Journaling, Career Fit, Polyamory, and Selfishness

Gems from the Web: Issue #1

Gems from the Web is a monthly section in Arinze’s Monthly that constellates insights on life, career, identity, and behaviour from across the web.

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I know that I said you’ll be hearing from me once a month. But, basically, I’ve realised that I can’t stay away from you for that long.

Also, some of you messaged me asking me to try to publish more frequently because hearing from me only once a month wasn’t going to be enough for you.

To satisfy both our needs, I’ve created a middle ground—two monthly newsletters running in parallel, two weeks apart.

Here’s the plan:

• Week 0 – Thought piece (TP) newsletter

• Week 2 – Gems from the Web (GFTW) newsletter

• Week 4 – TP newsletter

• Week 6 – GFTW newsletter

Before you dive into this first issue of GFTW, let me know what you think of this monthly strategy by leaving a comment or replying to this email.

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Thoughtful Insights

🌱 Life 

“If you are new to journaling, one of the first steps towards self-reflection you can make is understanding how journaling will serve you. Being intentional about something involves starting with the basics, like establishing why you are doing it. Are you journaling to process/reflect on your life or a certain event? Is it to boost your confidence? To gain a deeper understanding of yourself or show gratitude?”

— If You Aren’t Sure How To Begin Your Journaling Journey, Start Here

💼 Career

“Fitting your job and career to your personality not only makes you more adaptable and resilient to changing demands, but it also translates to better performance on the job. People with the best fit between their personality and their job earned up to a month’s salary more each year because they were happier and more productive. A strong fit is also linked to greater engagement, energy, enthusiasm, and innovation at work.”

— Trying to Find the Right Career and Job for You? Use This Hierarchy of Needs Approach

👥 Identity

“Polyamory is personal and individual definitions may vary, but broadly speaking, being polyamorous means loving more than one person. Couples in polyamorous relationships might have other partners outside of their main relationships, while others may have multiple partners at a time. For some poly people, being polyamorous feels hard-wired to their love lives.”

— Everyone Should Watch Willow Smith Talk To Her Mum & Grandma About Being Polyamorous

🧠 Behaviour

“Plato compared the human soul to a chariot being pulled by two opposing horses: one horse is majestic, representing our nobility and our pure heartedness, while the other is evil, representing our passions and base desires. Human behaviour can be described as an eternal tug-of-war between these two horses, where we desperately try to keep our evil horse under control.”

— Are We Innately Selfish? What the Science Has to Say

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A Big Idea

🔆 The New African Renaissance

“Africa’s future will be driven by artists, entrepreneurs, writers, thinkers and builders.”

When people talk about the future of Africa and the people who will build it, they often refer to two categories of people: ‘leaders’ and ‘entrepreneurs’. The former is such an overused label that nobody knows what it means anymore. Nowadays, everyone wants to be the latter.

In what they named The Black Paper, a small group of highly renowned African thinkers laid out a roadmap for the future of the continent that is based on the preservation, exportation, and monetisation of African culture.

They argue that to build such a future, we’ll need more than just leaders and entrepreneurs. We’ll need artists to create higher cultures; writers to craft better narratives; thinkers to forge new paradigms; and builders to materialise abstract ideas.

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Current Read

📚 On the meaning of purpose and how to find it

This is probably one of the most cliché books of all time, but it’s also one of my favourite. A conversation I had on Twitter earlier this week prompted me to get a physical copy of this book and re-read it.

First published in 1988, The Alchemist is a story of self-discovery involving a man’s quest for treasure. Along the way, Santiago, the protagonist, encounters life lessons and revelations that teach him to listen to his heart.

Reading The Alchemist as just another novel is a gross underutilisation of the book. It’s so much more than that. It’s a life map. The teachings from this book have stayed with me since my first read, and they continue to guide my approach to life, love, and work.

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