“My life has slipped away, like water through my fingers… I’ve worked all my life, and for what?” -Voinitsky in Uncle Vanya by Anton Chekhov
“In contrast to what I saw happening in my own circle, where the whole of life is spent in idleness, amusement and dissatisfaction with life, I saw that these people who laboured hard throughout their entire lives were less dissatisfied with life than the rich. In contrast to the people of our class who resist and curse the privations and sufferings of their lot, these people accept sickness and grief without question or protest, and with a calm and firm conviction that this is how it must be, that it cannot be otherwise and that it is all for the good. Contrary to us, who the more intelligent we are the less we understand the meaning of life and see some kind of malicious joke in the fact that we suffer and die, these people live, suffer and approach death peacefully and, more often than not, joyfully.” -Leo Tolstoy, A Confession
“That is the thing you notice about second-mountain people. There’s been a motivational shift. Their desires have been transformed. If you wanted to generalize a bit, you could say there are six layers of desire: Material pleasure. Having nice food, a nice car, a nice house. Ego pleasure. Becoming well-known or rich and successful. Winning victories and recognition. Intellectual pleasure. Learning about things. Understanding the world around us. Generativity. The pleasure we get in giving back to others and serving our communities. Fulfilled love. Receiving and giving love. The rapturous union of souls. Transcendence. The feeling we get when living in accordance with some ideal.” -David Brooks, The Second Mountain: The Quest for a Moral Life
“The secret of life is to have a task, something you devote your entire life to, something you bring everything to, every minute of every day for the rest of your life. And the most important thing is, it must be something you cannot possibly do.” -Henry Moore
“You are never too old to set another goal or to dream a new dream.” -C.S. Lewis
“People don’t stop growing because they got old, but because they started to listen to their inner voice telling them that life was good enough as it is. There is a big difference between gratitude and getting complacent. You have one shot at living a great life, take some risks.” -Orange Book
That dissatisfaction you feel is actually a gift. Especially if you’re older. It’s energy and the fuel you need to avoid what is even worse, which is complacency.
Use the gift.
Remind yourself that you have the wisdom of age and experience to properly channel that energy into the things that really matter. Which are:
Meaningful work.
Meaningful relationships and community.
Making your art (i.e. your passion project) in service of others.
This time around, you’ll be scaling the right mountain.
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