It’s been over a month since I published a piece of content on the internet…
What happened? Where did I go?
The short answer: I had a baby 👶
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The long answer: I’ve been pausing to reflect on how I can better live in alignment with what feels right (right now).
Let me explain…
Something I’ve been learning from the book Bringing up Bebe (highly recommend for any new parents out there) is the power of The Pause.
The Pause is when you take a moment before you go check on your sleeping baby who started crying. If you always immediately get your baby without pausing, they never learn to comfort themselves and fall back asleep. And you won’t get good sleep since your kid is up crying.
Similarly, I’m taking a pause on different areas of my life:
• I’m simplifying my finances (to mostly cash & index funds plus selling all my real estate)
• Reducing (not stopping) my day-to-day involvement with AppSumo
• Pausing most of my social media content creation
• And pausing all interviews for 2024
If you never take a pause it’s easy to keep doing the things that aren’t serving you anymore.
My life today is…
1. Wake up early to help my wife take care of the baby
2. Take a Spanish class from Baselang for 1 hour
3. Grill some food
4. Spend 2 hours studying fantasy football & chess
5. And then go cycling
That’s my entire day… and it’s satisfying.
This pause isn’t forever. But for now, my focus is on figuring out what feels right for my next phase of life.
So many people work towards something and when they get there, they just keep on working. It’s like finishing a marathon and immediately starting another one without pausing to recharge, celebrate, and think about what you really want next.
(A great book on this is Awareness by Anthony Demello. H/t Tim Ferriss).
As I reflect on my life in decades, it creates beautiful buckets of how life changes:
- My 20s (hustle) were all about just doing anything and everything to get rich. I felt like I was always lacking something.
- My 30s (stable) were accepting parts of life I liked, doubling down on what’s working and staying consistent.
- My 40s (simplify) are simplifying the distractions, and focusing on the few things that matter.
- My 50s (enjoy) – if I had to guess it would just be accepting myself, embracing who I am fully with much less apologies or shame around them. Might do this in my 40s! 🙂
Success varies depending on where you’re at in life. What you want can (and frankly should) change.
If I’m honest, I’ve had to drag myself to record a small clip for our latest YouTube video. And the idea of interviewing more people just to have more content is not appealing.
I feel guilty because I often preach (and truly believe) that success comes through consistency. But at some point, we need to get off the hamster wheel, and reflect which wheel we want to be running on.
If you spend so much time getting rich but never enjoy being rich – are you even rich?
And let me be clear:
“Rich” doesn’t just mean having lots of money. It means living the life YOU want.
Sometimes I’ve created YouTube videos cause I think there’s something lacking in me and the only answer is by asking these super-wealthy people. But the real answer is to get clear about how I want to live, create work that I enjoy, and live that life. Actually living my life in alignment is the best way to inspire others on how to live.
When I get up at 3 am to check the NFL Fantasy Football waiver wire…That’s me living my life. Even though no one external cares, and there’s barely any money on the line –I LOVE getting to do it. It’s an amazing game that I can play endlessly. That is the ideal work. A game you love to keep playing.
So how am I running Appsumo while taking a pause? I’m still involved, but have made a few changes:
1. Removing Slack. Trust the team you’ve hired to run the business.
2. Monthly Business Review (MBR). Get monthly business reports discussing how the company is doing against the budget.
3. 1-Pager Company Strategy. Clarify the outcomes and empower your team to make the best choices to get there.
4. Hiring badass people. Shoutout to Ilona Abramova, Seann Stubbs, Anna Notario, Chad Boyda, and other leaders helping run AppSumo.
As a content creator – the external validation of being seen and worthy is addicting. It’s easy to chase more views, more followers, more fame. But recently I’ve been reflecting on how I can be content with just myself. What if no one knew what I was doing, would I still be happy?
There’s nothing wrong with wanting attention or enjoying the game of making popular content. That’s why it’s a pause and not forever.
As ambitious, driven, and motivated people it’s hard to escape the feeling of guilt that things “should” be a certain way. But it’s that exact internal conflict that creates the uneasy tension that doesn’t feel right.
If you fully listened to yourself what would your life look like?
Excited for you,
Noah “Le Pause” Kagan
Start a business in 48 hours.
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8 responses to “Le Pause”
Love to hear this, my guy. Can’t wait to hear about dad-hood!
First of all – enjoy your ´´pause´´ !
Just finished reading your book, twice. And now its time to take action, brrr…
Your ask – I would like to leave a review somewhere but I got your book from the local bookstore 🙂 Is there some other place I can leave it? (I have to be honest tho, Im not that good with words, especially in english, but I would give my best)
My ask – so I dont have a million dollar idea, I have a billion dollar idea! My problem is that I know I need a good team, I cant do it alone. But I dont know where to start with finding these people (starting with CEO)? I dont really have connections. So what would you do in this situation if you were nobody? 😀
(If you werent taking a pause I would ASK you to join – didnt you want to show Zuckerberg how wrong he was? Well I have a product for it, so let´s do it :D)
If you ever find a time to reply… I would probably have a panic attack, but a really weird one with really happy feelings mixed with it 😀
Bw from snowy Estonia (one really tiny country in europe)
Liisbet
You’re a legend!
Congratulations man! The rest mean a lot in our world, and we should plan it, otherwise we won’t have it.
Mazel to you, your wife and your decision to ‘le pause’ different areas of your life.
Smart.
This should be required reading for anyone who wants to define true wealth. This was terrific. I hope to use this as a rallying point to make major changes in my life. Thanks for the insights!
Love that you finally simplified your life and said this:
“I feel guilty because I often preach (and truly believe) that success comes through consistency. But at some point, we need to get off the hamster wheel, and reflect which wheel we want to be running on.
If you spend so much time getting rich but never enjoy being rich – are you even rich?”
It’s hard to spend money on myself because of the lifetime habit of making and saving, and not feeling entitled to other people’s creations if I couldn’t come up with it myself (seems extreme and hyper-individualistic??)
But the point of accumulating money is to use it to fuel a life you want. Maybe the same motivation will come to me if I find someone I’m really into.
Excellent advice!! In wish that I had been as pragmatic at your age! However, THAT was then, and THIS is now. Even at a couple months prior to my 81st birthday, there is opportunity when an individual can pause and consider her or his opportunities, hopes, desires, and place in the world, the people who love us and whom we love. God gives us so much that we often discount.
Important possibilities seldom fall into our arms while we wait at home watch BTS RERUNS!! Those men have worked constantly and diligently since Bang PD gave each or then a chance to become a team. It was never easy for any one of them, yet all seven persevered towards his goals.
So, what is your dream. If you have one, as I do and are still wanting your dream to become real – as I do – what do you want to complete before a year from now. BTS will all be safe and home by then. I don’t want to be in the same place with ten blank canvasses waiting to have portraits painted on them. What about you? (+ – +)