One day, when I was fresh out of high-school, I was driving on the ring-road around my home city.
As typical, it was all bumper to bumper.
Knowing what to expect, an hour wait at a minimum, I immediately got frustrated. Every inch just added to my growing impatience.
That was until I got to a bridge that spanned the road out in front of me.
Hung on it was a big white banner with thick black letters.
It read:
What if this is as good as it gets?
That line punched me.
I turned to look at the people around me, they too alone, stuck in their cars. Most were probably commuting home and I imagined them stuck in this traffic jam every working day for the rest of their lives.
The image collided with my youthful aspirations for the future.
Was this—the traffic jam, the stress, the pollution, the rat race—the best I could hope for?
Métro, boulot, dodo.
There's a saying in french that describes this well: 'métro, boulot, dodo'.
It means living a life that's filled with commuting, work and sleep. Nothing more; day after day, year after year. It’s a life devoid of living.
And that's the cycle too many of us now find ourselves in.
We're losing our way, stuck in a system that demands more and more.
More money, more consumption, more growth.
The problem is that means more destruction, more mental health issues, more pollution, more depression, more isolation, more stress—and more traffic jams.
Our collective desire—or is it our greed?—for more is destroying our planet and our lives.
We can do better.
You are so much more than you think.
You are on your own unique path.
You may not realise it (or have embraced it yet) but your life is a journey to finding your purpose. It’s a difficult journey.
There exists no map, no real guidance.
We have to undergo the hard toil of finding out what gives our lives meaning, alone.
(In a big way, this newsletter is a way for me to share my own journey with you. So, if that’s something you might want to read, feel free to subscribe).
The reason why I still remember that sign above the highway is because it deeply moved me. It pointed to something I was feeling back then and something I'm still trying to make sense of now.
We are capable of so much more.
We can create a better future, one that celebrates purpose over money, meaning over consumption.
We have everything we need to be happy, if only we look in the right places.
Until we change our perspectives on what constitutes a good life, we will remain stuck, bumper to bumper.