Having absolutely nothing to do may seem like heaven.
Sipping Piña Coladas on a beach in The Bahamas all day, every day, may seem like paradise – but wait until you’ve done that for three weeks in a row. It’ll get boring quickly (believe me, I know) and when it does, you’ll have two options:
- Seeking for ever more pleasure.
- Seeking for ever more purpose.
Option 1 won’t work out in the long run, because pleasure is like a drug. You’ll get used to its effect, forcing you to find ever more extreme ways to achieve the same levels of pleasure. And it ends in darkness.
Option 2 can work out in the long run, because purpose is like a catalyst. It’ll quickly take you from ‘having nothing to do’ to ‘having more to do than you can possibly do in a lifetime’. Although this doesn’t seem to be the more attractive option at first sight, it’s the only option that’ll give us meaning and satisfaction over an extended period of time, without consuming and reducing us to ashes (if you’re doing it right, balance is important).
We weren’t born to merely exist, we were born to create. Not having to work all day, every day, is perceived as Utopia, but those who have achieved the financial freedom that is needed to get there, will tell you it quickly turns into Dystopia.
As individuals, we strive to get to the bottom of our ‘to do’ list. As a collective, we strive to ease and automate the tasks on those ‘to do’ lists.
However, the race to the bottom of the ‘to do’ list is also a race to the bottom of our existence as humans. Life will be a shell of what it used to be, when we reach the end.
If you find yourself feeling miserable working on your ‘to do’ list, don’t strive to get to the bottom of it, strive to improve the tasks on your ‘to do’ list so you’ll actually enjoy working on them.
Always look for something you enjoy creating, something you enjoy building, something you enjoy sharing with the world.
Always look for purpose. Life without purpose is nothing but a void.
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