I want to tell you a story about purpose in three parts.
Let’s get started.
Part One: The Pitfalls of Social Scripts
Most of us start our lives on autopilot.
It’s not because we’re lazy. This is because we are trained to follow a “script.”
You know this one: get a degree. Get the job. Get a promotion. Make some money. etc.
I followed the script perfectly until I was 28. From the outside, my life looks pretty good. Deep down, I always felt like something was missing.
I did everything right, but I often woke up with a quiet sense of dread.
My days were busy and fruitless. I felt like I was living my life according to someone else’s plan.
Why am I doing what I’m doing? What’s the point of it all?
I started looking to the future and thinking, “How much longer can I keep doing this?”
Eventually, the emptiness becomes too great to ignore. I decided I needed to find a worthy purpose.
I made a promise to myself: Only pursue things that make you feel like you’re living a worthwhile life.
I started writing because that’s what I was after. I can’t explain exactly what made me start writing.
There was something inside me that said, “You need to write.”
As soon as I started practicing, I gained a lot of energy from the practice.
When I wrote my first book, Win the inner battletime disappeared.
The previous fear also disappeared. I woke up every morning so motivated to write this book that I forgot about everything else. I am naturally motivated and disciplined.
This book was so important to me that I sat down to write it every day without fail.
That book lit a fire within me that lasted for nearly a decade. From 2015 to 2024, I have been following this momentum. I’m writing and building. I have a direction.
Then, I hit a ceiling.
Part Two: Achievement Addiction
When I started my career, a common idea started to form in my mind.
I told myself, “The ultimate goal is to get a book deal with a major publisher.”
This is just a more complex version of social scripting. This is the need for external status.
I make it my mission to get the “real” deal. In 2022, I signed with Portfolio Penguin The Stoic Path to Wealth. This is an achievement in itself.
The book was published in 2024 and has sold well. It is translated into 25 languages. I earned the advance before the book even hit the shelves. On paper, it was a success.
But here’s the reality about major achievements: They won’t change you.
I expected to feel differently. I don’t even know what type of difference there is.
This is a common theme among us all. We have a goal in mind and we say, “If I achieve this goal, everything will be different!”
how?
We don’t know because our minds simply can’t think that far ahead.
Instead of feeling “different,” I felt normal. After the book was published, I felt lost.
I spent a long time chasing that particular mountain and once I climbed it, I didn’t know what to do.
I have achieved financial independence. I took out the book.
For the first time in years, I wanted to quit my job.
“What’s the point if you feel the same way?” I thought.
I considered shutting down my website. I realize I’m confused Purpose and milestone.
When you run out of milestones, you start to decline.
Part 3: The Simplest Postback Method
In June 2025, everything changed. My wife is pregnant.
We live frugally in a one bedroom apartment. If I wanted to be the father I wanted to be, I had to move.
I spent six months in scramble mode. Find a house, buy a house, decorate a house. It’s intense and draining.
By December of that year, the project was completed.
On the first night in our new house, the old “drifting” feeling started to resurface. My house has everything I dreamed of.
You guessed it, I still feel the same way. Of course, I’m proud of what we’ve built. But I’m still the same person, looking for a creative outlet.
This time, I immediately realized the problem. This is the emptiness after achievement.
But this time, I didn’t let it spiral. I sat at my desk in my new home and asked myself a question:
“What’s the easiest way to get me back into meaningful work?”
At that moment the answer suddenly came to my mind: Write a letter to your son every day until he is born.
I started writing about my mistakes, lessons I learned from the people in my life, and things I wish I had known sooner.
I don’t write for an audience, and I don’t write to make money. I’m writing my truth.
Instantly, the fire came back. It feels like it’s 2015 again.
I realized I didn’t need a best-selling book to give myself purpose. I just have to do work that energizes me while making an impact on other people.
Because if I only do things for myself, I won’t feel good. It must also have some kind of impact on other people.
This is often the missing link.
Conclusion: Building a never-ending project
Goals are useful for giving direction, but they are a poor foundation for happiness.
If your identity is based on your achieveyou will always collapse after victory.
You become addicted to the next “high” and need bigger goals and louder applause to feel good.
The goal is not achievement. The purpose is the process.
It’s the process of becoming a better person than you were yesterday. It’s waking up and knowing you’re doing something that matters to you… even if no one claps.
You’ll still hit milestones. You will still win. But these are just side effects.
The point is Work. It’s like you have a never-ending project.
Life becomes fulfilling when you stop trying to “arrive” and start focusing on building.
Even on a normal day.
Well, isn’t that the point? I feel that my life is very fulfilling, especially On a normal day.
