Hey Rick, we discussed this topic a while back on one of my posts, at the time I suggested Freedom was the highest aim, you suggested Meaning was. Well like you, after nearly 2 years of "freedom" I have come around to your way of thinking. At the time I was trying to define freedom not as time/money freedom, which is what most people think of, but I was trying to frame it as existential freedom. But after thinking (and living) it out, I think what I was really trying to define was in fact Meaning. I do still differentiate time/money freedom vs existential freedom as a material vs spiritual contrast, but at the end of the day, there can be no existential freedom without some kind of undergirding meaning.
Put more simply: a person without freedom but who has meaning can live a rich and rewarding life, even if it's a struggle at times. But a person with freedom and no meaning is destined for ennui, listlessness, purposelessness, etc which are all a form of privileged existential suffering.
In practice I'm still working out what all of the above mean for me, I find myself oscillating between enjoying my freedom but wrestling frequently with what to do with said freedom. At many points over the past couple years I've found myself asking, "What am I doing here?", (not geographically but existentially) which is a meaning question, not a freedom question.
Really appreciated this read. It’s a good reminder that aimless wandering won’t bring more fulfillment than grinding 90-hour weeks, but having the freedom to pursue meaning on your own terms is what makes all the struggle worthwhile. Excited to see where your book project goes!
I'd like to see an unpacking of what meaning is . I understood your reframe by observing my father who has retired and struggles to figure out how to use his time.
Yet, I wonder if words like meaning and purpose are too loaded with alternate meanings/baggage to get the point across. Another framing I've been thinking about is challenge and finding your own tension.
Every story needs intention and obstacles, that create tension. If there are obstacles that feel impossible, the difference between a tragedy and adventure is if they are overcome or not.
But if there are no obstacles, the story is flat and boring.
What's difficult about defining meaning is it's one of those "you know it when you have it" feelings.
Kinda like love... e.g. can you define "love"? If you fall in love or if you feel love from a parent/family member, you know exactly what I'm talking about. But how would you explain it? Deconstruct it? That's a problem poets have been working on for centuries 😅
You're tension point is interesting, and I'd be curious to hear more about what you think. Every story does need obstacles, but that is a GOOD STORY. Is that the same as a GOOD LIFE? E.g. if you ever fall in love w/ someone, do you need massive obstacles to overcome in order to experience that love? I'm not so sure... But I'd be curious to hear more.
It's a privileged problem but I ended up in a situation where I didn't need to work anymore after years of hustle and grind as an entrepreneur. I didn't know what to do with myself, I still don't to some extent and find myself pursuing projects that I don't care about that much, only to abandon them as I don't have the drive as don't need to earn. But then feel like I'm not productive if I'm not developing something new and creating a business. There's no side project that is really meaningful if you don't need the money in entrepreneur world (who wants to build an AI tool for fun, like why? And so on). I'm now trying to reframe my life and see just daily routines such as cleaning my home, walking my dogs, taking care of my family, and so on as my aims. But it's hard, I identified with your article alot.
Thanks Carrie for your comment. Your situation sounds very familiar to mine...
I'm not good at doing nothing either and had the is-my-side-project-meaningful-enough conundrum, but after stumbling around for awhile, have really settled into writing (esp now fiction writing).
One thing that helped me was lasering in on the question: "what part of business building did I enjoy the most/brought flow states?" Then it was about finding DIFFERENT activities that fulfilled that in NEW contexts, and NOT trying to replicate it within the business world.
E.g. for me it was understanding I lean to "creative thinker in solitude." I like working on constantly evolving problems, alone/in my head, and creating something original = writing.
For someone who likes building software, that could be a solo/weird/creative/artsy software project that makes $0. Or Mike Karnjanaprakorn is an example of someone who wants to build with others: https://newsletter.mikekarnj.com/
No idea if that helps you or not, but that's just how it worked for me.
Thank you so much, I got lost down a hole for days reading Mike's newsletter you suggested, it hit exactly right so thank you for the recommendation. It made me realise what a gift a well timed and perfectly on target reading recommendation can be to someone - it leads you in all different directions. Because of it I read lots of articles he has then recommended in his newsletter with thought altering ideas and signed my son up to an AI maths tutor he recommended.
If you've not read it, Wanting: Memetic Desire by Luke Burgess and Jenny ODell how to do nothing are good reads around this topic 👍
I happened to be chatting with GPT about my discovery of meaning. Born in a hellish country, freedom was never innate. I burned myself for it, rebuilt my personality, and chose the meaning of my existence. I call this whole process metamorphosis.
Here's my summary:
A person is born carrying a basket.
At first, the basket is filled by others — family, society, the environment. It grows heavy with things that are not truly theirs.
One day, the person feels the weight and decides to set the basket on fire.
The flames consume everything: the borrowed beliefs, the false identity, even the mask they wore as a “self.”
When the fire dies, they stand in the ashes.
Some people pick up only what survived the flames, the few things that are real. Others return to the ruins and rebuild the same basket again, filling it once more with what never belonged to them.
Those who are brave enough may burn it again, and again, until finally the basket holds nothing but what they have chosen for themselves.
This is transformation:
• To discard what was given, even if it feels like losing yourself.
• To pick up only what is true.
• To repeat the fire as many times as necessary until nothing false remains.
Only then do you walk out of the flames, not with what you inherited, but with what you are.
—-
I hope my unique experience can help you. I believe we all live in a shell from birth, and it is the environment that gives us this shell. I think your "meaning" is the feeling of knowing clearly what you need. Thank you for your wonderful article
Where I'm less sure (haven't thought through it enough), is whether we need to completely discard 100% of what is given to us. It almost seems impossible, e.g. we inherit so much that we take for granted, and there might be places where we should accept what others give us without discarding it (simple example is scientific truths that I, in no way, will try to refute).
Have you thought about this? When you say "discard what was given," are there any places you shouldn't discard it?
It seems to me that the underlying question of this article is "how can one feel happy in a sustained way, joyful, satisfied with one's life, whole". The mind's tendancy is to search for an answer externally which will always end up failing, or get only part of the answer. Because the mind is it's own source of misery. True sustained happiness is found within, and does not depend on circumstances. It is not by doing something that one becomes happy.
I am bringing this up because having been financially free for the last 8 years, the fundamental shift that made all the difference and checked all those boxes has been internal, not external. Once that shift occurs the question of meaning (and most self oriented question) become less important. You think about having fun and helping others, as bonus, not as a means to an end. Hope it helps, it comes from a place of love.
Very true, Rick! I feel the search for meaning is not so common and I guess it will have it's own quandaries on the emotional journey it'll take one through. Reading your post reminded me of some of this post which I had come across https://offpisteinvesting.com/howard-stevenson-whats-enough/ and I would also recommend some of Alfred Adler's insights from the book "The Courage to be Disliked" of meaning and happiness "Happiness is the feeling of contribution without the need for recognition"
I suspect the intermediate milestone absolutely involves no longer feeling a precise obligation to 'do something' with that freedom, rather finding one's sense of self and purpose casually filling in that void with something implausibly fulfilling and loaded with purpose... which sounds absolutely like the kind of nonsense somebody would write in a book to sell lots of copies, and is in no way helpful for anybody staring down any of these possibilities.
Take loaded concepts like 'Financial Freedom' - financial implies a number at the heart of you being free, but the second you have a number you are yoked to it. We need to understand Freedom before we load it with other descriptors like TIME, MONEY, etc.
After 25 years of exploring this concept, writing about it, you start to see that you can only describe words with words, so you have to get to the heart of what it is that people want. Freedom from what? For me, I had to realize that it was freedom from the idea of freedom, and then the whole tapestry of relativity (all concepts are relative) collapse.
I am a finance guy. Still, I found myself studying with a Zen Teacher 23 years ago. I've discovered meditation is the ultimate technology, about which we have very little real understanding, including how it works and why. Let's say one only needs faith until they have had direct experience. Meditation is the direct experiencing of thoughts, or better yet, the thinking mind that makes all the conversations interesting to us. We are strange loops! Meditation is the code for the game we are currently playing. Nothing functions in consciousness without a paired opposite. See if you can find an example of something that isn't paired. Up/down, left/right. Smart/dumb. Freedom/bondage. Once you introduce any concept, you have also introduced its opposite. Read Freedom From the Known - by J. Krishnamurti as a great example of this conceptually, but to understand it fully, meditation is the way through... and practice is the way.
2. Then I got time freedom and this is better!! (usually true)
Almost everyone promoting this talking point pursued financial wealth like an animal.
I probably wouldnt use the word meaning, though. I'd go even simpler. The only real wealth is having things you really care about.
I think a lot of people obtain wealth by selling out their caring and that leads to disaster. That's why they wish they were back in the previous life path.
My journey has been from cynically not caring (and pursuing wealth) to caring about stuff and now not caring as much about wealth at all
I agree with your first part. Freedom > money, but when you pursue it as your only source of meaning, you'll eventually get what you want and realize you have nothing else.
On caring... I think you're 100% onto what I'm talking about. Rather than wait for perfect freedom, you're focused on what you care about, which is the endgame that actually matters. Inserting a reach-freedom objective in between would lead you totally off track, maybe permanently.
On caring vs. meaning... I think we generally agree and probably splitting hairs on our own preferred use of language. For me, meaning = umbrella term that includes caring/loving for people/activities. But also also encompasses additional components:
- sense of belonging (e.g. community)
- moral guidance (e.g. sense of right/wrong >> I mean this very abstractly, not like accepting external guidelines)
- coherent narrative (e.g. the world and your place in it)
I could be wrong... but it sounds like you DO have belonging, you just may not call it that or take for granted what you have.
E.g. your last post: "Living in so many different places doesn’t make me feel unsettled; I feel grounded in a deep sense of possibility and wonder for the world."
I mean, right there you're saying you find your belonging in more of the diversity/collection/ecology of places than one place vs. another. Am I interpreting you wrong?
At least for myself (but bet others feel this too), I find belonging in being tribe-diverse vs. tribe-specific. Specific tribes make me feel claustrophobic, and I don't need a local, in-person cult-community breathing down my neck to feel part of something. Instead, I find belonging in occasionally (but not too frequently or else it'd defeat the purpose) finding other people who think like that or at least knowing they exist are out there. Pair that with my immediate family + close friends = I'm good.
For sure, I think I just naturally avoid words like meaning because they mean too much now. And belonging as well.
For me, I just prefer the word connection. Connection to self, other, work and place. Writer preferences 😂
Regardless, I think I strongly agree with your point. “Wealth” it’s not a useful aim because it implies accumulation of some resource. Better aims can’t be accumulated. Love, meaning, connection.
Rick.......Sounds as though YOU have been very wisely listening to Jordan Peterson ! . He has identified the one thing in life we ALL KNOW is REAL and that is PAIN and suffering.
He says you won't suffer any less , but if you fill your life with MEANING and personal improvement then the suffering is counteracted and the world is better off as well ; and you know that for a fact as when you are doing something that absorbs your attention entirely ,
hours of time can pass in a flash and you feel nothing but satisfaction , no suffering there then , and if it is a community project [ even if you are retired] then that enhances everything else into the bargain !
I am a bit like that Doctor who said he enjoyed his work so much that he didn't lack for anything and retirement would simply curtail that joy and his valuable contribution to his own and other's welfare. I enjoyed a similar experience and I think that hedonists and 'happiness seekers' have somehow 'crossed their wires ' , 'got on the wrong boat' or whatever expression means 'missed out terribly on what LIFE and EXISTENCE could have delivered for them , if only they had made better choices in life' ! [ And that can include travel and 'experiences' , but not simply hedonism ].
Personally , I had to "pack it in" when my body refused to function in it's usual satisfactory manner
and the severity of my aches and pains overcame my resolve !
I enjoyed THIS ARTICLE and the many comments . It tempted me to 'chuck in my tuppence worth'
for what it is worth......but wealth is NOT to be sneezed at or denigrated. It facilitates almost all transactions in this world and enables you to assist others that you couldn't if you yourself were 'skint' .....and possibly a 'problem to others'.......so.....never discourage a 'go getter' from his chosen trajectory because his success will 'drag an entourage' along with him and many will benefit.
From a comfortably wealthy position HE TOO can then 'take time off to assess his aims and goals' because you sure as hell can't do that when you are 'flat out at work , with your nose to the grindstone ' and don't have a spare moment to reflect on life or anything else much at all !
Yep ! Earning a living sure gets in the way sometimes !
Inertia , procrastination and prevarication prevent MANY people from getting the BEST out of life
and these all need to be replaced with persistence , perseverance and "drive" and humility.....and many people find all those in their commercial and social lives without any special effort on their part .....and those people are the ones who have really built "our way of life" and our success.
Freedom , likewise , should NOT be taken lightly ! It is a fragile thing that needs to be constantly guarded even though it is a concept rather than something tangible......like the Berlin Wall for example was very tangible !.....so , many of the priorities in one's life revolve around family and friends BECAUSE they give you PURPOSE and MEANING , and long may that continue !
Hey Rick, we discussed this topic a while back on one of my posts, at the time I suggested Freedom was the highest aim, you suggested Meaning was. Well like you, after nearly 2 years of "freedom" I have come around to your way of thinking. At the time I was trying to define freedom not as time/money freedom, which is what most people think of, but I was trying to frame it as existential freedom. But after thinking (and living) it out, I think what I was really trying to define was in fact Meaning. I do still differentiate time/money freedom vs existential freedom as a material vs spiritual contrast, but at the end of the day, there can be no existential freedom without some kind of undergirding meaning.
Put more simply: a person without freedom but who has meaning can live a rich and rewarding life, even if it's a struggle at times. But a person with freedom and no meaning is destined for ennui, listlessness, purposelessness, etc which are all a form of privileged existential suffering.
In practice I'm still working out what all of the above mean for me, I find myself oscillating between enjoying my freedom but wrestling frequently with what to do with said freedom. At many points over the past couple years I've found myself asking, "What am I doing here?", (not geographically but existentially) which is a meaning question, not a freedom question.
Damn... you nailed it Dave.
Your middle paragraph really nails what I see as a fundamental error in American (at least) thinking: that freedom alone is the answer.
(just like money-alone is the answer, or health-alone, etc.)
Many would be much better off, yes pursuing freedom, but simultaneously pursuing meaning because the former may not come until too late / not at all.
Really appreciated this read. It’s a good reminder that aimless wandering won’t bring more fulfillment than grinding 90-hour weeks, but having the freedom to pursue meaning on your own terms is what makes all the struggle worthwhile. Excited to see where your book project goes!
You nailed it right there.
I needed this in my inbox today. It hit home. Thank you.
Glad it resonated, Michael. Curious what made this hit and/or relate to your life?
I'd like to see an unpacking of what meaning is . I understood your reframe by observing my father who has retired and struggles to figure out how to use his time.
Yet, I wonder if words like meaning and purpose are too loaded with alternate meanings/baggage to get the point across. Another framing I've been thinking about is challenge and finding your own tension.
Every story needs intention and obstacles, that create tension. If there are obstacles that feel impossible, the difference between a tragedy and adventure is if they are overcome or not.
But if there are no obstacles, the story is flat and boring.
Thanks Ved. Maybe not perfect answer to your question, but I do expand on the meaning of meaning here (plus old vs. new versions):
https://newsletter.thewayofwork.com/p/frontier
What's difficult about defining meaning is it's one of those "you know it when you have it" feelings.
Kinda like love... e.g. can you define "love"? If you fall in love or if you feel love from a parent/family member, you know exactly what I'm talking about. But how would you explain it? Deconstruct it? That's a problem poets have been working on for centuries 😅
You're tension point is interesting, and I'd be curious to hear more about what you think. Every story does need obstacles, but that is a GOOD STORY. Is that the same as a GOOD LIFE? E.g. if you ever fall in love w/ someone, do you need massive obstacles to overcome in order to experience that love? I'm not so sure... But I'd be curious to hear more.
You can decide what YOUR highest form of wealth is, but you don’t decide for anyone else.
Thought-provoking though. Thanks
People certainly can choose on their own. But I’d argue they don’t always choose well.
And yes, this is more about my own evolution. As I say in the footnote, there may be something else on the other side of this that I may be missing.
It's a privileged problem but I ended up in a situation where I didn't need to work anymore after years of hustle and grind as an entrepreneur. I didn't know what to do with myself, I still don't to some extent and find myself pursuing projects that I don't care about that much, only to abandon them as I don't have the drive as don't need to earn. But then feel like I'm not productive if I'm not developing something new and creating a business. There's no side project that is really meaningful if you don't need the money in entrepreneur world (who wants to build an AI tool for fun, like why? And so on). I'm now trying to reframe my life and see just daily routines such as cleaning my home, walking my dogs, taking care of my family, and so on as my aims. But it's hard, I identified with your article alot.
Thanks Carrie for your comment. Your situation sounds very familiar to mine...
I'm not good at doing nothing either and had the is-my-side-project-meaningful-enough conundrum, but after stumbling around for awhile, have really settled into writing (esp now fiction writing).
One thing that helped me was lasering in on the question: "what part of business building did I enjoy the most/brought flow states?" Then it was about finding DIFFERENT activities that fulfilled that in NEW contexts, and NOT trying to replicate it within the business world.
E.g. for me it was understanding I lean to "creative thinker in solitude." I like working on constantly evolving problems, alone/in my head, and creating something original = writing.
For someone who likes building software, that could be a solo/weird/creative/artsy software project that makes $0. Or Mike Karnjanaprakorn is an example of someone who wants to build with others: https://newsletter.mikekarnj.com/
No idea if that helps you or not, but that's just how it worked for me.
Thank you so much, I got lost down a hole for days reading Mike's newsletter you suggested, it hit exactly right so thank you for the recommendation. It made me realise what a gift a well timed and perfectly on target reading recommendation can be to someone - it leads you in all different directions. Because of it I read lots of articles he has then recommended in his newsletter with thought altering ideas and signed my son up to an AI maths tutor he recommended.
If you've not read it, Wanting: Memetic Desire by Luke Burgess and Jenny ODell how to do nothing are good reads around this topic 👍
Thanks for the recs!
I happened to be chatting with GPT about my discovery of meaning. Born in a hellish country, freedom was never innate. I burned myself for it, rebuilt my personality, and chose the meaning of my existence. I call this whole process metamorphosis.
Here's my summary:
A person is born carrying a basket.
At first, the basket is filled by others — family, society, the environment. It grows heavy with things that are not truly theirs.
One day, the person feels the weight and decides to set the basket on fire.
The flames consume everything: the borrowed beliefs, the false identity, even the mask they wore as a “self.”
When the fire dies, they stand in the ashes.
Some people pick up only what survived the flames, the few things that are real. Others return to the ruins and rebuild the same basket again, filling it once more with what never belonged to them.
Those who are brave enough may burn it again, and again, until finally the basket holds nothing but what they have chosen for themselves.
This is transformation:
• To discard what was given, even if it feels like losing yourself.
• To pick up only what is true.
• To repeat the fire as many times as necessary until nothing false remains.
Only then do you walk out of the flames, not with what you inherited, but with what you are.
—-
I hope my unique experience can help you. I believe we all live in a shell from birth, and it is the environment that gives us this shell. I think your "meaning" is the feeling of knowing clearly what you need. Thank you for your wonderful article
I like this mental image. Thank you for sharing.
Where I'm less sure (haven't thought through it enough), is whether we need to completely discard 100% of what is given to us. It almost seems impossible, e.g. we inherit so much that we take for granted, and there might be places where we should accept what others give us without discarding it (simple example is scientific truths that I, in no way, will try to refute).
Have you thought about this? When you say "discard what was given," are there any places you shouldn't discard it?
“ Or maybe what you really want is to transcend death in a metaphysical form, but woah!, that’s way too heavy.”
Pretty much. Just waiting and curious to see how it ends.
Likely exactly how it looks like.
The ultimate question!
It seems to me that the underlying question of this article is "how can one feel happy in a sustained way, joyful, satisfied with one's life, whole". The mind's tendancy is to search for an answer externally which will always end up failing, or get only part of the answer. Because the mind is it's own source of misery. True sustained happiness is found within, and does not depend on circumstances. It is not by doing something that one becomes happy.
I am bringing this up because having been financially free for the last 8 years, the fundamental shift that made all the difference and checked all those boxes has been internal, not external. Once that shift occurs the question of meaning (and most self oriented question) become less important. You think about having fun and helping others, as bonus, not as a means to an end. Hope it helps, it comes from a place of love.
Very true, Rick! I feel the search for meaning is not so common and I guess it will have it's own quandaries on the emotional journey it'll take one through. Reading your post reminded me of some of this post which I had come across https://offpisteinvesting.com/howard-stevenson-whats-enough/ and I would also recommend some of Alfred Adler's insights from the book "The Courage to be Disliked" of meaning and happiness "Happiness is the feeling of contribution without the need for recognition"
Thanks for the recommendations! Will check them. Out.
Something to ponder: it is not the pursuit of happiness but the happiness of the pursuit?
Wildly depends on the pursuit IMHO
Isn’t the only true freedom - freedom from the idea of freedom?
I suspect the intermediate milestone absolutely involves no longer feeling a precise obligation to 'do something' with that freedom, rather finding one's sense of self and purpose casually filling in that void with something implausibly fulfilling and loaded with purpose... which sounds absolutely like the kind of nonsense somebody would write in a book to sell lots of copies, and is in no way helpful for anybody staring down any of these possibilities.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts.
I have zero clean answers for you. All I have is my experience, which I've tried to deconstruct and am selling for the discounted price of $0 (forever): https://newsletter.thewayofwork.com/i/149175100/series-dont-work
Buy now!
Woah, now that's heavy! 🤯
Now we're talking...
(definitely gonna think on that)
Take loaded concepts like 'Financial Freedom' - financial implies a number at the heart of you being free, but the second you have a number you are yoked to it. We need to understand Freedom before we load it with other descriptors like TIME, MONEY, etc.
After 25 years of exploring this concept, writing about it, you start to see that you can only describe words with words, so you have to get to the heart of what it is that people want. Freedom from what? For me, I had to realize that it was freedom from the idea of freedom, and then the whole tapestry of relativity (all concepts are relative) collapse.
Super interesting... anything you'd recommend to explore this idea of "freedom from the idea of freedom" further?
I am a finance guy. Still, I found myself studying with a Zen Teacher 23 years ago. I've discovered meditation is the ultimate technology, about which we have very little real understanding, including how it works and why. Let's say one only needs faith until they have had direct experience. Meditation is the direct experiencing of thoughts, or better yet, the thinking mind that makes all the conversations interesting to us. We are strange loops! Meditation is the code for the game we are currently playing. Nothing functions in consciousness without a paired opposite. See if you can find an example of something that isn't paired. Up/down, left/right. Smart/dumb. Freedom/bondage. Once you introduce any concept, you have also introduced its opposite. Read Freedom From the Known - by J. Krishnamurti as a great example of this conceptually, but to understand it fully, meditation is the way through... and practice is the way.
Very cool, thanks for sharing all this.
I read Krishnamurti's "Book of Life"... my mind was blown by all the counterintuitive insights. I'll check out this other one too.
I suspect what people are really saying is:
1. I used to think money was wealth
2. Then I got time freedom and this is better!! (usually true)
Almost everyone promoting this talking point pursued financial wealth like an animal.
I probably wouldnt use the word meaning, though. I'd go even simpler. The only real wealth is having things you really care about.
I think a lot of people obtain wealth by selling out their caring and that leads to disaster. That's why they wish they were back in the previous life path.
My journey has been from cynically not caring (and pursuing wealth) to caring about stuff and now not caring as much about wealth at all
I agree with your first part. Freedom > money, but when you pursue it as your only source of meaning, you'll eventually get what you want and realize you have nothing else.
On caring... I think you're 100% onto what I'm talking about. Rather than wait for perfect freedom, you're focused on what you care about, which is the endgame that actually matters. Inserting a reach-freedom objective in between would lead you totally off track, maybe permanently.
On caring vs. meaning... I think we generally agree and probably splitting hairs on our own preferred use of language. For me, meaning = umbrella term that includes caring/loving for people/activities. But also also encompasses additional components:
- sense of belonging (e.g. community)
- moral guidance (e.g. sense of right/wrong >> I mean this very abstractly, not like accepting external guidelines)
- coherent narrative (e.g. the world and your place in it)
FYI I explore the concept of meaning more here and the "inherited maps of meaning" vs. the "open frontier of meaning": https://newsletter.thewayofwork.com/p/frontier
Yeah I think for me I have just found good enough setups without belonging (albeit have it at nuclear family level)
I could be wrong... but it sounds like you DO have belonging, you just may not call it that or take for granted what you have.
E.g. your last post: "Living in so many different places doesn’t make me feel unsettled; I feel grounded in a deep sense of possibility and wonder for the world."
I mean, right there you're saying you find your belonging in more of the diversity/collection/ecology of places than one place vs. another. Am I interpreting you wrong?
At least for myself (but bet others feel this too), I find belonging in being tribe-diverse vs. tribe-specific. Specific tribes make me feel claustrophobic, and I don't need a local, in-person cult-community breathing down my neck to feel part of something. Instead, I find belonging in occasionally (but not too frequently or else it'd defeat the purpose) finding other people who think like that or at least knowing they exist are out there. Pair that with my immediate family + close friends = I'm good.
For sure, I think I just naturally avoid words like meaning because they mean too much now. And belonging as well.
For me, I just prefer the word connection. Connection to self, other, work and place. Writer preferences 😂
Regardless, I think I strongly agree with your point. “Wealth” it’s not a useful aim because it implies accumulation of some resource. Better aims can’t be accumulated. Love, meaning, connection.
Interesting angle on wealth = accumulation of a resource.
Will definitely think on that one.
Rick.......Sounds as though YOU have been very wisely listening to Jordan Peterson ! . He has identified the one thing in life we ALL KNOW is REAL and that is PAIN and suffering.
He says you won't suffer any less , but if you fill your life with MEANING and personal improvement then the suffering is counteracted and the world is better off as well ; and you know that for a fact as when you are doing something that absorbs your attention entirely ,
hours of time can pass in a flash and you feel nothing but satisfaction , no suffering there then , and if it is a community project [ even if you are retired] then that enhances everything else into the bargain !
I am a bit like that Doctor who said he enjoyed his work so much that he didn't lack for anything and retirement would simply curtail that joy and his valuable contribution to his own and other's welfare. I enjoyed a similar experience and I think that hedonists and 'happiness seekers' have somehow 'crossed their wires ' , 'got on the wrong boat' or whatever expression means 'missed out terribly on what LIFE and EXISTENCE could have delivered for them , if only they had made better choices in life' ! [ And that can include travel and 'experiences' , but not simply hedonism ].
Personally , I had to "pack it in" when my body refused to function in it's usual satisfactory manner
and the severity of my aches and pains overcame my resolve !
I enjoyed THIS ARTICLE and the many comments . It tempted me to 'chuck in my tuppence worth'
for what it is worth......but wealth is NOT to be sneezed at or denigrated. It facilitates almost all transactions in this world and enables you to assist others that you couldn't if you yourself were 'skint' .....and possibly a 'problem to others'.......so.....never discourage a 'go getter' from his chosen trajectory because his success will 'drag an entourage' along with him and many will benefit.
From a comfortably wealthy position HE TOO can then 'take time off to assess his aims and goals' because you sure as hell can't do that when you are 'flat out at work , with your nose to the grindstone ' and don't have a spare moment to reflect on life or anything else much at all !
Yep ! Earning a living sure gets in the way sometimes !
Inertia , procrastination and prevarication prevent MANY people from getting the BEST out of life
and these all need to be replaced with persistence , perseverance and "drive" and humility.....and many people find all those in their commercial and social lives without any special effort on their part .....and those people are the ones who have really built "our way of life" and our success.
Freedom , likewise , should NOT be taken lightly ! It is a fragile thing that needs to be constantly guarded even though it is a concept rather than something tangible......like the Berlin Wall for example was very tangible !.....so , many of the priorities in one's life revolve around family and friends BECAUSE they give you PURPOSE and MEANING , and long may that continue !
Cheers , Trevor.
Thanks Tom for the feedback!