Each year, I kept track of one big lesson I learned through the mental, physical, and social journeys. Below are five things the last five years taught me that no classroom or salary could.
No amount of money or type of status is worth my, your, or anyone’s health. Right after my undergrad, I was lucky enough to taste a bit of luxurious life where I had no worries about my financial future, yet my present seemed like a misery. Mentally, I was way down. I was strong and powerful, at least I thought, because of all the money I was making and the future I was promised. Then I realized, it didn’t matter. When you’re down, how much money in your bank account or how luxurious of a Range Rover you drive doesn’t matter. That was the sign that I had to go visit and see my mother as well as the motherland. The land I grew up in. OR something that brings me comfort, not more money.
Be objective as possible. Learning finance, data, and math, I learned to be objective. Critical thinking, independent research, and active listening also guide us to be objective. Academically and professionally, this is the best we can do to outperform by basing our judgements free of old beliefs and psychological biases.
Be subjective as possible. To enjoy the beauty of life, being subjective is natural. I ran into Søren Kierkegaard during my solo trip in Copenhagen, Denmark. There was a tour that I joined and got to learn about Kierkegaard's journey. Known as a father of existentialism, he believed in subjective truth. First of his three modes of existence was the aesthetic stage. He said, beauty is experienced through personal taste, feeling, and momentary pleasure, not through fixed, objective standards. Because each person’s inwardness, history, and passions differ, the same object can strike one person as sublime and leave another indifferent.
Take care of yourself every day. This was from a series of classes “Self-healing journey” held at the Summerlin Library in Las Vegas. One thing that I learned and would still remind myself of every day is that we need to take care of ourselves every day. Not tomorrow, next week, or when there is time, one can do at least one thing for the self every day. Do 5 pushups or 10 squats. Write one page of thoughts. Take deep breaths for 3 minutes. Whatever it is, just do it for your body so your body is aware that you love yourself.
Ego-work. Every time I play handball, my sense of self gets crushed, because I suck at it. Having a bigger ego and overconfidence than my body can handle, playing handball and sitting on the bench to start all games with, I got humbled by being the least important and worst player on the team. In a recent read, Osho points out that “The ego is nothing but all the tensions you have created around yourself… Self-consciousness is always afraid, always trembling. And you always need support from others - somebody to appreciate you, somebody to clap, somebody to say how beautiful you are or how intelligent… We go on searching in the outside world to find some support for our ego…”
This made me wonder about how relational ego is, just as how relational setgel is to others’ existence. In a bit of a different way though. If a man lived on a deserted island by himself, would he be less egoistic and less self-conscious? Does that depend on his childhood experiences and upbringings? What if there was a jungle with an animal kingdom on that island? Hold on, how about other creatures? Does the lion king have an ego and does he care about how he looks to others? I doubt it. Over time, I realized as much as social media connects us, it feeds our ego so I wanted to be gone for a while to adopt the mantra “I don’t give a sh*t about what others think of me, because they don’t give any sh*t.” This turned into “I want to care about what I choose to care about.”
Summing these all up, bringing other philosophical ideas by Kierkegaard and Osho and my personal journeys, the meaning is built through making and money. Pursuing wealth is part of the spiritual path and is what I'd call its own aesthetic stage. Arriving at wealth is often what reveals the spirit wants something money can't provide. Enjoying beauty is just the first stage, the aesthetic one. Past the stage, there are ethical and religious stages that are beyond pleasure and material, per Kierkegaard. Without immersing deeply into spirituality and religion, these ideas still tie together to explain the meaning behind the making. So, it doesn’t start with meaning but money. Money, making, and meaning. Let’s talk about money next.
On the journey,
~Soka~