Logging in 10,000 Hours Before Finding Your Purpose

[soos_mite_ah]

Is it possible to have already invested a couple thousand hours into a craft without realizing that it's your purpose? Is that how our strengths manifest?  Or does the 10,000 hour rule start over when you actually commit to your life purpose? 

[Yarco]

I'd say yes it's possible

In the life purpose course, at one point I think you're asked to look back over the kinds of activities you enjoyed doing growing up, and that you do in your spare time. Somebody may have sunk thousands of hours into jewelery-making without realizing that it's their life purpose.

Sometimes your life purpose is super obvious and you feel like an idiot once you realize it, because it's been in front of you the entire time.

[tatsumaru]

1 hour ago, Yarco said:

I'd say yes it's possible

In the life purpose course, at one point I think you're asked to look back over the kinds of activities you enjoyed doing growing up, and that you do in your spare time. Somebody may have sunk thousands of hours into jewelery-making without realizing that it's their life purpose.

Sometimes your life purpose is super obvious and you feel like an idiot once you realize it, because it's been in front of you the entire time.

While it is possible to not realize that you were doing your purpose your whole life, especially if you are doing it as a hobby or on the side I would like to warn you about a similar sounding paradigm which in my opinion is super toxic. This is the message of a book called ' So good they can't ignore you '. Basically it says there's no life purpose and you are going to become passionate about anything that you become a master at.

So basically to pick anything at random and grind at it and suffer through boredom on the off-chance that this thing that you currently hate will suddenly become the love of your life when you reach some imaginary tipping point in the future. How many people do you know which did the same thing their whole lives and still hate it?

I completely DISAGREE with most in this book.
That's like saying it's okay to start a relationship with anyone whether you are attracted to them or not, whether you like them or not because if you keep trying to fall in love with them eventually it will work. It's pure madness. And it's inhumane, asking you to ignore your own feelings etc.

One main reason why people overlook their purposes is because they have limiting beliefs about what is possible and what isn't.
If everything was possible which movie would you want your life to be like? This might hold a clue to whether you are currently on the most exciting track or not.

[Leo Gura]

Sure it's possible. And in fact common

I invested 1000s of hours into philosophy and existential contemplation in my teens and 20s before I realized that that is my LP. And all that early experience was foundational to my current success. So it definitely counted. In fact, I would say it counted extra much because the first 1000 hours are the hardest. It's nice to have it over with.

[soos_mite_ah]

10 hours ago, tatsumaru said:

Basically it says there's no life purpose and you are going to become passionate about anything that you become a master at.

So basically to pick anything at random and grind at it and suffer through boredom on the off-chance that this thing that you currently hate will suddenly become the love of your life when you reach some imaginary tipping point in the future. How many people do you know which did the same thing their whole lives and still hate it?

Yeah I have experience with this. To a certain extent it's true but it isn't the most sustainable in the long run especially when you run into challenges. For me personally, my parents wanted me to get into math so that I would want to pursue a STEM career or something technical. They made me practice a lot from a young age and I basically went through my entire education thinking I liked math when really I just liked that I was good at math. I got to college and I started taking more math heavy courses for my finance major and I realized that when I don't get the gratification of getting math right away, I become frustrated and resentful of the process instead of being present in the moment and enjoying the process of figuring the problems out. 

That lasted me for a solid 15+ years. I was convinced that this was what I was passionate about and I was also consistent with it as well (always taking extra classes etc.). It took some digging into my memories until I realized that liking math wasn't something that was internal rather it was a path that I was put on at a young age to where I forgot that I was put on that path. 

I think there is some merit when it comes to working on something and then having the passion follow but you shouldn't have to keep doing something even if you don't want to to get to that point. Like you need that initial spark of interest but you still need to cultivate it to a warm and consistent fire. You might be initially interested and attracted to someone but you still need to cultivate that relationship by consistently showing up for that person for it to be considered love. But again, you still need that spark in the first place. 

1 hour ago, Leo Gura said:

Sure it's possible. And in fact common

I invested 1000s of hours into philosophy and existential contemplation in my teens and 20s before I realized that that is my LP. And all that early experience was foundational to my current success. So it definitely counted. In fact, I would say it counted extra much because the first 1000 hours are the hardest. It's nice to have it over with.

Ok my next question has to do with dabbling. Over the years I've had many interests but now I'm starting to notice that they all intersect into a common theme. I've been interested in a variety of things ranging from religion, spirituality, self development, basically all of the social sciences, contemplation, pop culture and more. I noticed that the reason why I was drawn to these things is because I wanted to understand and improve the human condition and that was the purpose I was building and following without realizing it. I think I naturally tend to jump from topic to topic and that I like things that are multifaceted and holistic.

Would this count as dabbling? Do I need to hone in on something very specific (especially when we consider having a niche and finding the purple cow)? Or will this holistic, multifaceted approach help me figure out my niche? Could being a master of one go hand in hand with being a jack of all trades? Because in order to master something, you need to know multiple ways and aspects of doing something? For example, if you're going to be a master at painting, you need to also be a jack of all trades because you need know how to work with different mediums, different techniques, and different styles. 

[tatsumaru]

7 hours ago, soos_mite_ah said:

Ok my next question has to do with dabbling. Over the years I've had many interests but now I'm starting to notice that they all intersect into a common theme. I've been interested in a variety of things ranging from religion, spirituality, self development, basically all of the social sciences, contemplation, pop culture and more. I noticed that the reason why I was drawn to these things is because I wanted to understand and improve the human condition and that was the purpose I was building and following without realizing it. I think I naturally tend to jump from topic to topic and that I like things that are multifaceted and holistic.

Would this count as dabbling? Do I need to hone in on something very specific (especially when we consider having a niche and finding the purple cow)? Or will this holistic, multifaceted approach help me figure out my niche? Could being a master of one go hand in hand with being a jack of all trades? Because in order to master something, you need to know multiple ways and aspects of doing something? For example, if you're going to be a master at painting, you need to also be a jack of all trades because you need know how to work with different mediums, different techniques, and different styles. 

Is your last letter of your myers  briggs type 'P' by any chance? That sort of behavior is called Prospecting and it's quite usual for xNTP/xNFPs. Remember your purpose isn't some field or some set of tools. Biology, math, chemistry, these were just sets of tools created by some people in order to help them achieve their vision. Biology in itself isn't the purpose, engineering human life is. Fields come and go, there was trapanation, now  there's neuroscience, none of these are the actual purposes, your purpose is basically answering the question "what would you like to create" then you just pick up the necessary tools to achieve it. I would say that you aren't dabbling, but prospecting because you are looking for a deeper understanding of life rather than some field to study. And since these fields are almost always bound by the same paradigms you tend to lose interest fast when you see it isn't going anywhere. However at the same time you are also picking what's good from each one and making your own theories and tools on the way up. Fields are just a bunch of biases nothing more.

It's very likely that your purpose will be a vision for a certain kind of transformation in society which you think is critical for making the world a better place. Transformational/Transmutational mindset is the new paradigm of society that's coming to replace the old static shit that doesn't work (e.g. medicating people as if they are a static sculpture not a living system) so it's very likely that you are starting to wake up to this truth and you want to participate in the distribution of this new paradigm in society in some way shape or form.

Maybe you feel that non-actualized people are why society is so fucked up and ape-like and you will want to become an actualization coach. Maybe you feel that the old medicinal paradigm is why so many people are sick so you want to become a holistic functional medicine practitioner and guide them towards the new paradigm that restores health rather than suppresses symptoms.

The key to your answer lies in understanding Maslow's hierarchy of needs and how the current society relates to it as well as in contemplating transformation/transmutation rather than trying to pick some field as if the field can tell you want you want to create.

Edited June 10, 2021 by tatsumaru

[soos_mite_ah]

7 hours ago, tatsumaru said:

Is your last letter of your myers  briggs type 'P' by any chance? That sort of behavior is called Prospecting and it's quite usual for xNTP/xNFPs.

Nope it's a J lol. But then again, I don't really believe much in personality tests so there is that 

7 hours ago, tatsumaru said:

Remember your purpose isn't some field or some set of tools. Biology, math, chemistry, these were just sets of tools created by some people in order to help them achieve their vision. Biology in itself isn't the purpose, engineering human life is. Fields come and go, there was trapanation, now  there's neuroscience, none of these are the actual purposes, your purpose is basically answering the question "what would you like to create" then you just pick up the necessary tools to achieve it. I would say that you aren't dabbling, but prospecting because you are looking for a deeper understanding of life rather than some field to study.

I think this is a really good point that was made and I wanted to acknowledge and highlight that. 

8 hours ago, tatsumaru said:

It's very likely that your purpose will be a vision for a certain kind of transformation in society which you think is critical for making the world a better place.

I do believe that my purpose is to understand and improve the human condition but I know that this is super vague and I'm not super clear on how I want to manifest that yet. I have a sense of direction but I don't really know where exactly I'm going. 

[tatsumaru]

20 minutes ago, soos_mite_ah said:

Nope it's a J lol. But then again, I don't really believe much in personality tests so there is that 

I think this is a really good point that was made and I wanted to acknowledge and highlight that. 

I do believe that my purpose is to understand and improve the human condition but I know that this is super vague and I'm not super clear on how I want to manifest that yet. I have a sense of direction but I don't really know where exactly I'm going. 

Map out the human condition into categories to the best of your ability. For example you will notice that deficiency in any need on the Maslow's scale will manifest as suffering. Deficiency in food, health, beauty, sex, knowledge, self-awareness, emotional intelligence, art, purpose will all contribute to suboptimal human performance and non-happiness. Then solve the one that you resonate the most with and you feel will have the greatest impact on improving the human condition or that you will have the most fun solving. Alternatively solve some deficiency that you personally have and then when you figure out what the solution is you could turn this into a coaching business or an online course and spread it as much as possible for the greatest impact. Don't be afraid to dabble/prospect more in order to gain a better and more holistic perspective on how reality works, don't get stuck in one narrow paradigm, be a polymath.