Don’t Mistake Activity for Achievement

I see this sucker mistake being made all the time in modern society; we mistake activity (answering emails, swiping and typing on our phones) for achievement. What we must focus on is effective, meaningful, and purposeful activity — in order to achieve what is substantial to us!


It is more important to know where you are going than to get there quickly. Do not mistake activity for achievement. – Isocrates

The reason why I feel this is an important idea:

  1. First of all, our lives are short. Imagine like you started a video game with 99 lives, and every year, you lost one life. At the end of the game, you die, and cannot “respawn”. This is real life — no matter how rich, smart, or intelligent we are, we cannot put in a “cheat code” for death. Real life is like playing Diablo II in hell mode — once you die, you die forever.
  2. Knowing that (at best) you might live to be 99 years old, how will you wisely spend your 99 years? To be honest, I think you can achieve anything you want during your duration on planet earth — as long as you focus on one thing, and give it your fullest attention, effort, hustle, and dedication.
  3. Assuming you’re not a slave, you have the power to do anything in life you desire. Sure you might not be able to afford a Purple Lamborghini in life (this requires a bit of luck), but honestly if you really really wanted to — you probably could lease one, or at least rent it for a day! Anyways, recognize that you have the power to dictate to live your life however you desire. You have the power to dictate your “lifestyle”— how you employ your 24 hours, every day.

No matter how rich, smart, poor, or educated you are — we are all granted 24 hours in a day. You have the power to control how you use those 24 hours in a day.

For example, let’s assume that most of us need at least 6-8 hours of sleep a day. Now — how will you use the other hours of your day?

Consider how much time we waste on commuting, working at our 9-5 jobs, buying food, cooking and cleaning, running errands, watching Netflix, responding to emails, responding to messages on our phone, checking our likes-comments-followers on social media, and on inane social gatherings or “obligations”.

The sad truth is this: Many of us don’t have any “free time” left to us. We don’t have that much creative leisure time to pursue what we are truly interested or passionate about.

But recognize — you can do anything you want in your life. But of course, there are always consequences.


For example, you can choose/elect NOT to work a traditional 9-5 job, and instead, live and work in Saigon for far less money.

You can choose to NOT own a car, and instead take public transportation (saving you $30,000-$50,000) over several years.

You can choose NOT to buy electronics, gadgets, phones, and devices which get outdated in a few months — and instead, use that money to buy books, travel, live nomadically, pay your rent, or pursue your creative/educational/intellectual interests.

You can choose NOT to drink alcohol, smoke cigarettes, or consume (expensive) drugs which drain your wallet.

Now of course, the consequence is that you cannot do those things. But to me, freedom is the sweetest nectar of life. I value my freedom, free time, attention, energy, and focus more than any amount of money in the world.

And to me the best trade in life is this:

Trade your money to buy you more time and freedom!

Unfortunately this is what most of us do:

We trade our time, money, and our years of life for more money — thinking that the money itself is the final goal.

But in truth, money in itself isn’t valuable. Money is only a tool or a means of exchange — we trade money to buy ourselves tools, food, coffee, housing, and stuff. But honestly I think most people desire to have more money because we think that once we have “enough” money, we will be able to “retire early”, and then finally have the time, attention, and focus to travel the world, read books, write poetry and literature, and other “cultured” activities.

But the sad thing is this — most really rich people I’ve met are just rich slaves. They’re slaves to their mortgage, their monthly car payment (usually their expensive cars are leased), to their children’s private school education, to their expensive lifestyle (expensive wine and complicated Michelin Star foods), a slave to their email inboxes and their phones, and thus they have no freedom.

Growing up poor, I always spited rich people. Now I just pity them.


What if you already have enough money?

An interesting idea that Seneca shared with me (actually with his friend, Lucilius) in which he said:

You’re toiling away at your job, and you’re thinking of “one day” retiring to otium (a life of leisure). But what if you already have enough money to do so? Or what if you have more money than you need to retire?


If you’re reading this, I assume you’re a privileged westerner or at least someone with some sort of advantage in life — either with your education, your family wealth or cultural-social wealth, your social capital, etc. You might already have enough money to retire to a cheaper developing country — such as Vietnam (actually quite high tech, I personally love Saigon, Dalat, Hanoi— in that order). You can live a simple life — focused on your intellectual and creative pursuits; whether making photos, making videos/films, making poetry, writing books, etc.

For myself, I think the apex of happiness and freedom is having the maximally simple life. A life that allows you the maximum amount of creative freedom, and the least amount of obligations to others.


Anyways, I’m getting off topic. Back to the subject at hand— don’t mistake activity with achievement!

Assuming you only got 99 years of life (this is a very generous estimate; you might die in a car accident today)— how will you best leverage those 99 years of life?

A simple answer:

Figure out what your “Archimedes lever” is in life (your #1 strength in life), and best leverage that strength!

For example, my #1 skill is probably blogging. I’ve been blogging since I was 16 years old, and only started to take photos when I was 18-19 years old. I’ve also been using computers since I was 12 years old. So I guess my Archimedes lever is computers, technology, information, and “content creation” (in crude modern terms).

Also when I meditate on all the blogging I’ve done over the years, they all point back to one thing: empowerment. To give power to others who feel disempowered. I write with all of my scars and soul — because in the past I know what it once felt to be disempowered. Now I feel a lot more empowered, confident, and self assured — yet it still is a skill I must exercise and cultivate everyday.


How to know whether your activity is “true achievement” or not?

Well first of all, “achievement” shouldn’t be measured by gold stars, likes, followers, numbers, money, or anything metricated. I’m for the “Demetricated life”— a life where you don’t just judge your life progress based on numbers. Instead, I advocate for a life in which you judge your progress and achievement in life based on your own gut — based on your own self-assessment of yourself! Which means,

When you look at yourself in the mirror, are you proud of who you see?

That’s one of the most robust ways to measure “success”, because 100% of the judgement comes from you — you and only you! Nobody else!

What if I died tonight in my sleep, tonight?

I’ve been living with “memento mori” on my mind, everyday, for the least few years. This means, I only live for today. I only think of time periods in 24 hours. This is good, because it helps me focus and prevents me from getting distracted on what is truly meaningful in my life.

Every morning, when I wake up, and have my morning coffee, I ponder:

If I knew I was gonna die tonight in my sleep, what would I do and what would I NOT do?

And the truth is, knowing what NOT to do during your day is more effective than knowing what to do.


The grim reaper is tapping on your shoulder. How are you going to best effectively employ today?

MEMENTO MORI,
ERIC