Thread by @Camp4

🧵How to avoid the messy middle (& build a great life)

There’s a quote that is well known in climbing circles but rarely repeated elsewhere:

“At either end of the social spectrum there lies a leisure class.”

Freedom is achieved through simplicity or wealth.

It's... 👇

...the middle where things get messy, where we trade our time for money, hoping to someday buy back our time.

This can feel like anything but freedom.

In climbing we refer to people who forsake material possessions to obsessively pursue their passion as “dirtbags”.

It’s not a derogatory term—to the contrary, it’s a lifestyle that has been idealized, a noble & enlightened existence.

Dirtbag culture inspired the #vanlife movement. Through climbing I know dozens of younger, well educated people who have opted out...

...of mainstream society to live full-time in tricked out vans, chasing sunny weather and working just enough to get by. In most cases this equates to about 3 months of work for 9 months of freedom.

We can debate the merits of this lifestyle—and I’m not advocating for it—but...

...it’s helpful to examine extreme lifestyles to uncover kernels of truth that we can apply in our own lives.

Here’s the thing:

If want to avoid the messy middle, we must seek simplicity or wealth.

Of the two, simplicity is the easiest to achieve—we have almost complete control over how simply we live and sweeping changes can be made quickly.

Financial wealth, on the other hand, usually takes time & sacrifice, and includes some factors out of your control.

And...

...paradoxically (and for a variety of reasons) surprisingly few who achieve financial wealth achieve true freedom.

Despite good intentions they build a life that is anything but simple. Instead, they end up on a hamster wheel, running ever-faster but getting nowhere.

One of my friends is the CEO of a 10,000 person company. Last week he told me that he originally set out to hit a certain number—then he’d be free.

Then he hit that number.

Then he hit double that number… then triple.

Yet there he is still grinding it out.

He told me that he doesn’t know what else to do—work is all he knows. It’s a trap!

There’s certainly nothing wrong with building wealth, but *along the way you also have to build a LIFE.*

You see, the quote I presented includes a false dichotomy:

It’s not an either/or.

The real trick is to have (just enough) wealth *and* simplicity. This is ultimate freedom.

I’m not talking about living in a van with a fat bank account (although that would be kinda sweet). I’m talking about tuning out modern society’s call for “more more more”...

...and deliberately setting a course toward a life that provides the true freedom.

I stumbled into this through dumb luck by simultaneously pursuing both rock climbing & business for 25 years, with one foot in two worlds. It turned into one of the greatest gifts in my life.

I hope you find a way to live at both ends of the spectrum.

🤙

Related reading: A big part of building a great life is being multi-dimensional👇

https://twitter.com/Camp4/status/1370798715057942534?s=20