Only You Can Know the Path To Personal Fulfillment
Last modified 7 months ago.
Nassim Taleb wrote in The Bed of Procrustes, that "the three most harmful addictions are heroin, carbohydrates, and a monthly salary."
Nowadays, I only agree that heroin is outright harmful.
Carbohydrates and a monthly salary can certainly get out of hand, though.
I never did heroin, but at different times in my life, I’ve been attached to carbohydrates and a monthly salary in detrimental ways.
When I was 15 years old, I remember telling family and friends how much I wanted to be a strength & conditioning coach for athletes. For a while, I was on my way to doing that. But by the time I was 21, I had abandoned my dream. Instead, I was working a secure job with a solid guaranteed salary.
It was soul sapping–just an unhappy time.
Eventually, I decided to leave my cushy job, and get back to pursuing my original dream.
As I was doing that, I was bold enough to contact the legendary sports trainer, Mackie Shilstone, via email.
And luckily, Mackie replied. He was gracious enough to speak to me a few times over the telephone for a few minutes. Basically, he told me to be serious about educating myself and becoming well-versed in exercise physiology. I agreed. That’s exactly what I did since then.
I was already on that path, though. But there’s one thing that has especially stayed with me since our communications about 10 years ago.
He said, be a mentor to yourself, because only you can know the way to fulfillment.
That stuck with me.
And moreso, it has been exactly the case in my life.
It’s important that we learn from others and their experiences. For a brief time, walking someone else’s path may be the wisest thing to do.
But after some time, we have to gauge what is (or is not) making us happy or leaving us fulfilled. Heck, we may find that we have walked someone else’s path for far too long! Or as Naval Ravikant has said, maybe we’ve climbed up the wrong side of the mountain, and have to climb back down, and find a new path to get to the top. But ultimately, the buck stops at us. We are responsible for making the call, meeting our own needs, and deciding how we need to live in order to be fulfilled.
Essentially, it's being the hero of your own life.
I hope you can learn from others, and ultimately, find your own way, too.
(Postscript on character and respect: I also really respect Mackie for the way he treated me. I’ve personally interacted with, or met, a few other big names in health & fitness, and some treated me like dirt. But Mackie treated me like a human being. His behavior reminded me the importance of treating others with respect and the value in doing that).