I've noticed something strange unfolding within me. A quiet but undeniable shift. Over the past few months, a year maybe, there's a growing opposition not just toward modern media, but toward the entire machinery of what we call progress.
I've written a lot about this before - about stepping away from social media, about disengaging from the digital frenzy, etc. But this is entirely different.
After reading literally hundreds of self-help books, trying numerous productivity hacks, listening to self-proclaimed gurus who promise transformation if only you follow their formula, binging podcasts that peddle magical shortcuts to success, and more unrealistic ways to "make it." After the initial excitement, I felt deep, unshakable anger. That anger turned into disappointment. And that disappointment matured into something quieter: avoidance.
The thing that I found - at least for me - is that the path forward is not a productivity problem, not a time problem, and to an extent, not even a money problem.
It's a philosophical problem.
It begins with asking uncomfortable, often inconvenient questions - and taking the time to find out the answers. Questions like:
- What kind of life do I want to live?
- What type of challenges do I want to take?
- What should I stop doing?
- How do I design a life that I don't despise?
- What am I avoiding and why?
These types of questions are typically neglected in our society. A society that immediately drops everything when a flashy new tool appears and suddenly everyone you know doesn't shut up about it - but never reflects on why chasing trends in the first place is important.
That's probably why I seem strange in certain circles. While others discuss the newest thing that just launched, I ask about what exciting thing they, themselves, are currently working on. When someone talks about going on vacation because they need a break from work, I challenge them by asking why they don't find work from which they don’t constantly need relief.
This shift has also reshaped how I think about retirement. I once imagined freedom as a life where I don't work. But now, I can’t picture a life without work - meaningful work. What frightens me is this: Am I working on the right problem for the right reason?
Worth reflecting on:
Are you building a life, or merely inheriting one?
In the endless pursuit for improvement, have you ever stopped to ask: "Toward what? For whom? And at what cost?"
We chase frameworks, mimic experts, and buy the newest tools that promise instant results. Yet, we forget that progress is not a downloadable PDF; it's something we earn through effort.
The real problem is not lack of tools or lack of knowledge - we have plenty of those. I think it's lack of self-interrogation - understand what matters to us. And self-accountability - the discipline to do the work even when it's inconvenient, uncomfortable, or costly.
What if your current lack of progress isn't from doing too much, but from doing the wrong things for reasons you’ve never questioned?
Worth reading:
From my desk:
- Escape from Freedom by Erich Fromm (members-only): In 2024, I read only one book - this one. Not because I’m a slow reader, but because I read it around seven times. Slowly. Deliberately. I sat with its ideas, took notes, and let its questions disturb my assumptions. In this summary, I'm sharing the most valuable insights I gathered.
From around the web:
- Very Bad Advice: "It’s often hard to know what will bring joy but easy to spot what will bring misery."
Worth thinking about:
"If nothing changes, nothing changes."
― Courtney C. Stevens
After spending more than a decade publishing free content, I decided that all my new publications on my site will be for members-only. If you're curious why, read more here: Becoming Members-First
Thank you for your time!
