“The unexamined life is not worth living.” — Socrates
I’ve invested the better part of the past year inquiring into what, precisely, a worthwhile life looks like for myself. In other words: if I were to die tomorrow, what investment of my limited time on Earth would I be most proud of? We won’t get into what precipitated this moment: only that I’m rather grateful for getting there.
I treated it as an inquiry in the most classic sense. I sold everything. I lived out of a bag. I traveled around the world. I read books, talked to strangers, meditated. (I ate! I loved! I prayed!) I’m kidding. Sort of. Said another way: I designed a process of inquiry supported by long periods of solitude, joy and play. It was important to ensure the prevailing inquiry was supported by a secondary process of essential minimalism. The picture in the mirror only gets clearer by having less in it.
It’s been a privilege in all the obvious senses. To witness life so fully. To experience my own sovereignty. And yet when I explain what I’m doing, most people smile and offer a platitude while clearly wondering, “ What in god’s name are you DOING?”
I get it. While my peers are pushing harder into their careers, I stepped away. While most are leveraging into bigger homes or financial commitments, I let mine go. While most are doubling down on disciplines that yield handsome economic return, I’ve gone in wildly new directions where I am a beginner again. This isn’t glamorous: sometimes I start my week with a ‘failure list’ — which is to say that the desired and expected outcome of any given activity is likely going to be embarrassment. I embrace my status as a total noob.
I wouldn’t trade this time for anything. It’s been the most precious year of my life. Certainly the most transformative. It has recast behaviors, motivations and patterns that previously characterized a way of Being that wasn’t serving me. It has shifted my economic motivations. It has realigned my priorities.
Most importantly, it catalyzed a sense of purpose and meaning that had been in my life all along, but had heretofore existed in subtext.