The Pathless Path: Imagining a New Story For Work and Life

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What I want to keep doing, such as mentoring young people, writing, teaching, sharing ideas, connecting people, and having meaningful conversations, is worth fighting for.” Paul's version of enough: Enough is knowing that no amount in my bank account will ever satisfy my deepest fears. It’s knowing that I have enough friends that would gladly open their door and share a meal if I was ever in need. It’s the feeling that I’ve been able to spend my time over an extended stretch of time working on projects that are meaningful to me, helping people with a spirit of generosity, and having enough space and time in my life to stay energized to keep doing this over the long‑term. Enough is seeing a clear opportunity that will increase my earnings in the short‑term, but knowing that saying “no” will open me up to things that might be even more valuable in ways that are hard to understand. Enough is knowing that the clothes, fancy meal, or latest gadget will not make me happier, but also that buying such things won’t mean I’m going to end up broke. Enough is having meaningful conversations with people that inspire me, people that I love, or people that support me. As I was growing up, work was such an obvious goal of life that I never paused for a moment to question it.” Jim O'Shaughnessy: We made a mistake and by that, I mean my generation and my parents' generation. The mistake we made was thinking that the period from 1946 to 1980 was the norm. No, it was not! It was the anomaly! We had just wiped out the manufacturing capabilities of anyone who could challenge us. So, the idea that you had the job with the gold watch, and you could work there for your entire career and raise a family of four and all of that, that was an anomaly.

Oprah Winfrey channels a modern spin on Calvin’s calling, arguing that “each of us has a personal calling.” To her, the “best way to succeed is to discover what you love and then find a way to offer it to others in the form of service, working hard, and also allowing the energy of the universe to lead you.”25” According to Taggart, living in a world dominated by total work undermines the "playful contemplation concerned with our asking, pondering and answering the most basic questions of existence". Wonder is the state of being open to the world, its beauty, and potential possibilities. With wonder, the need to cope becomes less important and the discomfort on the current path becomes more noticeable. I’ve come to a point where I’d rather fail as a writer than succeed as a lawyer, and I need to try and fail or try and succeed, but I need to do it.”The book’s style conversational and very engaging. Millerd is accomplished in a conventional sense but also has had some difficulties. Even when talking about his accomplishments however, he does not do so in a way that feels like he is bragging. He also excellently balances personal stories, synthesizing others’ ideas, and the connective tissue. We stay in familiar environments that are painful because the unknown brings discomfort that is hard to predict. We instead stay busy, adapt to our workplace challenges and get distracted by non-value add activities. the deliberate pursuit of a positive version of freedom (figuring out what to do with freedom once we have it is one of the biggest challenges of the pathless path).

Getting Ahead: My journey of learning how to become a "hoop-jumper," breaking into strategy consulting, going to business school, and then how dealing with the loss of my health and someone important changes what I value the trap of prestigious career paths (instead of thinking about what you want to do with your life, you default to the options most admired by your peers). Paul navigates the recruitment processes for various companies by attending networking events, landing interviews and ended up taking an offer with GE. It's important to be true to oneself. The author mentions the blog of Bronnie Ware: https://bronnieware.com/regrets-of-the-dying/

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In Greece, during the time of Aristotle more than 2,000 years ago, work was simply considered a necessary evil. The prime aim of life according to philosophers was “Eudaimonia,” which translates literally as “happiness,” but is better expressed as “flourishing.” In Aristotle’s words, “the more contemplation, the more happiness there is in a life.” Contemplating one’s place in the universe was seen as one of the most worthwhile things to do and at minimum, more important than the “money-making life,” which Aristotle described as “something quite contrary to nature…for it is merely useful as a means to something else.” For the next 1,500 years, most of the world either remained skeptical of work or saw it simply as a way to meet basic needs. Enough is knowing that no amount in my bank account will ever satisfy my deepest fears. It’s knowing that I have enough friends that would gladly open their door and share a meal if I was ever in need. It’s the feeling that I’ve been able to spend my time over an extended stretch of time working on projects that are meaningful to me, helping people with a spirit of generosity, and having enough space and time in my life to stay energised to keep doing this over the long-term. Enough is seeing a clear opportunity that will increase my earnings in the short-term, but knowing that saying “no” will open me up to things that might be even more valuable in ways that are hard to understand. Enough is knowing that the clothes, fancy meal, or latest gadget will not make me happier, but also that buying such things won’t mean I’m going to end up broke. Enough is having meaningful conversations with people that inspire me. FREE THE ANCESTRAL SPIRITSGiant corrupted spirits stalk their domains. Hunt them down with your trusty bow and a little help from your eagle companion-- but be cautious, or the Hunter could become the hunted. Engage in epic boss battles against the cursed beasts to restore light to the land. Dust yourself off and get ready to try again if you fail–The Pathless doesn’t punish you with permanent damage or death. In my travels around the world, meeting a diverse range of people that have left the default path, nothing has been more consistent than the reality that most people want to engage with the world and to be useful.”

Be cognizant about the paradox of choice and priortize accordingly: Everyone on the pathless path eventually needs to develop a strategy for approaching their journey. On the pathless path, once you open yourself up to possibilities and start experimenting with different ways of working and living, the biggest problem is the paradox of choice. There are too many interesting things worth doing and too many places to visit. To prioritize, developing a set of principles to help you make decisions is essential. Virtuous Meaning Cycles This is possible on the pathless path. You can experiment with your work and your life until you stumble into a virtuous cycle that helps you continue to move in a positive direction. By a virtuous cycle, I mean being able to do work that you enjoy that naturally leads to opportunities and people that help make your life better. Introduction: An exploration of the default path of success, what the pathless path really is about, and why it matters A key anecdote that Paul mentions is his parents, both without university degrees and navigating their life by working long hours, or going without recognition of their capabilities for example Paul's mother being the best candidate for the job but was not selected because she did not have a degree. Chapter 2 - Getting AheadEXPLORE AN OPEN WORLDWith no map to guide you, shape your own path through ancient lands filled with secrets. Traverse lush meadows and snowy tundras, ascend mountaintops and glide over misty forests as you soar to new heights on the wings of your eagle. Discover the dark history of the island as you solve puzzles in ancient ruins and unearth long-forgotten lore. Peer through the veil of reality as you use your spirit sight to uncover the secrets of the past and find your path through this pathless land. Behind my money fears was a longing to feel that my life mattered. I suspect this is the same for many, and money is one shortcut we use to ‘prove’ our worth. Yet in my experience, no amount of money ever seems to satisfy.”

In the year 1645, Japanese swordsman Miyamoto Musashi wrote in The Book of Five Rings , “from one thing, know ten thousand.” Ostensibly, he meant that deep study of a particular discipline would give you insight into many other disciplines. This quote is appropriate because The Book of Five Rings was written specifically about how one might be an effective swordsman in post-feudal Japan (400 years ago), but The Book of Five Rings is still read in hundreds of languages around the world for its lessons on conflict, strategy, deliberate practice, and many more currently relevant topics. Making life changes requires overcoming the discomfort of not knowing what will happen. Facing uncertainty, we make long mental lists of things that might go wrong and use these as the reasons why we must stay on our current path. Learning to have a healthy distrust of this impulse and knowing that even if things go wrong, we might discover things worth finding can help us open ourselves up to the potential for wonderful things to happen. Economist Daniel Kahneman found that ‘ the importance that people attached to income at age 18 also anticipated their satisfaction with their income as adults.'” (Note: The Psychology of Money by Morgan Housel also talks about how views on money are formed early in life) You can experiment with your work and your life until you stumble into a virtuous cycle that helps you continue to move in a positive direction. By a virtuous cycle, I mean being able to do work that you enjoy that naturally leads to opportunities and people that help make your life better.”of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars The Pathless Path: Imagining a New Story For Work and Life by Paul Millerd The more experiments I’ve done, the more comfortable I have become, and this gives me more freedom to try new things without being afraid. shifting away from a life built on getting ahead and towards one focused on coming alive (releasing myself from the achievement narrative that I had been unconsciously following). Paul interacts with other people online through his writings and mentions that there are communities of people you can connect with going through the same journey. You should find them and connect with them.