lost in the climb

the achievement trap

Most people are shaped by what they feel they're missing in their childhood or through their parents influence. Regardless, for some reason or another, the internal engine to chase achievement is created.

However, this focus on the chase eventually coalesces into the understanding of the corporate and personal rat race. The idea that you dissatisfyingly endlessly pursue the next goal. And it manifests itself in business through the climbing of the corporate ladder, and also personally: maybe you try something you aren't instantly good at, and you're done, because being mediocre feels like a loser.

This is the trap of achievement: the reward is the ranking. And because rankings are relative, winning never feels good for very long.

is intellectual curiosity real

People say that the answer to the achievement trap is to pursue your passions, and that if you focus on the journey and not the outcome, voila, life is better. But I would also say I'm not unique in the feeling of a lack of a life’s true calling, and that focusing on the journey is easier said than done when the outcomes judged by the world.

However, recently, I’ve come to an alternative solution. Everyone grows up dealt with a hand of cards, but instead of trying to use those cards to find a passion, maybe try changing the cards themselves? Kind of like giving a big FU to the underlying internal dissatisfaction of hollowness of the chase.

but this requires changing who you are

How do you change who you are? Actions turn into reality. Sounds a bit obvious, but I wrote about how perhaps the action of changing anything is just through repeated actions themselves.

And so to take a gamble, I posit a few examples. Perhaps spending time on a field where there isn’t as much comparative advantage. Something that isn't driven by money, at least in the short term. And considering things in longer time horizons as to avoid short term gratification of the chase.

I think the canonical example is people who were once hyper driven and go start bakeries or become artists, and they seem to come out more fulfilled. The classic reaction is, “oh that can’t be me,” but what if that also wasn’t them, but because they spent years on years pursuing it, it just became them.

A little funky; the dark arts of manifestation.