bit less comfortable sometimes but I love it I love getting dressed I love I love getting dressed and that's coming from somebody who used to wear like fleece pajama pants every day to Middle School actually I don't think that they allowed me to wear the fleece pajama pants but the second that school ended I would put them on like I would even sometimes like have them in my backpack so that the second School ended I could go in the bathroom and change into them and like go hang out with my friends in my sweatpants or in my pajama pants you know what I'm saying like I've always loved being comfortable and I'm growing up and wearing normal clothes now so good for me um speaking of clothes I've also started mending my clothes when they fall apart instead of just I don't know taking it to a tailor or or buying a new one like listen there are times when I cannot fix a problem right like if a pair of pants rips completely like down the crotch and and the button fell off and and there's a huge hole I might not be able to fix that myself but like a little rip here a little rip there I am mending my clothes myself I'm not just immediately taking them to a tailor or throwing them out or not even throwing them out I would never throw out clothes but like donate them or like whatever I used to be so [ __ ] lazy okay and the second that something like had a rip in it I was like oh it's done no it's not that's ridiculous you know it's a little bit inconvenient to like fix your clothes or whatever but that's normal that's what we're supposed to do yeah Emma you [ __ ] lazy sack of [ __ ] wasteful idiot sorry we should be nice to ourselves but it's true it's like that is so incredibly wasteful and I don't know just like narrow-minded like we can fix things ourself it's not that hard to fix a hole and I found that mending my own clothing not in like big ways but like you know refastening a button or fixing a small hole I found that it has bonded me to my clothing like my favorite pair of pants got a little hole like the seam kind of ripped in like the hip area and I was devastated I was like oh my God what am I going to do and then I was like wait I'm gonna sew it myself the [ __ ] another example I I think I bought a jacket and the button I noticed was falling off and instead of being like I need to take this back this is a this thing is ruined I just sewed the button back on myself it's all good I'm not an idiot I can sew a button on and the connection that I'm building with my my wardrobe now is so much more intimate and meaningful because I am taking care of these pieces of clothing and it feels good to be connected to your belongings like that's a warm and fuzzy good feeling and it's very rewarding you know what else I've been doing taking the stairs if I see an elevator I'm like where's the stairs this also is because I'm trying to get 10,000 steps a day so I'm always trying to walk as much as I can but it's also a good workout it's a little booty burn in the middle of the day and that's kind of fun you know like to get a little sweat in randomly at 1 p.m. like I'm at I don't know like my doctor's office and it's on the 7eventh floor okay I'm going to take the [ __ ] stairs you know oh I'm going to a meeting in this big fancy building 20 the stairs I'm a little bit early let's try okay let's try it like it's it's a little Teensy little workout but that type of stuff compounds over time and can have incredible results like because I take the stairs so much now now walking up the stairs is so easy and when I first started doing it it was exhausting and I hated it and now I love it and I sweat but I like feel strong and it's so fun I like look forward to the stairs take the stairs people if you can man why not I've also pretty much completely eliminated convenient entertainment during the day at night I'll let myself watch a little TV I'll maybe watch a little bit of YouTube um especially if I'm with somebody else like if I'm hanging out with someone let's watch TV let's watch a little YouTube on my own though uh not so much and during the day absolutely not like during the work day [ __ ] no no YouTube no Instagram reals no YouTube shorts no no television I'm not even really listening to podcasts like it is music only and the reason for that is convenient entertainment when abused like it rewires your brain and it makes you not creative like I find that when I'm constantly consuming convenient entertainment I feel uninspired and like sort of empty in my brain it like weirdly depletes me mentally and I'm not quite sure why but it does not only is that bad for my job but it also is a waste of time and it and it makes me depressed and it doesn't fulfill me when you're not abusing convenient entertainment you're forced to be entertained by getting work done or sitting around daydreaming using your imagination or listening to music or doing a little bit of art cooking something I don't know you're like you're forced to be entertained by things that are actually net positive in your life do you know what I'm saying that actually make you feel good that are actually fulfilling for you and I found that is absolutely true in my life I'm overall just happier as a result and last but not least instead of buying nutmilk and sparkling water two very specific Niche things that I consume constantly instead of buying these things from the store I make them from scratch why because well in in the case of the sparkling water it just feels wasteful to be like going through five cans of sparkling water a day that's number one but number two I don't know there's something kind of fun like I can control how carbonated my water is I know like oh if I do three like pumps of the CO2 into the water it's perfectly carbonated for me um same thing with the nutmilk I sweeten it myself I put the perfect amount of Sweetness in it just like a little bit of maple syrup I can flavor it with extracts I can use whatever nuts I want it's like personalized to me but also again I buy nutmilk constantly it's so much better to make it myself and not be going through like a bottle of it a day it's like unnecessary waste I guess um and listen like I'm wasteful in other ways okay I'm not some sort of [ __ ] Saint okay but like I think in my opinion you know you don't need to be a perfect Saint you don't need to like choose the less convenient option 100% of the time when it comes to like consuming Products that come in packaging right like it's impossible to like produce zero waste as a human being unfortunately but it's about like oh this makes sense in my lifestyle and so hey [ __ ] it like I might as well do it like that that this makes more logical sense and like little efforts like that are better than nothing you know what I mean and I feel like people tend to be very All or nothing like who cares like you know I or like Emma you're being wasteful in other ways stop like praising yourself for you know making your own nutmilk and making your own sparkling water you're only like you're barely even helping and you still you make a bunch of other ways sure I do but it's better than nothing Karen or maybe Karen what would a Karen say I don't know anyways so those are some examples of how I've introduced inconvenience into my life possibly for the first time and there's probably more inconveniences that I've introduced into my life but I can't remember um so those are all the ones that I can remember for now and I am constantly striving to introduce more by introducing all these inconveniences I've absolutely reins stilled purpose into my life these conveniences make me more present in my life reconnect me to the journey like I feel like when you choose the convenient option you miss out on the journey inconvenience often times creates a journey it creates adventure and that was mentioned in the article that I just read to you inconvenience Sparks Adventure without a doubt it's it's pretty profound how it how it does that you know what I mean like my life feels like more of an adventure since I've introduced these inconveniences but that's not to say that like I don't still choose the convenient option sometimes I absolutely do there are some conveniences that I do not want to give up that perhaps other people would be open to giving up but I I don't want to give these things up like I'm never going to stop using my appliances okay my phone my computer uh my dishwasher my ice maker my electric kettle my microwave my water heater my car uh like the list goes on there are so many convenient pieces of technology that I will never give up I don't want to give them up there are some people who are like I'll get a flip phone I don't want to get a flip phone why because I love Maps I love being able to use navigation I love FaceTime I love I don't actually love FaceTime but I love that it's an option I love being able to work on my phone on the Fly I love I love my phone some people are like you know what [ __ ] it I'm just going to start taking cold showers that doesn't make sense for me like I love a hot warm comfortable shower are there some benefits to a cold shower is it sort of you know a a psychological challenge that can potentially like benefit you you know are there even probably health benefits probably but like I don't care that's not an inconvenience that I'm inspired to integrate into my life I don't think it would actually benefit My Life um I live in Los Angeles I'm not going to downgrade to a bike right I need to drive everywhere I'm not going to say you know what I'm only going to travel by bike because it's more inconvenient and it's an adventure it would definitely be an adventure but that's not an adventure I want to go on another thing I love apps I love Spotify for music okay I love being able to open that and listen to any song I want it's incredibly convenient and it's awesome and I'm not trying to eliminate that convenience from my life same same thing with again I keep mentioning the maps app like GPS apps are you kidding me what would we do without them no that's not going anywhere for me calculator app what like what am I going to start carrying around a calculator in my bag no like I love apps I also eat quite a few like semi-processed Foods okay I'm not cooking everything from scratch like I'll buy pre-made cereal or like a soup in a can or even like pre-cut vegetabl veggie burgers or like pre-made burger buns or ketchup or mustard like there are so many different things that I don't make from scratch that are pre-made that are processed that are convenient I'm not trying to eliminate those from my life I love my pre-made super processed veggie burger that I eat you know a pre-made tomato sauce for pasta night that sauce is probably going to be better than anything I could have made actually maybe not homemade pasta sauce is good but like we don't always have the time to cook from scratch when we can sure let's do it but like to cook everything from scratch completely ridiculous you know what I'm saying and again you know I still order things online I still order things to my door I still sometimes order food delivery grocery delivery because sometimes that is the best option that's not always a convenience I'm willing to give up there's there's a balance to strike here it's clear that convenience can be harmful and it is harmful but it's also clear that we can't give it all up we can't go throw ourselves into the forest with no clothes no food no nothing and and try to survive like why would we do that that's also bad for our well-being right there's a happy medium but it's kind of challenging to figure out where the line is I did some thinking on this I think convenience can be good when it helps you work towards your goals more efficiently like if food delivery makes it easier for you to work all day and then spend time with your family in the evening to create like a a healthier work life balance then I think in that case the convenience of food delivery makes sense you're already doing a lot you're you're busy you know what I'm saying you don't need to go to the grocery store you don't need to have that social time at the store you don't need to browse through the aisles you have other more important things to cater to you know what I'm saying like it's when you're in a phase of perhaps laziness um or comfort and you're in this routine of of making convenient choices and you're not really getting anything done that's when it's like you need to go to the store that's going to be good for you but like if you're making an incredible beautiful massive Thanksgiving dinner and you want to buy everything pre- chopped pre-marinated pre- this pre that because it's going to allow you to cook more food and and make a more elaborate Feast you're overwhelmed and you're like I have to you know I have to make some convenient choices here so be it you're you're doing something incredible and large and for your whole family and and it's a huge undertaking it's okay to cut some Corners you know what I'm saying or not even cut some corners but to make some convenient options if convenience helps you reach your ultimate goal and you're still going to be going on a journey you know what I mean like I think it's okay I think convenience in that case is actually great I also think too convenience can be good if it truly Sparks joy and I'm talking about shortterm and long-term let's use the coffee machine as an example if you absolutely love your automatic coffee machine like for example the coffee machine that my mom has is like this insane coffee machine that like you literally just press a screen and and like choose what drink you want on a on a screen like a little mini iPad and and it makes the drink for you actually that was it was my coffee machine a few years ago but then I gave it to her cuz she likes automatic things more than me um and she loves it it's incredibly convenient but it brings her Joy she finds more joy from that convenient coffee machine than she would from like the manual machine that I use she would hate the machine I have there's many elements of her life that are inconvenient that you know she chooses to be inconvenient her coffee is this luxurious experience and and that Sparks joy for her if you you love airplane travel if you love being on the plane if you love sitting there and watching the movies you know if you love the airplane food if you like looking out the window if you like flying on an airplane maybe it doesn't make sense for you to start doing more road trips because you genuinely love airplane travel you love the experience I hate it if convenience truly Sparks joy shortterm and long term it's not bad I think convenience is bad when it prevents you from learning skills if you food delivery so much that now you just have no clue how to cook that's not good if you watch television and YouTube and and you you know consume so much convenient entertainment that not only are you like isolated but also you don't even have social skills because all of your social interactions are like just through virtual entertainment that's not good if it's getting in the way of you developing your skills as a human being that's when it's not good convenience is also bad when it isolates you if convenience makes it so that you never have to leave the house you never have to face people that is not good ultimately convenience is bad when it makes you feel depressed when you're not doing things you know what I'm saying when you're not doing things when you're not completing tasks when you're not doing little things like that throughout your day you can get depressed and I did those little tasks make us feel satisfied they make us feel like we have purpose and yeah they a lot of them are small and mundane and and and inconsequential but for whatever reason they give us purpose and I do think it it goes back to the hunter gatherer mindset it's like in order for us to hunt and gather our brain needed to release happy chemicals when we did it and and it's true that I think the adventure of life is so much richer when life isn't so convenient I don't know that's all I have for today okay that's it [ __ ] it I almost ironically wore my pajamas to record this episode but I didn't I actually put on a cute top it's just sort of symbolic and beautiful that I got a little bit dressed up for this episode not really I literally am just wearing a sweater um anyway that's all I have for today I I really inspire you all to ask yourself how you can Infuse a bit more inconvenience into your life because I think it's a really incredible thing and I think it's it's important um and it's important to be aware of because until you're aware of it you just are an autopilot making convenient choices it's good to be aware of it that's the most important step and then from there it's about figuring out what works for you and I wish you all luck on that journey and I just love you all and appreciate you all and thank you all for listening and hanging out it was truly a pleasure and it always is um and if you had fun tune in to anything goes every Thursday and Sunday on YouTube and Spotify if you want to watch me talk or anywhere else you stream podcasts if you just want to listen uh @ anything goes on social media @ Emma Chamberlin on social media that's me and check out my coffee company Chamberlin coffee.com at Chamberlin coffee perhaps in a store near you and at the Westfield Century City Mall in Los Angeles if you're in Los Angeles um that's all I have for today I need to make another caffeinated beverage I'm really feeling myself just kind of drift away I need a matcha so I'm gonna go make a matcha oh my God it sounds so good I'm G to make a matcha and I'm going to just absolutely save her every little sip of that matcha um okay I love you all I appreciate you all thank you for listening and hanging out and we will talk very soon bye