The loneliness of making your own way

When did we all prescribe to the same delusion?

Greetings from the Gili Islands.

I find myself in the unique position of taking a vacation from my vacation—a lifestyle choice I've been able to make by forging my own path.

There are oh so many beautiful places in the world with incredible sights and sounds and tastes, where you’ll meet all sorts of interesting people.

A common theme I’ve noticed chatting with other travelers that are financially secure/ independent is that they’ve walked their own path. They are rightfully suspicious of prescriptions and doing things “just because it’s what everyone else does.” Indeed, these are the people that get to enjoy the fullness of the world at the edges of the human experience.

While this lifestyle comes with many benefits, it is not without its challenges.

I can say for certain that the men and women I’ve met would not be where they are had they fallen for the same scam that many of us have. My assumption is that most people are not, in fact, happy with where they’re at in life. Personal experience tells me money solves almost every problem you have, and those that say money can’t buy happiness are simply not creative enough. Those words are uttered by people content with their station.

I can’t relate.

But there is a loneliness that comes with straying from the pack.

As above, so below

It makes sense to reuse simple design patterns for complex, adaptive, and dynamic systems in both macro and micro environments. There is an order to the movements of astral bodies similar to the movements of atomic elements.

Human beings have more agency, but in the end we are creatures of habit, orbiting the strongest reality we associate ourselves with.

It’s only natural we’d default to following the path of least resistance, surrendering ourselves to a similar existence that those around us deem “appropriate”. This is what the system deems correct, and any attempts to operate outside of the system is to be relentlessly stamped out.

Imagine if one of your red blood cells decided it didn’t want to follow its programming anymore. One instance may seem like no big deal, but the body must ensure it’s an isolated event or suffer catastrophic consequences. You and I are not so different as agents in society. Thankfully there’s room for exploration outside of societal norms without the same consequences.

Leaving the path of what you’re supposed to do creates a vacuum in the space around you. The pressure you feel from family, society, and the collective consciousness when creating your own path comes from the self-correcting attempts to make you fall back in line.

It takes a strong ego and belief in oneself to willingly choose to be socially shunned in pursuit of your own truth.

You don’t have to follow the rules

Every great discovery, innovation, or cultural shift began as a thought outside the bell curve. This is the battlefield of consciousness against the relentless march of entropy.

A healthy deviation from the mean propels you (and humanity) forward.

You can see examples of this all around you. Society pampers and conforms to the lowest common denominator.

Why does it take an honors student the same amount of time to finish school as a remedial student? Why do they both graduate at the same time? The honor student may be a couple of classes ahead, but the system is not designed to allow the honor student to move that much faster. Not easily, anyway.

The pre-ordained paths you see are simply suggestions.

You can move much, much faster. As long as your actions don't border on illegal and risk incarceration, consider cutting through the chaff as much as possible.

It does come at a price, though. Those that live at the edge also experience the extreme ends of the bell curve, feeling the most pleasure and pain. I’ve certainly experienced my share of both, living in both opulence and poverty.

Betting on yourself

You will be shunned for having a contrarian idea. More so if it’s a fringe idea. Conversely, you will be rewarded for being correct about your idea, with the rewards compounding depending on how sure everyone else was about theirs. Assuming you are able to exploit your position, of course.

I think the hardest part in starting this journey is picking a direction. We have the tyranny of choice as we now live in the most abundant time in human history.

The second hardest part is surrendering yourself to the journey; toiling for weeks, months, and sometimes years until you finally reap the rewards of your hard work. And it is, by all means, hard work. A good life is a hard life, after all.

If your efforts don’t take years before you see real gains, consider yourself blessed by the wildcard multiplier of luck.

Despite what TikTok and YouTube and Instagram show you, the work is long, and must often be done in isolation, away from the distractions of others. There is no Lamborghini waiting for you after stealing someone else’s work and rewording it through ChatGPT.

Delayed gratification is a cruel mistress, and I question myself all the time as to whether or not all of my sacrifices are worth it.

In the end, if you feel like I do, 99% of those around you will not understand. You must smile and nod to the well-meaning advice of others, as their words enter through one ear and just as swiftly exit through the other.

Finding balance is not the immediate answer—it's a goal that comes after you've established yourself on your chosen path.

Your own truth will bring you happiness and fulfillment. And perhaps eventually, your path will be a guiding example for others.

Or even more likely, you will fail and fade into obscurity, being forced back into the fold of modernity.

But at least you had the courage to try.

Personally? I will not give in. I’ve always wanted to live a rich life filled with experiences and the ability to do what I want, when I want. That’s what being rich means to me. Naturally, some level of wealth must be achieved to live comfortably while doing so.

There is still pain left

The universe is doing everything it can to throw obstacle after obstacle at me. From close family being sick to personal injuries to interpersonal relationship challenges. The frequency holding everything together is relentlessly throwing its entire weight at me, punishing me in all sorts of ways for not conforming.

This is simply confirmation that I am on the right path.

Ties that bind are strong. Don’t be alarmed if you don’t see me in person for a while. When I am in an obsessive state I tend to spend the majority of my time by myself.

In the end, people might not understand why you're doing what you're doing. And that's okay. The only person who needs to understand is you. And know this — there are others out there who think the same way you do.

Your path is your own. And that's something to be proud of. So keep going, stay strong when things get hard, and be happy. You're doing something amazing.

- Jonathan