II. You must EMBRACE the crude realities of LIFE; its ups and downs

i. E NTERTAINING oneself with fantastic ideals becomes the norm. A time will come when one will figure out what exactly to do with one’s LIFE. In the meantime, maintaining the freedom to do as one wishes and go where one pleases becomes the main motivation.

ii. M AJORITY in the population, however, react the opposite way: Frightened of the chaos, they quickly opt for a career that is practical and lucrative, hopefully related to some of their interests, but not necessarily.

iii. B URDENED by the swift flux of events, they settle on an intimate relationship. They may even continue to cling to their parents. What motivates them is to somehow establish the stability that is so hard to find in this world.

iv. R ENDERED somehow helpless, both paths, tend to lead to some problems further down the road. In the first case, trying so many things out, they never really develop solid skills in one particular area.

v. A LWAYS restless, they find it hard to focus on a specific activity for too long because they are so used to flitting around and distracting themselves, which makes it doubly hard to learn new skills if they want to. Because of this their career possibilities begin to narrow.

vi. C ONTINUALLY, they become trapped into moving from one job to another. They might now want a relationship that lasts, but they have not developed the tolerance for compromise, and they cannot help but bristle at the restrictions to their freedom that a lasting relationship will represent. Although they might not like to admit it to themselves, their freedom can begin to wear on them.

vii. E NCROACHED in their percepts, in the second case, the career they committed to in their twenties might begin to feel a bit lifeless in their thirties. They chose it for practical purposes, and it has little connection to what actually interests them in LIFE. It begins to feel like just a job. Their minds disengage from the work.

III. Seek to DEVELOP vital shock-absorbers to ride in LIFE’s tough terrains

i. D OWN the line, that smorgasbord of opportunities in the modern world begins to tempt them as they reach midlife. Perhaps they need some new, exciting career or relationship or adventure. In either case, they do what they can to manage their frustrations. But as the years go by, they start to experience bouts of pain that they cannot deny or repress. They are generally unaware of the source of their discomfort — the lack of purpose and true direction in their lives.

ii. E XISTENTIALLY, this pain comes in several forms. They feel increasingly bored. Not really engaged in their work, they turn to various distractions to occupy their restless minds. But by the law of diminishing returns, they need to continually find new and stronger forms of diversion — the latest trend in entertainment, travel to an exotic location, a new guru or cause to follow, hobbies that are taken up and abandoned quickly, addictions of all kinds.

iii. V ERILY, only when they are alone or in down moments do they actually experience the chronic boredom that motivates many of their actions and eats away at them. They feel increasingly insecure. We all have dreams and a sense of our own potential. If we have wandered aimlessly through LIFE or gone astray, we begin to become aware of the discrepancy between our dreams and reality. We have no solid accomplishments. We feel envious of those who do.

iv. E NNERVATED thus, their ego becomes brittle, placing them in a trap. They are too fragile to take criticism. Learning requires an admission that one does not know things and need to improve, but they feel too insecure to admit this, and so their ideas become set and their skills stagnate. They cover this up with an air of certainty and strong opinions, or moral superiority, but the underlying insecurity cannot be shaken.

v. L EFT, right and center, they often feel anxious and stressed but are never quite certain as to why. LIFE involves inevitable obstacles and difficulties, but they have spent much of their time trying to avoid anything painful. Perhaps they did not take on responsibilities that would open them to failure.

vi. O N various occasions, they steered clear of tough choices and stressful situations. But then they crop up in the present — they are forced to finish something by a deadline, or they suddenly become ambitious and want to realise a dream of theirs. They have not learned in the past how to handle such situations, and the anxiety and stress overwhelm them. Their avoidance leads to a low-grade, continual anxiety.

vii. P REY to negative emotions, they finally, feel depressed. All of us want to believe that there is some purpose and meaning to our LIFE, that we are connected to something larger than ourselves. We want to feel some weight and significance to what we have done. Without that conviction, we experience an emptiness and depression that we will ascribe to other factors.

IV. Endeavour to IMPROVE your pace in this fast-evolving world

i. I LLUMINATION in worldly affairs, comes from steering away from the lure of false purposes. The gravitational pull we feel toward finding a purpose comes from two elements in human nature. In the first instance, unable to rely on instincts as other animals do, we require some means of having a sense of direction, a way to guide and restrict our behaviour.

ii. M ORTALITY awareness marks the second instance. We humans are aware of our puniness as individuals in a world with billions of others in a vast universe. We know we will die one day, and how we will eventually be swallowed up in the eternity of time. We need to feel larger than just the individuals we are, and connected to something that transcends us.

iii. P ONDER this: Human Nature being what it is, many people seek to create purpose and a feeling of transcendence on the cheap, to find it in the easiest and most accessible way, with the least amount of effort. Such people give themselves over to false purposes, those that merely supply the illusion of purpose and transcendence.

iv. R EAL purposes, can be contrasted with false ones, in the following way: The real purpose comes from within. It is an idea, a calling, a sense of mission that we feel personally and intimately connected to. It is our own; we may have been inspired by others, but nobody imposed it upon us and nobody can take it away.

v. O UTRIGHTLY, false purposes come from external sources — belief systems that we swallow whole, conformity to what other people are doing. The gravitational pull of a real purpose leads us upward, to a more human level. We improve our skills and sharpen our minds; we realize our potential and contribute to society.

vi. V ARIOUS false purposes lead downward, to the animal side of our nature — to hedonism, fleeting pleasure, addictions, money, power for its own sake, loss of mental powers, seeking attention, joining a cult, following a cause blindly, mindless conformity, and cynicism. It is critical that we become aware of these false forms of purpose.

vii. E VERYONE of us inevitably at some point in our lives fall for them because they are so easy, popular, and cheap. If we can eliminate the impulse toward these lower forms, we will naturally gravitate toward the higher, in our unavoidable search for meaning and purpose.

V. Seek to SOLIDLY ground yourself to your natural propensities

i. S OULFULLY engaging our Internal Guidance System, all of the negative emotions that plague us in our aimlessness are neutralised and even turned around into positive ones. For instance, we may feel boredom in the process of accumulating skills. Practice can be tedious. But we can embrace the tedium, knowing of the tremendous benefits to come.

ii. O NLY pouring our attention to those things that augments our potentials, we are learning something that excites us. We do not crave constant distractions. Our minds are pleasantly absorbed in the work. We develop the ability to focus deeply, and with such focus comes momentum.

iii. L EARNING while engaged emotionally enables us to retain what we absorb. We then learn at a faster rate, which leads to creative energy. With a mind teeming with fresh information, ideas begin to come to us out of nowhere. Reaching such creative levels is intensely satisfying, and it becomes ever easier to add new skills to our repertoire.

iv. I NSPIRED by a sense of purpose, we feel much less insecure. We have an overall sense that we are advancing, realising some or all of our potential. We can begin to look back at various accomplishments, small or large. We got things done. We may have moments of doubt, but they are generally related more to the quality of our work than to our self-worth — did we do our best job?

v. D ARINGLY, as you progress on your path, you will be subject to more and more of people’s criticisms. Some of them might be constructive and worth paying attention to, but many of them come from envy. You can recognize the latter by the person’s emotional tone in expressing their negative opinions. They go a little too far, speak with a bit too much vehemence.

vi. L AUDABLY, those who are envious about your achievement will make all criticisms personal, instilling doubts about your overall ability, emphasising your personality more than the work; they lack specific details about what and how to improve. Once recognised, the trick is not to internalise these criticisms in any form. Becoming defensive is a sign they have gotten to you. Instead, use their negative opinions to motivate you and add to your sense of purpose.

vii. Y OUR focus MUST be more on the work itself and its quality than on what people think of you. In this way, you can distinguish between practical and malicious criticism. You have an inner resiliency, which helps you bounce back from failures and learn from them. YOU KNOW WHO YOU ARE, and this self-awareness becomes your anchor in LIFE.

VI. If you aspire to be SETTLED in your quests, seize this chance

i. S UBSTANTIALLY, with our Internal Guidance System in place, we can turn anxiety and stress into productive emotions. In trying to reach our goals — a book, a business, winning a political campaign — we have to manage a great deal of anxiety and uncertainty, making daily decisions on what to do.

ii. E VER moving forward, in the process, we learn to control our levels of anxiety — if we think too much about how far we have to go, we might feel overwhelmed. Instead we learn to focus on smaller goals along the way, while also retaining a degree of urgency. We develop the ability to regulate our anxiety — enough to keep us going and keep improving the work, but not so much as to paralyse us.

iii. T HIS is an important LIFE skill. We develop a high tolerance for stress as well, and even feed off of it. We humans are actually built to handle stress. Our restless and energetic minds thrive best when we are mentally and physically active, our adrenaline pumping.

iv. T RULY, it is a known phenomenon that people tend to age more quickly and deteriorate more rapidly right after they retire. Their minds have nothing to feed on. Anxious thoughts return. They become less active. Maintaining some stress and tension, and knowing how to handle it, can improve our health.

v. L OADED with a high dosage of nourishment, with a sense of purpose we are less prone to depression. Yes, low moments are inevitable, even welcome. They make us withdraw and reassess ourselves. But more often we feel excited and lifted above the pettiness that so often marks daily LIFE in the modern world. We are on a mission.

vi. E NTRENCHED fully, we are realising our LIFE’s work. We are contributing to something much larger than ourselves, and this ennobles us. We have moments of great fulfillment that sustain us. Even death can lose its sting. What we have accomplished will outlive us, and we do not have that debilitating feeling of having wasted our potential.

vii. D ISTINCTIVELY, if you are young, use what you find to give an overall framework to your restless energy. Explore the world freely, accumulate adventures, but all within a certain framework. Most important, accumulate skills. If you are older and have gone astray, take the skills you have acquired and find ways to gently channel them in the direction that will eventually mesh with your inclinations and spirit. Avoid sudden and drastic career changes that are impractical.

VII. To be fully ENGAGED in your LIFE, is a non-negotiable deal

i. E VENTUAL commitment to developing or strengthening your sense of purpose, marks the beginning of hard work. You will face many enemies and obstacles impeding your progress — the distracting voices of others who instill doubts about your calling and your uniqueness; your own boredom and frustrations with the work itself and your slow progress; the lack of trustworthy criticism from people to help you; the levels of anxiety you must manage; and finally, the burnout that often accompanies focused labor over long periods.

ii. N O wonder then, the most important step is to discover your calling in LIFE. You begin this strategy by looking for signs of primal inclinations in your earliest years, when they were often the clearest. Some people can easily remember such early indications, but for many of us it requires some introspection and some digging. What you are looking for is moments in which you were unusually fascinated by a particular subject, or certain objects, or specific activities and forms of play.

iii. G OING deeper, as another sign, examine moments in your LIFE when certain tasks or activities felt natural and easy to you, similar to swimming with a current. In performing such activities, you have a greater tolerance for the tedium of practicing. People’s criticisms do not discourage you so easily; you want to learn. You can contrast this with other subjects or tasks that you find deeply boring and unfulfilling, which frustrate you. Related to this, you will want to figure out the particular form of intelligence that your brain is wired for.

iv. A BSORB the purposeful energy. We humans are extremely susceptible to the moods and energy of other people. For this reason, you want to avoid too much contact with those who have a low or false sense of purpose. On the other hand, you always want to try to find and associate with those who have a high sense of purpose. This could be the perfect mentor or teacher or partner on a project. Such people will tend to bring out the best in you, and you will find it easier and even refreshing to receive their criticisms.

v. G EAR yourself to create a ladder of descending goals. Operating with long-term goals will bring you tremendous clarity and resolve. These goals — a project or business to create, for instance — can be relatively ambitious, enough to bring out the best in you. The problem, however, is that they will also tend to generate anxiety as you look at all you have to do to reach them from the present vantage point. To manage such anxiety, you must create a ladder of smaller goals along the way, reaching down to the present.

vi. E NDEAVOUR to lose yourself in the work. Perhaps the greatest difficulty you will face in maintaining a high and consistent sense of purpose is the level of commitment that is required over time and the sacrifices that go with this. You have to handle many moments of frustration, boredom, and failure, and the endless temptations in our culture for more immediate pleasures. The benefits listed above are often not immediately apparent. And as the years pile up, you can face burnout. To offset this tedium, you need to have moments of flow in which your mind becomes so deeply immersed in the work that you are transported BEYOND your ego.

vii. D ULY knowing you would periodically have ‘deep moments of flow’, and the results that goes with them, will keep you moving past the pain and sacrifices that you may demand of yourself. Look at this as a form of religious devotion to your LIFE’s work. Such devotion will eventually yield moments of union with the work itself, and a type of ecstasy that is impossible to verbalise until you have experienced it.