Life Ahead

Path

You look at various paths ahead of you, you pick one and you accept the destination it takes you to. To make a choice, you retrace the steps of people ahead of you and try to get on the same path they took. The thought is that if you did all (one is limited to what one knows) the same stuff, you will end up close to the same destination. Regardless of what happens, you are satisfied because you made the best possible decision at that time. You are also a disciplined person and do not mind waiting in line when it is the right thing to do.

Taken in extreme, if you were a twin of the future president of the usa and you did all the same things, both of you will end up being the president at the same time. Obviously that is not true. Therefore, same path does not take all persons to same destination. Generally speaking a well travelled trail is crowded and it attracts non-productive activities like backstabbing, pushing and shoving.

Middle

The empirical evidence also suggests that some paths have higher probability of comfortable middle class lifestyle. A middle class lifestyle is a car, home, vacation, regular work schedule, family dinners, neighborhood schools, community activities like church and festivals and parades. You manage your income and savings and plan a lifestyle that can sustain the debt and future planned expenses.

Goal

You see a destination and decide to get to it. You pay attention to the experiences of others before you mainly to understand the laws of physics as opposed to guidance. You believe that you can find your own way. You may explore unmarked trails, you have an ability to take some risks, some extra ration to survive the wilderness and a deep faith that Lord will show you the path to reach your destination soon and without waiting in a line. You constatntly make adjustments as the weather and terrain evolves.

The goal oriented approach is more risky. Because you do not know where the solid ground is, if you do not have good instincts, you can get stuck in swamp. When you are lost, you may need to retrace your steps back to the well-travelled trail and lose valuable time and be further back in the line.

Upper

An upper class lifestyle assumes basic support of these things is given and one works beyond for value-added and discretionary tasks. You manage your assets and income to ensure that burn rate is sustained and the value of portfolio grows.

Mindset

There is also a conflict between a Leader and a Follower mindset. A leader minset is always trying to get ahead of others and a follower mindset wants to ensure that nobody gets ahead of his leader. The success is a function of natural god-given instincts and training by family and society. When one is trained in non-natural instincts, the native instincts will try to erupt out at different times in life. In a free thinking world, one would know who one is and then try to maximize the value of that identity.

Peak

Typically, when one starts a journey, one is looking up to some peak and trying to achieve it. At some point in life, one decides that peak has arrived and now it is time to look down and guide others. It happens at different heights for different individuals. People tend to spend rest of their working life at that peak until they die/retire or pushed out. Then there are others who are constantly lost trying to find next peak to climb. Those who reach the top are usually content and happy, those who do not are usually miserable and restless. Different people reach different heights before they stop.

The height you achieve is less important, more important is the journey. If a comparison needs to be made, it needs to be about how many adversities one was able to overcome. The start point and end point are incidentals in the space-time continuum.

Individual

So, the first question is if there is an answer that works for everyone with proper training regardless of who the individual is. I believe NO. I believe the right path is a function of the individual when the person is ready for journey. This conversation is less about what the right path is, more about what the world ahead is so an individual can make an informed decision.

Gita

It so happens that a rich heritage has discussions on many topics of our interest. One text frequently quoted when someone is at a fork is the conversation between Krishna and Arjun in the middle of the battlefield. Arjuna was all set of follow a path and suddenly he realized that the path does not look good and he froze and wanted to go back. Then it was explained to him that a warrior is made for a purpose. The path is not relevant for various reasons. It is important to achieve the goal for various reasons. The talk continues after getting him ready to fight on other topics.

Conclusion

When one knows who one is, it allows for full dedication to the goal/path one chose. One can only know by trying if a goal is more interesting than the path. Does one look for a leader all the time or does one want to make a path. When have you reached the peak that one is able to reach. That is the key to have a fulfilling remaining life.