Balance: Discovering Your Path
Chaos and Order
Growing up in the age of information has made it difficult for young adults to find their direction in life. Our unlimited access to a wide variety of information has created a chaotic environment for our minds. You don’t want to have an entirely chaotic mind, you wouldn’t be able to focus on anything.
However, a little chaos is actually a good thing, it can create new opportunities and reveal hidden talents and passions.
First, what is chaos? Chaos is one aspect of a fundamental duality present in our lives. On the other side of chaos, there is order.
Chaos and Order
Chaos, entropy, disorder, confusion, mayhem. Those are all words I just googled. But also, they describe the part of life that is terrifying. Chaos is where you have no control whatsoever.
You can’t predict what’s going to happen.
On the other hand, order describes an area in life where you know exactly what is going to happen. When you’re in order, you are safe and secure. You may think that you want to live a completely ordered life, because who wants chaos? It sounds good. You don’t have to worry about anything.
You know everything that can and will happen.
I hoped you realized by now that that sounds awful too! I don’t want to know everything that can and will happen, that’s boring, there’s no surprise or spontaneity. So on this chaos and order spectrum of life, where should you be?
Smack dab in the middle.
The Way
In the middle you say? Yes, here’s why you want to have a foot in chaos and the other in order. Order is secure and what is known. Without having those things, you’d be in a constant state of reaction, you wouldn’t be able to plan for the future because you’re worrying about the present. To be completely encompassed by order will result in boredom.
Chaos is risk and the unknown. It’s what’s new and exciting. Too much chaos is overwhelming, but just the right amount leads to growth and discovery.
A balance of the two is required, if you think this sounds awfully similar to Buddhism, you’re absolutely right. This model of living is known as the Way. As you slowly step into chaos and learn, it will become order.
You must continue to walk forward.
Look at what’s important to you.
So, now you understand that you should continue to do new things in order to develop, what should those things be? While it would be nice to just continue and follow the things that compel us, the current age we live in makes that very difficult.
The ability to learn something is just a click away and this could lead to us learning a lot of cool and interesting things, but that are completely unrelated to each other.
It would make sense to do things that could build off each other so that something even better can emerge. However, before you figure out what specific skills you need to learn, first you need to understand what your fundamental goal is.
A fundamental goal is either a word or phrase that encompasses your mission.
Some examples would be:
- Discovery
- Education
- Connection
- Creation
- Organization
These are very broad terms that give you a sense of what you want to accomplish. Building up from that, now think about careers or actions that can be taken to achieve your fundamental goal.
To use discovery as an example, for someone who has an aptitude for science and math, maybe a career in pharmaceutical research would be on the table. However, for someone who prefers the humanities, getting involved in politics to solve society issues may be more appropriate.
It’s really just a matter of thinking about what you want to do and merging it with your strengths and interests. Now that you’ve built a general path on top of your fundamental goal, it’s time do some detail work. Think about the skills required to walk your desired path. A writer may need some obvious skills such as communication, story-telling, and reading comprehension and some not so obvious skills like marketing and graphic design.
The skills themselves are not what’s important, it’s how they are brought together.
Having a fundamental goal is important so that you don’t get lost in your interests. It will anchor you and give you some direction so you can continue to explore. I’m not telling you to micro-manage everything you do and learn so it’ll lead to something. Enjoy yourself too, just have balance.
Hey! If you enjoyed this article hold down the👏 button. Let me know what your fundamental goal is in the comments below! Follow me if you want. Take it easy!
