Hell yeah or meh...
or no... I guess...whatever.
Derek Sivers popularized the idea of “HELL YEAH or NO” and even made that the title of one of his many books. But I’d like to propose an addendum to this idea…
It’s either Hell yeah! or meh.
That is what happens most of the time. Nowadays people are either psyched out of their mind about doing something or it’s “meh” (or “mid” as the kids say).
The world is full of meh and mid. We have so many shiny things and new things hitting us all day long on every single social media feed, infinite playlist streaming service like Netflix/Hulu/Spotify, everything store like Amazon and Walmart, or giant database of all the world’s information from Google or ChatGPT.
Even the things that used to be amazing are not that interesting in a world full of completely interesting and attention seeking things.
It’s all a bit meh. You can’t help but shrug and go “yeah, okay. whatever.” and scroll along to the next thing.
Which is why the “hell yeah” vibe is so important. We are surrounded by a nearly endless supply of good options. In a world of good options, something has to be to the “hell yeah” level to be worth showing up for (virtually or otherwise).
Here is where it gets weird…
Something doesn’t have to be objectively amazing to be a “hell yeah” kind of feeling to an individual. In fact, what is often the most interesting to you might be uninteresting to me. And vice versa.
On top of that, whatever event/project/thing/idea has you in the “hell yeah” feeling now, won’t keep you there forever. Desire is not a permanent state. Satisfaction isn’t either.
So even if you catch it, we don’t get to keep it. Not forever, and not in a way that fully satisfies.
And that is a good thing!
That keeps us alive. (I mean that literally)
Without desire, we would stop moving forward. We would cease to be animated. We would die. I’m pretty sure that’s why we have phrases like “the will to live” or “alive and kicking”. To be alive is to move.
But you got to want to move. Want means desire.
With that frame in mind, I would say finding and re-finding all the things in life worth saying “hell yeah” to over and over again is a good approach.
I don’t mean being a slave to short term whims and urges. What I mean is having “something worth fighting for” in your life. Or “something worth living for” or “something I am building” or “a way to help someone I care about”. You get the idea.
The drive to “do something”, regardless of the specifics, is what makes our world go round. So it’s worth taking the time to make sure you are firmly in the “hell yeah” camp as often as possible.
Otherwise you will drown in a world of “meh”. And that’s not a great place to be.
-Brian