The Peak Does Not Exist
There is no state in a human being’s life where you are truly satisfied with what you have. Climbing Mount Everest is easier by comparison because you know where to stop. There is a peak, and every aspiration eventually ends there. You take the contentment of the climb, store it in your memories, and never want to try it again because what would be the point?
But in life, there is no peak. All peaks exist only in your mind. You achieve one thing only to discover that there is more. And so the constant tiredness you experience with life never goes away, because human beings are wired to grow tired of what they have in abundance.
We are always tired of the things we have in abundance. Too much love, and we feel suffocated. Too much wealth makes us lonely. Too much wisdom makes us a coward. Too much knowledge turns us pessimistic. We want something until we have it. The joy of having it lasts only for a few moments. After that, we want something else.
Our lives are random. There is no peak; there never was, and there never will be. Nothing in our bodies or minds is wired to identify a peak and become content. Evolution has never accounted for such things. Neither has psychology, nor philosophy. Even the universe has no singular starting point or endpoint. It is all a random construct given meaning by our minds with extraordinary sophistication.
Do not fret over what you couldn’t achieve. It is pointless if you do, and pointless if you don’t. There are people in our lives we have to take care of. You don’t need a lot for that. Everything else is you mimicking someone else’s desires. You need nothing; you want it because you want to play the status game with someone else. You want to feel better by possessing things that others approve of.
The cold, hard truth is that even if you die having spent every single penny on yourself, there will be nothing wrong with that. Just as there will be nothing wrong if you leave a vast estate behind for your children. Their opinions will be shaped by the lives they go on to live. It will have no impact on yours, because yours would have ended.
We grow tired of the things we have in abundance because we were never wired for contentment. We are wired for the rush of achievement. Whatever you think is worthy will make you happy, regardless of what the world thinks. Do not worry about the minor details. There is no peak to climb. There is only a life to live, as best as you can.