Show notes
The Illusion of Achievement
Imagine ...
If the possibility to achieve something in this world would be taken away from you?
If the possibility to become someone in the eyes of the world would be taken away from you?
No titles. No honoraries. No awards. No praises. No gains. No wins. No losses. No accumulation—of anything: wealth, knowledge, relationships. Nothing.
You’re who you are (an unknown of course), and that is it. Nothing more, nothing less.
Can you put yourself in this mindset for just a brief moment and try to experience what it would be like?
When all desires, goals, aspirations and wants vanish. Cleared away by a torrent so strong that you couldn’t but give in.
What do you feel?
Getting what you've always sought through the art of removal.
Removing, not adding.
Like a sculptor.
What is left, then, when nothing can be piled on. Nothing grabbed. Nothing acquired.
But we feel so strongly that there’s something to achieve and someone to become.
This begs the question then … were you worthless and valueless as a baby? You drooled all over and s**t your pants, yet were adored.
I suppose you could look at it from a utilitarian perspective, where your value derives from the value you provide the world.
And on the other, the less-utilitarian end, but—can’t find the right word—purposeless, perhaps, way. In that, it is your birthright to be valuable. Maybe not to society. Maybe not to anyone even. Perhaps you’re even a destructive force. But something—and I will omit using any more or less loaded terms—put you here.
Did you choose to be born?
Was it your choice to be John Doe, Jane Doe?
Was it your choice who your parents and siblings are going to be?
Which country you’re born in?
And in what period of time?
What then, please, remind me, as I try to remind myself, are you fighting for and who exactly are you proving anything to, and what is it that you need to prove?
That you matter, perhaps?
Then I have to ask, who is this you that must matter?
This, I feel, is the crux of the problem.
You.
Or rather, who you perceive yourself to be.
How is it even possible to become someone you’re not right now?
Why the desperate attempt if a simple logical exercise can prove that you cannot become someone you’re not already.
You can assume a role.
Become a president, a CEO, a this, or that.
But that’s an assumption, not a becoming.
So, tell me, what is that you, me, and all of us are trying to achieve?
Where are we going, what’s the rush?
We’re on a revolving, round (or flat, if you’re one of those), earth in the middle of nowhere. Impossible to define the middle, but let's go with it.
What happens when I strip you naked and leave you without your precious titles and victories? What then, when you're naked before the examiner, and nothing to say about yourself?
How confident will you then be? No longer the successful entrepreneur, no longer the smash hit?
Therein lies a recipe for an antidote to your madness. In this, you would be free to be whatever you are, and no one would have anything to say about it.
You were placed here... not of your own accord, so who god damn made it a requisite to make anything out of you? To climb that hill.
The only reason I see is if the activity itself is something that you enjoy doing.
Anything else is b******t, no matter how nicely you wrap it up.
And the fact is, you're much more effective this way, and in a twist of events, you get what you actually desired. Why? You were OK either way: going up or down. You didn't mind either one. And this left your mind free to come to great solutions without your own meddling.
This is going to hit home: your thoughts and actions MOSTLY prevent you from achieving what you want.
You stand in your own way.
Oh, human, what a pitiful creature you are.
Caught between greatness and extinction.
Top of the food chain, we say.
My dear, lovely, stupid, awful and magnificent human being.
You wonder.
Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin.
And the papers want to know whose shirts you wear.
Now it’s time to leave the capsule if you dare.
Get on the email list at metapreneur.substack.com
Imagine ...
If the possibility to achieve something in this world would be taken away from you?
If the possibility to become someone in the eyes of the world would be taken away from you?
No titles. No honoraries. No awards. No praises. No gains. No wins. No losses. No accumulation—of anything: wealth, knowledge, relationships. Nothing.
You’re who you are (an unknown of course), and that is it. Nothing more, nothing less.
Can you put yourself in this mindset for just a brief moment and try to experience what it would be like?
When all desires, goals, aspirations and wants vanish. Cleared away by a torrent so strong that you couldn’t but give in.
What do you feel?
Getting what you've always sought through the art of removal.
Removing, not adding.
Like a sculptor.
What is left, then, when nothing can be piled on. Nothing grabbed. Nothing acquired.
But we feel so strongly that there’s something to achieve and someone to become.
This begs the question then … were you worthless and valueless as a baby? You drooled all over and s**t your pants, yet were adored.
I suppose you could look at it from a utilitarian perspective, where your value derives from the value you provide the world.
And on the other, the less-utilitarian end, but—can’t find the right word—purposeless, perhaps, way. In that, it is your birthright to be valuable. Maybe not to society. Maybe not to anyone even. Perhaps you’re even a destructive force. But something—and I will omit using any more or less loaded terms—put you here.
Did you choose to be born?
Was it your choice to be John Doe, Jane Doe?
Was it your choice who your parents and siblings are going to be?
Which country you’re born in?
And in what period of time?
What then, please, remind me, as I try to remind myself, are you fighting for and who exactly are you proving anything to, and what is it that you need to prove?
That you matter, perhaps?
Then I have to ask, who is this you that must matter?
This, I feel, is the crux of the problem.
You.
Or rather, who you perceive yourself to be.
How is it even possible to become someone you’re not right now?
Why the desperate attempt if a simple logical exercise can prove that you cannot become someone you’re not already.
You can assume a role.
Become a president, a CEO, a this, or that.
But that’s an assumption, not a becoming.
So, tell me, what is that you, me, and all of us are trying to achieve?
Where are we going, what’s the rush?
We’re on a revolving, round (or flat, if you’re one of those), earth in the middle of nowhere. Impossible to define the middle, but let's go with it.
What happens when I strip you naked and leave you without your precious titles and victories? What then, when you're naked before the examiner, and nothing to say about yourself?
How confident will you then be? No longer the successful entrepreneur, no longer the smash hit?
Therein lies a recipe for an antidote to your madness. In this, you would be free to be whatever you are, and no one would have anything to say about it.
You were placed here... not of your own accord, so who god damn made it a requisite to make anything out of you? To climb that hill.
The only reason I see is if the activity itself is something that you enjoy doing.
Anything else is b******t, no matter how nicely you wrap it up.
And the fact is, you're much more effective this way, and in a twist of events, you get what you actually desired. Why? You were OK either way: going up or down. You didn't mind either one. And this left your mind free to come to great solutions without your own meddling.
This is going to hit home: your thoughts and actions MOSTLY prevent you from achieving what you want.
You stand in your own way.
Oh, human, what a pitiful creature you are.
Caught between greatness and extinction.
Top of the food chain, we say.
My dear, lovely, stupid, awful and magnificent human being.
You wonder.
Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin.
And the papers want to know whose shirts you wear.
Now it’s time to leave the capsule if you dare.
Get on the email list at metapreneur.substack.com
