I watched Jordan Peterson's Maps of Meaning lecture series a few years ago. It was really pivotal for me at the time.

I know he’s a very controversial figure these days, and it is disappointing to see how the last few years have been, but his early work stands the test of time and is truly some of the best “self development” (hate that term) you could get for a College aged kid.

He also taught it at the University of Toronto, which was about 10 minutes down the road from my apartment at the time. Weird.

Anyways, he mentioned something in it that really stuck with me, and has given me a lot of clarity in times of feeling confused:

He said human beings are sled dogs. We are bred for responsibility. Without a sled to pull, we just start chewing on furniture legs and sleeping all day.

Responsibility is actually our goal. Our driving force. It isn’t success or goals or fame or achievement, really.

Ask any successful person you know what the best times of their life were.

I guarantee they don’t mention anything about their success. It’ll be the grind, the come up, the low points, the glory days.

They’ll even give you some bullshit like “it’s about the journey, not the destination.”

Now, to be clear, they wouldn’t have had that twinkle in their eye looking back if they were STILL crawling through the mud.

Steve Jobs says you can only connect the dots looking backwards, not forwards.

But it’s true:

The reward for your hard work isn’t what comes after it; it’s the person you become in the process of chasing after it.

I’ve mentioned this before, but if you’ve never felt TRUE multi-day long flow state, where you fall asleep, wake up 5 hours later FULL of energy, EXCITED to open your laptop and keep working on whatever it is you’re working on -

PLUS the astral realm likely gave you NEW insight or answered some lingering problems -

You’re really, really missing out.

You’ll never go back once you get a taste of it.

And from what I’ve seen, in my life and in others:

It comes from pulling a really fucking heavy sled.

We need projects. We need 1000-sided Rubik’s cubes to try to solve.

Without fail, every single time I’ve given someone advice, whether in coaching programs or friends out for coffee, about why they feel lost, or anxious, or like something's wrong -

EVERY SINGLE TIME, they’re missing a project. They’re missing taking a bite way too big to chew on and having to figure out ways to break it down.

I believe knowledge doesn’t count unless it’s applied. Reading a book doesn’t mean you LEARNED anything - reading a book, taking a concept and TRYING IT OUT does.

HOWEVER, you build a knowledge bank that your subconscious mind can (and will) access at any given time, to deal with the task at hand.

Every time I’ve dove into a big project, my brain has dug DEEP into the well of knowledge, shit I learned 4 or 5 years ago, in vivid detail, and let me power right through whatever problem comes up.

I promise you:

There is truly nothing better than a damn good project. The coffee tastes better, the music sounds clearer, and the world feels like it makes sense.

Zach Pogrob talks about obsession. Brute de Force talks about the mission. Steven Pressfield talks about the Muse.

And all you have to do to start is open up a blank page, and write down that idea that’s been keeping you up at night lately.

There.

Whatever just popped into your head.

I hope you do something with it. You (and the world) deserve whatever comes out of it.

– RL