Beeline to your Ideal Life

So I think that all of us have an ideal life. We all have this vision of what we think is going to make us happy, what scenario, what environment, what context, what belongings are going to make us the actualized version of ourselves. For you, it may be a penthouse in Miami. For others, it may be, you know, a boat on the bay, you know, with some nice turf behind you and some beautiful trees and a bird in your yard. Whatever it is, the most important thing that you can do is is to hack your way to getting that as soon as physically possible, right? Because the last thing you wanna do is wait until you're 50 years old or 60 years old, you retire from your job that you've been grinding away at for the last 4 decades because you had this ideal in mind, only to get there and realize that it's not everything. I've heard this so many times, right? The guy that works his ass off, he's a regional bank manager at Wells Fargo, he's absolutely cooking for 40 years, 50 years, he hates it, but he embraces the grind because he has this ideal of one day surfing or sailing across the world in his 40-footer sailboat by himself, maybe with his wife. Anyway, he retires, he gets his pension, he does whatever, he puts all of his money into this boat, he gets on the boat, 2 weeks in, he's miserable, he hates it, he gets seasick. He had no idea that he got seasick. How miserable of a life would that be if you work your ass off your entire life only to get to the end and realize that you were chasing the wrong goals. Well, there's an easy hack to this, right? There's an easy workaround, and all it takes is a little bit of creativity, and it takes a little bit of testicular fortitude. That is simply finding the fastest path to, like, getting whatever you want out of life. So a perfect example for me is, like, I always thought that I would be happiest just living on a beach in a foreign country, driving a dirt bike, having a few tattoos, having a mullet, spearfishing, surfing, doing all of that fun stuff. Right? I beelined to that immediately after graduating college. The second I graduated college, I optimized everything to do that. And don't get me wrong, it was awesome. It was the coolest thing ever. Like, I'm very glad that I was able to unlock that lifestyle. But I very quickly realized that this wasn't everything. In my head, it was all— it was the end-all be-all, right? That was the goal of goals. But I accomplished it in like 6 months, and that was such a big relief because it's like, oh cool, this is great, it's awesome, but it's not everything. So I can check it off. It no longer takes up mental space. You need to do the same thing. Otherwise, you're going to sit there and you're going to ruminate, man, if only I get this BMW M4, that's when I'll be really happy. And you think about it all day, takes up all your headspace. I can't be happy until, right? There's always the ultimatum. It's not until I get this M4. Well, go rent the M4, even if it's like quite expensive, even if it's outside of your spending range, rent it to A, realize that, oh yeah, this was actually everything I needed to be happy. Now I have the motivation to sustain it. Or two, what's more likely, you're going to realize that it's not everything and it's cool, but that's that. So you want to do that. You want to just do that over and over and over again and embrace it and enjoy it, right? Okay, cool. This isn't what's going to make me happy, but what about this next thing? Instead of being like, no, I'm not going to chase it, just go get it, right? Maybe it's a girlfriend. Maybe it's, you know, getting in shape. Go do it as fast as possible and be creative. Work smart. Don't just work hard. You have to think, what is the easiest path to me getting to this life? What is the path that I can create on my own that maybe other people haven't done yet, right? That will make me quicker, faster, better, less work, less effort. More output. So do that, do that ad infinitum. I know there's things that you guys believe with all your heart will make you happy, but you need to get everything that you've ever wanted to realize that it's not all that. And then, and only then, can you open up the door to these deeper levels of purpose, these deeper level pursuits that are truly going to bring fulfillment. And that's what you should be chasing, is fulfillment, a life well-lived. Not happiness, right? Not hedonic pleasures, because happiness is fleeting. It is not a good goal or objective. The things required to live a fulfilling life will not always make you happy, right? They're gonna be tough. They're gonna be difficult, boring, tedious, monotonous. But you got to plow through. And the best way to plow through all the monotony of life is to gamify everything. You are a character in a video game. Now, that is a story for another time. But this should be your objective for the week, for the month, for the year. Sit down, set 10 minutes and a timer, and go through— like, do some mental you know, mental janitorial work and identify all the things that you tell yourself will make you happy. Then go get them. And then you'll realize that that's not the case. And then you can move on. And that's the beautiful thing. Or you will realize that those are what make you happy and you won. Doubt it, but it's worth it anyway. Godspeed, guys.