vietnam road eric kim

Pave Your Own Life Path

What’s a “distraction”? Are there good or bad distractions? Says who?

vietnam road eric kim


The word distract is to “take off track”; that means, something which deters you from going on the path you initially intended.

  • Dis: Not
  • Tract: Traction, path (where does the word “tractor” come from?

Okay several philosophical things for us to consider:

1. Path

First of all, the path of life: We cannot and should not use “path” as an analogy to life. First of all, life ain’t a yellow brick road. Life isn’t a board game, where we follow a single road or path, and collect tokens, coins, and level up along the way.

Also, in real life, there are different “career paths” we are presented with, but what if you want to pursue a career path that doesn’t yet exist — like how I wanted to pursue street photography as my career/living.

Curved roads give a sense of energy--movement, and motion.

But I do like the idea that we should “pave our own path” in life, especially when we are presented with a landscape which doesn’t yet have paved paths for us to traverse on. In a sense, in life we should go “off roading”. Instead of getting really big wheels fitted onto our Jeep cars, we can retrofit ourselves to give us the strength to traverse difficult situations in life. And for anyone who has ever gone off roading, it is way more fun. Why? No laws to prohibit us from driving fast in the desert and sand. And also, the thrill that comes from the unpredictability from off-roading; perhaps in real life we also get more of a thrill by going off roading, off the beaten path in life.

2. Getting off track

The traditional path to success.

What if you are on a certain path or track in life; but you don’t like it? Should you stick to that path, or intentionally switch paths?

In life we are told to “never give up”, and to “keep driving straight”. But this isn’t a good analogy, especially if we are driving full-speed towards a cliff, Wile E Coyote style.

3. Pre-success thinking framework

Perhaps what we should do is this: see the direction we are going in life, and foresee whether we like that direction or not.

Doing a “pre-success” framework of thinking, in which we assume 10 years from now, we achieve all our goals and successes in a certain life path; would we desire it? Would being “successful” in that path bring us true joy?


Start from the end, and live your life accordingly

My suggestion: Determine what you want to do, achieve, from life — and live your life in a way where you can realize your personal ambitions.

DO EPIC SHIT!
ERIC