People love to dunk on the default path, but in doing so, they miss...

People love to dunk on the default path, but in doing so, they miss the point.

If you question the default path, the reason is usually something like this:

You have a deep desire to live a life well-lived—and you're looking around you, assuming the path can't provide that. You want something else. Something...more alive!

...and you might be right.

But it's important to remember that intention, and not have it be covered up by projected feelings about society's prescribed path.

It's easy to make that path into an enemy—to see it as oppressive. To start seeing others as NPCs.

Such worldviews are copium for the fact that going off on our own means we're in uncharted territory.

It's not about an overbearing herd pushing the path on you (are they?), it's about leaving the safety of the herd.

This can be intimidating. And in moments when we lack the courage, it's easier to blame the herd than voice our conflicted feelings while we're going off alone.

This judgment of the hert hardens us, it's a type of force that creates the illusion of inner strength.

But the truth is, just because we feel a calling to wander off, doesn't mean the herd's direction is wrong.

There are many roads leading to a life well-lived.

You can take the default path, find which parts don't seem to work and adjust.

You can reject it, make it your enemy and rediscover from first principles why certain parts of it were built on wisdom.

You can do neither, and every step of the way, discover what it means to take that step graciously. To live well, wherever you find yourself.

Don't be deceived by appearances. Two people can live the exact same external life while one experiences it as a prison and the other as paradise

Here's the funny part:

If you're overly focused on what a life looks like from the outside (e.g. "normie life looks boring") rather than how your own internal disposition colors your life, the default path might actually be your safest bet at a good life.

Because it offers guidelines that work for many—even if you haven't yet developed the discernment to know what works for you.

Figuring it all out for yourself requires a lot more presence and attunement on a moment-to-moment basis. It's easy to trick ourselves—or be tricked by alluring appearances that promise a better internal state.

Don't make any path your enemy, because it might just be that parts of it hold the key to paradise for you, and if you condemn them, you won't be able to see.

One major downside of the default path is its key points that are hard to reverse:

Studies, marriage, kids, buying a house, career trajectory. These really shape your life. So it's important to get them right.

In contrast, when you go off in the wild, the amount of decision you have to make are a lot higher. But they often seem insignificant until their full impact reveals itself.

It's the equivalent of personally figuring out which berries are poisonous vs. eating what you're told to eat and potentially missing out on the best ones.

Default path = fewer lifechanging decisions but each one is massive.

Wild path = 100s of lifechanging decisions, but many of them seem small, and it's not always clear until they compound.

What if the many ways you “sabotage” yourself (resistance, emotions, excuses…) are actually forms of wisdom we don’t fully understand yet?

"Effortless: Transcending the Illusions of Self-Development" is a Pep Talk on that paradox:
amazon.com/Effortless-Tra…