“Life is interesting all the way to the end. Don’t try to solve it, just live it.”
Dave Evans, The Rich Roll podcast (episode 974)
Reflections
Social constructs lead us to believe that our lives are defined by who we are and what we’ve achieved. From the moment we are born, we are assigned labels, and as soon as we develop language, we start to identify with these labels.
We quickly learn that not all labels are created equal; some are more coveted and advantageous. Due to our competitive nature and innate desire for belonging, it becomes our life’s mission to attain labels that will earn us recognition and approval from others.
But herein lies the problem: Life does not represent concrete labels, rather it is the condition of living, defined only by our moment-to-moment experience.
When we pursue labels, life becomes a problem to be solved rather than an experience to be had. This perpetual label-seeking behavior causes us to spend much of our time in the past and future trying to construct our reality instead of existing in the present moment, experiencing life as it unfolds.
Eventually, there comes a day when we begin to realize that we are trading the actual experience of life for the pursuit of labels. And so begins our mid-life crisis.
It’s taken nearly 37 years for me to recognize the emptiness of this pursuit. My obsession with labels has caused me to live in a perpetual state of “not-present” and left me to feel somewhat dead inside.
This way of life has consumed every ounce of my consciousness since I can remember, and has brought with it little joy. More than anything, I want to feel alive. Even deeper than my desire for belonging is an intense yearning for aliveness.
As I write this, I’m reminded of a quote from Boyd Varty:
“The goal [of life] is not a fixed thing but a living creature. Perhaps this is always the highest pursuit of the trail: aliveness itself.”
I am done trading my aliveness for labels. From now on, I will not treat life as a problem to be solved, but a reality to be experienced.
