The Myth of 'Stability' Vs The Mandate of 'Purpose'
Why the chase for stability is a misguided narrative
We are conditioned to chase a dangerous illusion: career stability. A utopian state - a finish line where our financial, inter-personal, developmental struggles finally cease.
The education and employment system promises this stability & makes a seductive promise - that once a certain action, title, financial milestone or achievement is accomplished, friction of life disappears.
But this is seldom true.
The Myth of Stability
What masquerades as our quest for stability is often, avoidance and fear. Avoidance and fear of facing new unknowns and the associated cognitive, emotional and sometimes physical effort and pain.
Stability looks like ‘no change’ and that minimizes effort necessary to adapt through the change.
Our education and employment systems were built over the course of industrial era not for human developmental but to supply compliant labor to the industrial and now technological complex. This reduction of pain rebranded as stability is what this system offers to keep human capital captive in a labor pool that is highly misallocated.
In the age of dopamine, and hyper-financialization of basics such as housing and healthcare, this stability looks even more attractive.
What it demands in trade-offs is steep: you must cede a view of yourself as an independent evolutionary being. Imagine waking up everyday and having nothing to overcome - internal or external. We would stop evolving, slowly fall into passivity and lose the will to engage.
This is why many of us who have achieved the so called stability feel ‘empty’ or ‘dissatisfied’. Because the will has stopped firing, and every action seems like a burden when passivity takes over.
The Mandate of Purpose
We need a narrative to drive us forward, but we must choose it wisely. Do we choose the illusion of stability, or the mandate of purpose?
Viktor Frankl said in his seminal work Man’s Search For Meaning that “Those who have a ‘why’ to live, can bear with almost any ‘how’.”
If we believe in ourselves as evolutionary beings - whose role is to evolve and grow through every interaction and action with the real world - we entirely reorient what we chase and what we avoid.
Instead of seeking stability, we chose evolution which reframes struggles as necessary steps and challenges to overcome to fulfil our purpose. This acceptance of struggle and the necessary pain keeps us deeply conscious, engaged and keeps firing the will thus allowing one to overcome even the hardest times in the pursuit of the purpose.
It is like a ship that is sailing to a known destination. It might encounter high waves, but the pull of fulfilling its journey keeps it moving. However, if the ship has no real destination and is merely drifting ‘at sea’ - it might get destroyed by the high waves due to lack of drive to maneuver.
Master Over Passivity
The argument against chasing stability is by no means an argument against balance, repetitive work or against a 9-5 work employment. A regular job or a balanced life can also offer evolutionary pathways.
Consider a sportsman who spends hours and hours everyday practicing the same movement, or an actor that performs the same play over many years. That is mastery and evolution of craft and involves overcoming much struggle and does not ask you to cede your autonomy or purpose. Infact, most often the will and effort required for mastery of craft comes only when driven by a deep, aligned and meaningful purpose.
The reality of the world is that struggles are inevitable and therefore having a myth of purpose and meaning to anchor your life’s story provides much more focus, action orientation and satisfaction in overcoming the struggles than the utopian stability we chase.
Until next time!
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