Inner peace or outer success?

I was tired of going to bed at 4am to wake up at noon the same day. ‘Working from home’ rarely has to be treated literally. Not being attached to an office gives lots of freedom, but it comes with a few caveats. Ideally you have 2-3 favorite coffee shops in your neighborhood (but not too close to each other). Before going to bed, you separate all the tasks you have for the next day in 2-3 distinct groups [0] (one per cafe) so that each group takes an approximately equal amount of time. Once you cleared the last item in your first group of to-dos, you pack and walk for around 30 minutes to get to the next coffee shop. Having a clear finish line brings so much focus and you end up accomplishing way more than in those fuzzy days with no clear-cut goals. Plus, you are ideally done by 7pm and can do more relaxing things in the evening.

If, however, you stay at home, but don’t make any arrangements [1], you get nowhere. That brings one of the temptations to join a company even for the entrepreneurially-minded. The necessity to come to the office at the designated time creates great habits [1.5]. Relying on self-discipline is a risky endeavor. Especially at the times when you haven’t found your labor of love [2]. So joining a company can be not such a bad thing as long as you keep pushing yourself and never stop learning. The West has always been oriented outward. You try to surround yourself with great people to become great. The vast majority of the best figure skaters, artists, entrepreneurs in the world came from the communities of figure skaters, artists and entrepreneurs. The external forces bring results and compensate for lack of drive and self-discipline.

The East, on the other hand, has always looked inward. The oriental poets would burn their poems on completion. They proved to themselves that they could do it. They are different individuals than before starting the poem. That’s the only thing that matters. The athletes wouldn’t compete in Olympics against the others, they would primarily compete against themselves circa last year or 5 years ago.

In the capitalistic results-oriented world the Western approach trumps the Eastern one. However, the latter has so much more depth. So much more height. It can fail and lose at every competition you throw it to, but it will win in the inner battle. What would you choose: inner peace or outer success?

Notes
[0] Link
[1] Shutting down all the distractions, letting everyone in the house know you need some time to concentrate, etc.
[1.5] I’ve been waking up in the 6-7am interval for the past weeks — something I could only dream of a few months ago. I even have ‘wake up at 8am’ habit at Lift which I never happened to check in.
[2] “It took me a while to get it, but the hardest-working people don’t work hard because they’re disciplined. They work hard because working on an exciting problem is fun. So after today, it’s not about pushing yourself; it’s about finding your tennis ball, the thing that pulls you. It might take a while, but until you find it, keep listening for that little voice”. -Drew Houston.

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