Is the point of life to live up to your potential?
This week, I started watching Shameless again (the U.S. version for those who are asking).
I still live at my mom’s house, and it feels like the steps I’m taking toward my future haven’t come to fruition at all yet. This effect is similar to climbing a mountain: despite each step, you still see the same view until you crest the horizon.
So I watch this show, about this family getting things together with no footing, and miss the point. They don’t see the progress they’re making. To them, life is still the view scaling the mountain: all with a top that seems closer than it is.
Yet is any of this the point? Is the point of life to live up to your potential?
To me, right now, there is some integrity in living in a way closest to nourishing that seed inside you, the one that demands to be heard. In the words of Nietzsche, “They fear their higher self, because when it speaks, it speaks demandingly.”
The demands are hard to face, so steep they seem almost like a sheer cliff, but it’s important we face them. We look in that direction for a reason. It is our direction to head, our path to scale, predetermined by the inner self.
So, we can do something about it or cycle through life like Frank, the alcoholic father in Shameless, ever avoiding his woes, potential, and feelings in favor of distractions.
Live your way,
Noah