Journey > Destination : "Successful" Is A Dumb Myth

Today’s masses seem obsessed with destinations. Point Bs. The light at the end of the tunnel. The summit of the mountain. The climax of the story. The moment the hero slays the Serpent.

Strangely enough, life has little to no destinations to offer. Precisely, none. The universe in it’s totality—the stars, planets, blackholes, cosmic clouds, supernovae—is a journey.

The Journey Law

If the stereotypical smart person—glasses, lab coat, stethoscope and all—told you the laws of physics don’t apply to them, you’d deem them crazy. Out of their mind. Who can disagree with Isaac Newton’s apple calculations?!

Akin to the force of gravity which governs cosmical bodies and time, we can’t disagree with the eternal nature of pursuits. Call it the Journey Law. Believe me, we’d be mad to fight it.

The Journey Law states: everything in the universe is a journey, destinations are a myth. Let me explain.

The destination? Pleasure, ecstasy, and escapism. The solution? Drugs, alcohol, junk food, bingeing entertainment, and/or painkillers. The dose shakes up your brain and gets you your effects. Awesome.

Wanna Go There?

Your destination? Money, public recognition, and power. The answer? A ruthless climb of the business or career ladder, pulling competitors’ legs and maniacally watching them fall. Money buys you attention, and attention brings power. Great.

Your destination? Weight loss and/or muscle gain, an attractive body, and sympathy from the opposite sex. The response? A meticulous dietary and exercise regimen to get you fitting in those jeans. You get your recognition. Enjoy.

As we glide away from instant gratification, it’s growing tougher to imagine a destination, not mentioning living one. Do you see how Point B is a Siren? A mythological creature dying to enchant you and tear you to shreds.

Destinations don’t work. The drugs, alcohol, junk food, bingeing, and painkillers run out. The money, public recognition, and power ceases to suffice. The lower number on your bathroom scale, abs, and attraction satisfies others, not you. What then?

You Can’t Stop

Correct. The syringes, bottles, orders, shows, and pills keep coming. The insane work hours, chase for popularity, and ego are ever-enlarging. Body dysmorphia deems you a damn beanbag, despite your Lego-shaped abs and picture-book diet.

As the Journey Law told us, it’s an endless chain. You reach ‘The End’, and another movie gets thrown at you. Your dose gets excreted, and you’re reaching for a bigger one. Your eight figure portfolio, prostitutes, and bright-red supercar don’t stop you from working days and nights.

Pleasures are the closest to being Point Bs. The greasy McDonalds burger, the pill, the Netflix show. Yet even these, as if by some chemical reaction, metamorphosize into journeys. More grease, more chemicals, more movies, more…!

Pursuits are more obviously infinite. What, you’re going to be healthy sometimes? You’re going to meditate—until what happens exactly? You’re building muscle and plan to forget the gym afterward? What?

No Expiry Date

See? The dance of life never ceases. Success, health, wealth, nutrition, body composition, pleasure, passion, purpose, happiness—there’s no ‘End’. There’s no light, no Point B, no money, and no goal with an end.

You dig those ice picks and crampons in, and step after step, climb your mountain. The snowclad summit welcomes you. What then?

What does success feel like? Does a colossal wave of ecstasy come upon your body, sending shivers down your spine, filling you with eternal contentment? No. Nothing happens. Nothing changes—the work, life, business, gym sessions, or syringe is identical. Except…

From the freezing mountaintop you see, smell, or sense something in the distance. A bigger, colder, higher mountain. Your next climb.

Curse Or Blessing?

If we weren’t always in search of better, faster, and easier, we’d have remained hunter-gatherers with spears and campfire rituals and s**t. If we lacked the next-mountain outlook, we wouldn’t be sending rovers to Mars. Thank goodness we are. Worship the Journey Law!

Yet, we’re left with an unsolved situation. Does this mean humanity is bound to be in an eternal rat race? Should we just collapse on the recliner and give up? To be, or not to be?

Hamlet won’t tell us… Though, no—the recliner can wait. Thinking the Journey Law strips humanity of happiness is a fallacy. The journey is the largest source of joy, pleasure, contentment, and eventual happiness.

De facto, humans evolved to value the journey. How else could we have gone out on long, gruesome hunts, with no guaranteed reward? Our dopaminergic circuitry rewards us during the chase. The hunger, the drive, the motivation—that’s your dopamine.

The Search For Happiness

Oddly, when the thing we’ve been enthusiastically waiting for comes, it’s not as pleasing as the wait. Yes, standing in line at the deli outdoes your sandwich. Yes, decorating the home outdoes your Christmas dinner. This isn’t philosophy, it’s biology. Blame human evolution.

Or, don’t. The fact that we garner happiness and experience from the climb, the journey, the wait, the work, the flight, the drive, the argument, the whatever, is inspiring. Nothing worthwhile is immediately gratifying—business, writing, education, meditation, nutrition, exercise.

Why not make the most of your ceaseless train ride? The key to a satisfying personal and work life is a mix of discipline, adversity, and alignment. Missteps, failures, obstacles, drowsy mornings, burdensome meditations, annoying diets, these shape you.

Every event, like a cassette, forms your story. Hence those who climb Mt. Everest remember their ascent more than the summit. Hence the wealthy investors, successful inventors, and pioneering artists remember their rough cutscenes, with the world and their mind stacked against them, not their accomplishments.

My Two Pence

Which is to say the actions, events, decisions, and steps you take today, contribute to who you become tomorrow. Are you living a life you’d continue living if money were no obstacle? What if you did that and took that step? What would your life look like two, five, ten years from now, had you started today?

You’re here. A woman suffered excruciating pain to place you here. The clock is ticking—your 80 year, 1,000 month, 4,000 week life is running away. Don’t let your days disintegrate. Enjoy the ride. The ride is all there is.