Joe makes a striking observation: Kay did the most evolution in his life from zero to eight years old without consciously trying to get anywhere. He probably did the least evolving during his Wall Street years (28 to 38) when he was striving the hardest. Growth and striving are sometimes correlated, sometimes not.
“A tree doesn’t have a goal but it keeps on evolving. The only way you could stop evolving is by dying.”
The fear underneath Kay’s resistance to dropping the external scorecard is that without strain, he’ll stagnate. But the evidence of his own life contradicts this. Joe asks: what happens to your evolution if your scorecard is trusting yourself? Kay’s response: “It feels like being on drugs, in a good way.”
This challenges the deeply held belief that effort and suffering are prerequisites for growth. Evolution is natural—it happens when you’re connected to yourself, not when you’re grinding against an external metric.
Related Concepts
- Enjoyment is more efficient than pushing through
- Nature knows what you need next
- Transformation doesn’t have to be hard