Quirkbag

Tag: Meaning of life

  • Are You Truly Living Freely?

    Are You Truly Living Freely?

    Quirkbag Collection #54 – 09.08.26

    “The Shawshank Redemption” gave us a line by which we all ought to live: 

    “Get busy livin’ or get busy dyin’.” 

    We have moved on from that age of racial segregation; their cars are now vintage. But that line still remains classic. 

    When I started this blog, the biggest driving factor was documenting my thoughts and experiences before school starts again. It meant to push me to “get busy livin’”. Well, school starts next week and I never thought I would be looking back at my time so quickly. 

    But there is something to be said about using this frame as a lens through which we make choices. If something fails to add to your life, or merely eats your time, then really, it is pushing you to “get busy dyin’”. 

    How free are you, really?

    Has Your Life Begun?

    Ramit Sethi has this theme about living a Rich Life. A Rich Life is one that aligns your money with your goals and life values, guiding you to spend freely but intentionally rather than haphazardly. Most people don’t do this.

    There is a good chance that most of us are living a lie. We live someone else’s expectations of us, and not who we would like to be. Most of us are tied down by our reality – commitments we no longer want, relationships we performatively maintain, old habits overdue for correction. We have patterns in our lives because that’s the only life we have known; the one we were raised with. 

    Besides the essential life commitments (caring for family members, paying bills etc), there is a whole other chunk of life waiting to be lived for most of us. Yet, we don’t see it because we have never thought to ask what life we really want. Again, it’s easier to put our heads down and “get on with it”. 

    It is not about throwing caution to the wind or dreaming lofty ideals far detached from reality. Being realistic remains fairly significant. Rather, are you choosing to maximise your free will (which some humans historically did not have) in your life? Or are you sleepwalking through life being resistant to changes for the better?

    Where Do You Feel The Most Free?

    There is a unique and incomparable feeling of catharsis that some of us have when we are in certain places. These places soothe and recharge, and just temporarily, everything else in the world fades away. For beach-lovers, maybe it’s walking along the shoreline and hearing the waves crash. For others, it’s watching sunrises and sunsets, or the horizon itself.

    The Horizon From A Mountain In Zhangjiajie

    One of my favourite parts of travelling is being in the airport before departure. I love being in the airport and boarding the plane (this is largely because I depart from Changi airport). Seeing all the listed flights heading to all parts of the world brings this sense of freedom and possibility to life.

    There is vast potential in the blank space of our future, the time not yet spent. The only question is how we will align our lives to feel the most free, the most fulfilled and the most at peace. 

    Parkinson’s Law At Scale

    Dare I propose a thought experiment. 

    Imagine Andy, a boy with dreams of skydiving. As he grows older, this dream slowly recedes to the back of his mind to free up space for more current problems. School, sports, relationships, money and more. Without constantly reminding himself of his dream, life’s banal routines take charge. Andy graduates and works a full-time job.

    With the gift of the third-person perspective, we can easily advise him to save up and pursue his skydiving dream by taking a trip and never looking back. But how far are we willing to take our own advice to pursue our neglected dreams? 

    What disguises as “reality” is our imaginary excuse to settle for mediocrity. Should we ignore or procrastinate what we want out of life, life will take what it wants out of us. Afterall, it is easier to stay where we are than risk what we have for something we kind of want. It is always easier to say “next year”. 

    Extrapolating our procrastination due to the available time left, Parkinson’s law works at scale, with our lifespan being the time horizon. We delay what we want to do because we can “always do it in the future”. But our future runs out. Unless you are Tom Cruise, it is unlikely you are skydiving solo at 60. 

    We can delay doing some things (say, going on a cruise), but others like hiking Everest or skydiving, they can only be done in certain periods of our lives. Once gone, these periods of life will never return, and with them goes certain life experiences. So instead of waiting, we might as well take the next available opportunity. 

    Your Best Life

    Comparison is the best way to view progress, and the easiest way to feel inferior. Worst still, some of us tie our self-worth or identity to these things we have or do. Our society and economy easily perpetuate the false association. We buy into the belief that we must always “be the best or go nowhere” and we kill ourselves trying to “be the best” without ever knowing why. We chase arbitrary approvals and success, only to be unsatisfied.

    Money is undoubtedly vital to living comfortably in any city, but somewhere along the line, we have accidentally linked it to our success in life and a measure of our self-worths. The numbers in our banks do not equal points in our lives that we can somehow cash out. While we need money, it hardly represents a fulfilling life, let alone the best life for you.

    To some, all shiny jewels and gems in the world still remain a distant second to a good book and a cup of tea. There is as much to life as we believe there to be, whether it is the value of enjoying a book or otherwise. Your best life is what you discover to be truly freeing and fulfilling, regardless of how simple it may be. 

    Part Of The Three Gorges in China; This Year Is As Good As Any For A Visit

    Is it a walk along the beach? Or is it slowly backpacking around Europe? 

    We are free. Our time is finite.

    So “get busy livin’, or get busy dyin’”.

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    Hi! I’m Zac, the guy behind this serendipitous, quirky blog. I’m currently on a quest to find out more about myself before Uni begins – who I am and what life has to offer. This blog is my little space where I step out of my comfort zone to share my thoughts and life experiences. I hope you enjoy reading the weekly posts. Share them if you like, or not.

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  • Must Everything Have Meaning?

    Must Everything Have Meaning?

    Quirkbag Collection #52 – 26.07.26

    As children, the system taught us to do everything that teachers and parents say. We played a game designed for us and graduated in the mold of their shaping. Our entire personality or profile is “captured” in no more than 600 words, with several key achievements. 

    That represents around 12 years of life. Where do we go next? 

    The system has run out of railroads. We’re left wondering what this all means. Where do we find the meaning in what we do? Is there even a point?

    ~ The Myth of Time Management ~

    Frequent readers may remember that I learned time management to be a myth. We do not control time. We merely have it trickling through our existence. As a scarce resource, or perhaps our only resource, do we optimise every moment and squeeze the very last bit of utility? 

    Theoretically, it sounds like the most “economic” way to live. Use every second to achieve every bit more output for some goal in the future. Yet, most goals in the future are just goals we set. Most of them are arbitrary and are not what we truly want. Worse still, they are goals we have been pressured to set by our environment. 

    Surprisingly, there is a unique pain that arises from needing to schedule every second of life. As a student, I used to optimise everything over my final few years. The mindset was to devote every second of time to some form of studying or revision. Every moment planned. Guilt and regret were all that hung in the balance. Any “wasted” time would cause an unspoken misery. Sometimes it still does. 

    What I thought was a switch that could be turned off was a habit that stuck around subconsciously. I felt compelled to have everything done with “a purpose”. It must count for something.  

    Of course, there’s nothing wrong with being unproductive; except my mind cannot stand it. Must there really be some reason or purpose for everything we do in life? 

    What if we did something just for the fun of it, with a rom-com-like spontaneity? As an end rather than a means to an end? In an Adam Sandler/Jim Carrey-kind of style?

    ~ Meaning Of Life ~

    What if we did things for no material reason?

    The easy answer for optimists is “adventure”. Yet on the flip side of this coin, it would be “wasteful”. An adventure is an exploration of the unknown with no guarantee of results. All partakers understand the risk of having no returns, with only the promise of what might be a thrilling and fun process. 

    Choosing adventure directly gives up the alternate path of certainty – a “waste” in the eyes of some. It is, unsurprisingly, what made me start this blog too. 

    The meaning of life has no real answer. It is what anyone subjectively decides it to be. And so is the way we spend our time.

    Everything need not have meaning. It can, but it does not need to. It becomes easy to get caught up in others’ judgement of our lives, when we are constantly asked to justify our decisions and life choices. We fear the shame of falling short in the eyes of others more than in our own. Perhaps we should remember to give ourselves permission to do things even if they lead to no real “end”. 

    The greatest shame for those who know, deeply, what they want, is never having tried to pursue that. 

    ~ The Eileen Gu Phenomenon ~

    A real conundrum reveals itself when you live with the acceptance of mortality and the need to maximise every moment for your goals. In other words, the conundrum of having everything when they seem mutually exclusive. 

    How do you peacefully accept that life is finite and that time should be enjoyed when simultaneously, you know that the greatest success only comes with intense effort and time spent?

    Enter Eileen Gu, a recent Internet sensation for the latest in human-inspiring achievements. She received attention for having the courage to and also being able to pull off never-before-seen skiing stunts, while also being the most decorated Olympic freestyle skier, fashion model and Ivy-League student.

    While the mindset of neuroplasticity is a main takeaway, perhaps we’re missing something else. Genuine intention to life. You cannot be Eileen Gu, much as you cannot be Steve Jobs, because you would be fake. Hard work can be duplicated. Obsession cannot. 

    To be obsessed is to gladly devote all your time and life to something you genuinely deem worthy. It’s not a trade, like what we do with most tasks. It’s a voluntary gift with no expectation of any returns from life. An exploration is voluntarily going on a journey for its sake, with no promise that any prize be won. 

    Eileen’s life has meaning to her. She loves skiing, despite the bad days. Swapping lives, you only want the glory without the work. Your lifestyle has become aligned with your “purpose” when you would rather do nothing else and live no other way. Obsession is your life. 

    ~ Drawing The Line In The Sand ~

    How do I know if I am lazy or if I just want to live a slow life? 

    Try this two-part question: “Would you rather do anything else now? Would you regret this trade later on?” 

    We crave the success depicted in modern media. We want to do great things, have great lives while holding onto our comfortable piece of mediocrity. The tension tears us apart. Our indecision to give up who we are for who we think we want to be, puts us in limbo.   

    Accepting who we are, where we want to go and the chance of failure is scary and vulnerable. You subtly tell yourself that you might leave potential on the table – you might not empty the tank.

    Doing everything in your power, relentlessly, for a goal you deem worthy, regardless of outcome, is immensely excruciating but the surest way to achieve greatness. We torture ourselves to greatness. That is true for all great individuals. A burning obsession to do everything and anything possible toward excellence never fails; with words from Eileen Gu herself. 

    But even then, that thing must mean something to you. 

    Greatness is hollow without your sense of fulfilment and personal alignment. 

    Not everything needs or has meaning. But everything has meaning with true personal alignment. 

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    Hi! I’m Zac, the guy behind this serendipitous, quirky blog. I’m currently on a quest to find out more about myself before Uni begins – who I am and what life has to offer. This blog is my little space where I step out of my comfort zone to share my thoughts and life experiences. I hope you enjoy reading the weekly posts. Share them if you like, or not.

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    Connect with me:

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  • Lost In Life: My Lessons From Books

    Lost In Life: My Lessons From Books

    Quirkbag Collection #15 – 19.09.25

    I am officially lost in my life. It was my suspicion, now it’s confirmed. I don’t know what I want to do or where I want to go. But it’s not entirely a bad thing. At least that’s what Jerry Seinfeld assures me. 

    Our search for purpose and goals in life is just about as common as cars with wheels (even Doc’s flying DeLorean had wheels). This simply means that we desire something more than what we have, to become greater than we are now. Being lost in life sparked a curiosity that drove me down a rabbit hole. I got into business and self-development books over many months seeking wisdom, knowledge and philosophies of life. So this is like my culmination of it all. 

    This is not going to be like those ‘advice’ videos on YouTube, because I am just like you, stumbling my way through time. And also because there’s so many of those. 

    Here’s a quick chart of what I have read about: 

    My Life Today (for interested people) 

    After Junior College, I enlisted in the military. Today, my time in service is coming to an end, a slow and bitter end. But, nonetheless, an end I have anticipated for as long as I remember. Ironically, it’s not the end that I think about now, but the start of literally everything else after that. 

    It’s so easy to hide yourself in the excuse of ‘I am getting through (phase of life). I’ll start doing (project) after this.’ as though life is currently on pause. 

    Surprise: it’s not! As much as we delude ourselves into thinking something is just in the way of our real lives, it is our lives. But it’s the way we are taught, moving from primary school, to secondary school, to pre-university and then university itself. Everything is a means to an end. To the future ‘life’. 

    Introducing…the Arrival Fallacy. It’s something I learnt from Ali Abdaal (he’s such a mentor figure, check him out!)

    Credits: Ali Abdaal (https://www.youtube.com/@aliabdaal)

    So this search for purpose and clarity in life is like a can of worms because now I can’t un-know certain truths. And the more I read and learn, the more there is to know and learn.

    But at some point, I just have to start living. Everyone does. And that’s the trick, starting and doing it before you think you are truly ready because you never will be.

    Behind The Illusion of Wealth

    One of the best books I have read on creating wealth is ‘The Millionaire Fastlane’ by MJ DeMarco. And I don’t mean just hiding behind the illusion of wealth. There’s many types of wealth, yes, but for the most part, to create financial freedom, I have learnt the most from his book. 

    He described the reality of education systems and modern work culture so sharply that I cannot help but feel chills in my bones. It’s a bleak future. But he offers the perspective that many people search for, an escape. But there’s a price. 

    Knowing the price of the escape made me understand why it’s easy to follow the crowd and find the illusion of wealth instead. It takes willingness to fail indefinitely, to be mocked, to be afraid, to risk what we presently have and these go against everything we have been taught. 

    Success and greatness in financial wealth comes not from doing what everyone else does. And that’s the scary part. We rather extinguish the sparks of a dream than face the demons and monsters along that path. That’s the fundamental lesson from the books. And once I know it, I can’t unknow it.

    If you have a goal, a dream, then knowing what it takes to get there means that every choice is either one step toward slaying the monsters or running the other way. 

    I don’t doubt you can achieve that lofty financial goal, so long as you really want it and commit to find out just how far you can go. Otherwise, ‘wealth’ is just an ideal. 

    Alex Hormozi says it here with much more punch. 

    Productivity vs Busy 

    Productivity is yet another myth debunked by books like ‘Four Thousand Weeks’ by Oliver Burkeman and ‘Slow Productivity’ by Cal Newport. Honestly, you don’t need many other productivity books because these share all that is worth knowing. We often shy away from the ‘Productivity vs Busy’ comparison. Because it is uncomfortable and not very ‘mainstream’. 

    Being lost in life is easily attributed to busy schedules at work. Your boss pays you to work (physical action, physical output) and feels uneasy when you internalise or think for extended periods (mental action, no output). Everything needs to be fast. Who cares about being intentional and deliberate in creating quality work? 

    It takes boredom and quiet pockets of time to really let our minds work, to maximise our brainpower. Thanks to modern technology, extensive digital interruption disrupts that process. Get back to it, listening to the quiet inner voice. Don’t worry so much about replying emails after emails without really moving the needle where it matters. 

    My discovery of this concept affirms that great work is done with great effort, energy and time, and often after many repetitions and failures. It is impossible to fail if you have one goal and a relentless pursuit toward it, no matter what it costs in time, energy and effort. That’s true productivity: moving the needle where it matters. 

    Happiness Is Real?

    Happiness, like gratitude and success, is not a ‘to-do’. It also can’t really be one. What even is happiness? It’s not joy, not pleasure and certainly not an end. You don’t become ‘happy’ after doing something, at least that’s what the books find, but it sort of sneaks in when you least expect it. Just like you can’t force an emotion, you just feel it. You can be happy, you can’t do happy. 

    Those who constantly chase after success or happiness, being the elusive phenomena they are, don’t really get it.

    Well, life is quite funny sometimes. 

    I cannot say I am ‘happy’, because I am discovering my definition of it. If you can, that’s great. Because now, when it comes along, you would know it. Happiness is, and always has been, such a human desire. One day, through some experience or realisation, I hope to discover true happiness, not the many fake ideals that falsely promise ‘happiness’. 

    Being lost in life places a new lens on the way I judge emotions. In school, I felt little else but the need to study. The hectic days compress time from months to weeks and weeks to days, with most days being rather identical anyway.

    I am in a phase now, called ‘Liminal Space’, between periods of life where I get a ‘reset’ in perspective. It forces me to take stock of life, see life for what it is and not what the school or system taught it to be. Happiness was not found in this awkward gap in time, but it’s where I began to learn about it.

    Happiness is worth thinking about, take a break from emails. You keep looking into the future for what’s next and soon the answer is the grave. 

    The Messy Thing Called ‘Life’ 

    Life is messy. There’s too many things you cannot control. But there’s everything you can choose to do. Napoleon Hill’s ‘Think and Grow Rich’ is a book like blue cheese, it either divides or unites. Some say it’s the best book on success, some say it’s just scant philosophy. 

    Personally, it’s as ‘science-y’ as you can expect for a formula to be successful in life. Life is not perfect math, so why would the formula be perfect? The more digestible version of the book’s concepts is found in ‘Napoleon Hill’s Best Speeches’. Whether you find it practical, it is food for thought. Thank me later. 😬

    Being lost in life, searching for my ‘calling’ (as cringe-y as that is), means trying and testing new and random things. And that has been fruitful across the months as I have read the best advice and lessons from books. Life is an adventure that no one tells you to try and enjoy. They tell you to ‘get in the hole’ and carry on with life. 

    Oh don’t worry, life will carry on, no matter what you do. So if you are like me, meeting life at the first of many major crossroads, learn from others and look ahead at where you are going, then choose your next step, one at a time. It’s scary to face infinite possibilities. Especially when it can change your life. But there is no hero and story without an origin and monsters. 

    Despite being lost in life, I thank William Henley: 

    “I am the master of my fate; I am the captain of my soul”

    – Invictus, William Ernest Henley

    But To Be Clear…

    But to be clear, this is not a recipe for a wonderful, smooth and incredible life. If anything, it’s a hint at a tough, bumpy road toward a good life. I always remember this quote, again, from a bulldozer of an entrepreneur: 

    ‘Just like we measure the quality of a blacksmith by the strength of his steel, I measure you by what you are at the end, not the fire and hammer it took to make you.’ 

    Credits: Alex Hormozi (https://www.youtube.com/@AlexHormozi)

    I have written what I have thought. You will find that there is no step-by-step guide. These are books I have read that I find valuable and inspiring to break free from the system which brings people to ‘live the same 6 months’ for 40 years of their career with unfulfilled souls. In fulfilling a soul, I know it is worth trying and failing every once in a while. 

    I have included a list of books I find worth reading. They are at the end, because knowing the titles first can be distracting. I know very few people would bother reading them because they are ‘boring’ or not for an exam. But after all, it’s just your future at hand here. 

    For good measure, why not have one more quote? This one, I find incredibly timeless. 

    “If we are related, we shall meet.”

    – Ralph Waldo Emerson

    And if I may say so, through these paragraphs, we have met. Being lost in life is not all bad. In fact, it’s pretty good. Because for once, you get to pick your direction ahead. 

    If you have made it this far, thanks for reading. 

    Random list of well-arranged words that made invaluable books, which I recommend: 

    • Four Thousand Weeks (Oliver Burkeman)
    • Deep Work (Cal Newport)
    • Slow Productivity (Cal Newport)
    • The Millionaire Fastlane (MJ DeMarco)
    • Napoleon Hill’s Greatest Speeches (Napoleon Hill) 
    • Think and Grow Rich (Napoleon Hill)
    • 100M Offers (Alex Hormozi)

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