In this personal‑development vlog, Aaron Doughty explains how the feeling of excitement functions as the body’s internal signal that a choice aligns with one’s true self. He introduces a simple diagram contrasting the larger “higher self” with the smaller “ego,” showing that excitement flows from the higher self to guide the ego toward actions that feel authentic. Doughty demonstrates the concept with a day‑in‑the‑life walk‑through: he goes to the gym, chooses to visit a park, stops at Whole Foods, and then edits his video—all because each activity generated the most excitement at the moment. He describes an iterative process: pursue the most exciting activity until the excitement wanes, then select the next most exciting option. Repeating this pattern, he argues, creates greater synchronicity, builds genuine passion, and ultimately helps a person live in alignment with their purpose, which he defines as simply expressing one’s true self. The video ends with a call to action for viewers to apply the excitement‑based decision‑making in their own lives.
Chapters
I'm just kidding. In this video, what I want to do is I want to show you some of the things that I've used in my own life to allow me to feel more excitement, to ultimately make choices based upon what excites me in my life and how that ultimately leads to me feeling more passion. So before I do that, what I want to do is I want to talk about this in the correlation between the idea of what our purpose is in life. Now, a lot of times what we do is we grow up and we think that there is some like overarching purpose as to who we are. We think that like there's some career that once we find, that's our purpose in life and that's what we're meant to be doing our whole entire life. But I think that even more deeper than that, what our purpose really is in life is to simply express ourselves and to be ourselves 100%. It's really just that simple. As long as we're expressing ourselves congruent to who we are and we're aligning with that, we're ultimately going to get the results that we want. We're going to feel the way that feels optimal for who we are, and we're going to be a more ecstatic expression of what we can accomplish in our own life. So the reason I wanted to explain that idea to you is because now it's a little bit easier for me to explain what the idea or the sensation is of excitement. So the idea and the feeling of excitement is our body's translation that is telling us that whatever we are doing is in alignment with who we really are. Are. Now I'm going to say that one more time. The feeling of excitement is our body's translation, saying and showing us that we are making a choice that is in alignment with who we really are. Now, understanding this is important also because when we understand that we can make choices based upon what is exciting to us, we understand why we might feel the opposite of that. Now what I'm going to do is is I'm going to draw you a diagram and show you exactly what I'm talking about. Diet, diet diagram time. So for the purpose of this analogy, I want to use this kind of symbol to understand the idea of excitement. So let's have on this side, we have what we fundamentally can call the larger part of who we are. That could be called our higher self. It could be called a lot of different names, but the idea is nonetheless that that is who we really are at a greater sense, and then on this side what we have is what is fundamentally called our ego. Our ego is a little bit smaller because it can't see as far as what we could call our higher self. Now the idea is that our higher self is constantly and always sending us a signal of us being in alignment with who we really are. Now that comes in the form of the feelings, the emotions that we have of excitement. So in this funnel right here You can imagine that if you love, for example, to play sports, the idea could be that playing sports is part of your excitement. Could be the idea that you love to draw, for example. So what you do is anytime that you're drawing, you feel in the moment you like to do that because that is what you're excited about. Could be that there's a multitude of different things that excite you. That is within the feeling of excitement that is guiding your ego to the larger part of who you are. It's saying that if you continue to do this, you're going to lead to more synchronicity and more positive results from it. Now, anytime our ego comes and starts making decisions outside of the realm of excitement, making decisions maybe for other people, for example, I'm worried about what other people think. If we make decisions based upon what we think we should do, but it's not really what we want to do, the idea is that then that is where pain and conflict conflict come from, or the idea of, uh, of struggle. That all comes within the realm of making decisions that aren't based upon our excitement. And what that tells us is that we need to refocus and recalibrate ourselves towards actually making decisions based upon this funnel right here of excitement. Diagram over. So another part of me following my excitement involves the idea of me creating videos. Like, even the content that you're seeing right now, even the fact that you are seeing that I'm creating videos, is a sign that that is something of me following my excitement. Not only because— I gotta turn on the pool pump real quick, make sure it's on. We're good. Not only is it something that I am passionate about because simply I love expressing my ideas, but also it has to do with the fact that I associate pleasure with taking this act. So the idea right now is that I'm going to create a video for you guys and that this is a fundamental part of me following my excitement. The one thing that I enjoy doing every single day is going to the gym, and that's something that excites me. It's something that gets me into a, into a more productive state. So it's something that I choose to do every single day. So right now what I'm going to do is I'm going to simply go to the gym. I'm there normally about an hour, hour and a half. I go into the sauna there, which is something I also did another video on when it comes to the fact of having more energy. But the idea is that I simply make choices based upon what is most exciting. And right now That is what is exciting to me. So let's go. And this is the gym that I go to. Oh yeah. So now that I'm done at the gym, there's a number myriad of options— myriad. Alright, now that I finished at the gym, there's a ton of options that I can choose from. I could go eat somewhere, like at a restaurant, or eat at my house, whichever one I choose. Or I could go to the park. That sounds like a great idea. There's, you know, I could go to, uh, cryotherapy. I think cryotherapy, maybe it's called cryotherapy. I could go do cryotherapy, which is where you freeze the shit out of yourself. There's a ton of things that I could do. But right now I'm simply going to choose the one that's the most exciting to me. And right now I feel like going to the park because the sun's about to set. And that sounds like something that is the most exciting option that I could choose right now. So now what I'm going to do is go to the park. Let's go. So out of all the options that I had, what I decided to do was to simply choose the one that had just a little bit more excitement than the other options that I had. So coming to the park for me is something that I do maybe a couple times a week, and I find a lot of comfort and a lot of clarity with the idea of grounding myself, or coming at least to where I'm in nature. Because living in Vegas, one of the things about it is you live in mainly like a desert. But here, as you guys can see, I am around grass, I'm around trees, and That's something that really brings me back into the moment, and that is why when I had the different choices that I could choose from, I simply chose the one that was even just a little bit more exciting because that was what resonated with me at the moment. So now what I'm at the point of is the next thing I can decide is what the next action I want to take is. Now the idea with excitement is you take it so you can take it no further, and then you make another choice and you choose the next most exciting thing. So I've been at the park for maybe half an hour to 45 minutes now, and I'm ready to move on to the next most exciting thing. And what I notice is that I'm hungry. What I might do is go to Whole Foods and get something to eat. Aaron Doughty. So now that I've gone to Whole Foods, gotten the food that I'm gonna eat, the next most exciting thing that I can possibly think of doing is editing the video that you're watching right now. I know it sounds kind of like a mind twister, but I'm editing the video that you just watched, doing it right now. That's the next most exciting thing that I can possibly think of, and because of that, What I want to do is recap what this video is about. So remember the idea behind excitement and simply in every moment you have a multitude of different things that you can choose to do. Simply choose the one that has a little bit more excitement than any other option. Do that thing until you can take it no further until you feel it run out, and then at that point choose the next most exciting thing that you can do in that moment. Now the more that you do this, the more that you'll find there's more synchronicity in your life. And the more ultimately that you're able to develop passion. That passion is going to be what carries you and what allows you really to feel better a majority of the time. So I hope you guys enjoyed this video today. Feel free to like it if you liked it, share it if you found it of value, subscribe below, and I'll see you guys on the next video. You guys have a great day. Bye.
