Climb a mountain and sit there alone for five years and you will gain abundance of wisdom – but will that make you happy or just plain bored? It is important to find a balance. In my posts about mental maps I have suggested that we see our life as a boundless landscape full of mountains. To get what we need in life we have to climb a mountain and optimise our way through life. When we get to the top we see another mountaintop that we would like to climb.
Sometimes the climbing seems overwhelming and we just want to stay where we are and get some peace of mind. It makes good sense to slow down now and then to reenergise, but be careful not to strike root in that mountaintop. Staying on that mountaintop will give peace of mind, but only for a while since the human nature is to strive for something better. At the top we will be happy at first but after a while we will notice other mountaintops that seem more attractive.
We need to slow down to get peace of mind, but we cannot allow ourselves to come to a standstill. If we do, then stagnation and idleness will occur and that will be destructive for our life. Much to often people stay where they are because it seems more secure to stay in something known than to leap into something unknown – even if the unknown is better then people hesitate.
We want security and stability but at the same time we want to be happy. To be happy we need to go new ways and choose other mountains to climb. These needs seem to conflict but remember that nothing in our world is static; everything is dynamic and in constant movement. This means that you need to find a good balance between idleness and change.
- Climb a mountain
- Rest at the top, find peace of mind and find out where you want to go next.
- Set off and climb down again and climb a new top.
This is a simple cycle that will optimise your life path: Take action, recover, take action, recover … etc.
In my next post I will explore happiness.
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