I’ve long stated that work isn’t the enemy. Work is simply the challenges we must overcome in life. But there is one type of work — your Life’s Work — that is a part every major challenge you will face. Unfortunately, pursuing our Life’s Work is often pushed aside in favour of survival. Discovering and beginning your Life’s Work is the final hurdle to reach the life you desire.
The pressures of modern life make it difficult for us to discover who we are. I’m sure many have given up on their dreams due to the necessity to earn a living. This isn’t due to weakness or a lack of skill. It’s simply due to a society that demands outputs that don’t align with what our soul wants to deliver.
Discovering and realising your Life’s Work allows you to bring your unique energy into the world. By taking care of your base needs and developing a strategy to meet them passively, you can focus on what truly matters. The end result is work that aligns with your deepest desires.
Welcome to the final chapter of The Scott On Fire Philosophy Series — my thoughts on how the intersection of Saving, Investing, and Choosing Work You Love offers you the chance to realise the truest parts of yourself.
The Importance of Mastery
Mastery is a comprehensive understanding of a particular activity or thing. Being a master of something often takes years of dedication at one thing in order to achieve.
Modern Day Mastery takes this concept of mastery and applies it to everyday life. It requires learning what skills and traits are necessary to thrive in a society, and then adopting them. A lack of mastery restricts your options, limiting your self-expression and growth. It also limits your ability to make meaningful change in your life.
There are two distinct pathways to achieving Modern Day Mastery. One is the path of the legend, and the other the path of the maverick.
Legends vs. Mavericks
Legends rely on honing highly specialised skills that allow them to perform at the top of their field. They then use the fruits of that work to solve the problems they encounter in life. You don’t need to know how to file taxes if you can run and kick a ball well enough. The strategy for a legend is to crystallise a disproportionate amount of human effort through their actions, which is then used to solve their problems. This strategy hinges on achieving as high an hourly rate as possible.
Mavericks are the complete opposite of legends. Compared to the high success of the legend, the success of a maverick is more subtle. They are keen problem solvers, and aim to solve as many of their own problems as possible. Compared to legends, a maverick would file their own taxes and learn to do so efficiently. The maverick’s success is therefore spread across many disciplines. This removes the need for them to earn a high income, instead living a lifestyle that rewards creative problem solving.
For most people, the path of the maverick is easier. There are less friction points, and less luck is required to succeed in this way.1 Further, it encourages a mindset of continuous learning (a trait I deem essential to success).
Whether you operate as a legend or maverick, there are three skills that transcend the path you take. These skills are something I’ve been writing about for over a year now – skills that I believe are necessary for Modern Day Mastery. These skills are Saving, Investing, and Choosing Work You Love.
Mastering Saving
Those who master Saving understand the value of what they have. They know that by reducing their consumption, they free up more money and time to solve problems in their lives. The act of solving problems increases self reliance, allowing you to clearly see how to manage your resources. This helps you to avoid the pitfalls that threaten to destroy your ability to save.
Savers understand what happens to those who do not save. Those who fall victim to the pitfalls of life are trapped in the work-spend cycle of modern day slavery. A saver will not expose themselves to the ill effects of compound interest. Their saving strategy allows them to avoid the worst case scenario in tough times. And while some obstacles are impossible to overcome, they define what they need and refuse the allure of more.
But saving alone isn’t enough to succeed, and is only one part of the necessary skill set. Profiting in money and time is commendable, but more is needed. The next skill requires using that time and money towards a specific end.
Mastering Investing
A master Investor is one who sees the potential in everything. They understand that money, time, and attention are resources to be traded for greater return. They understand that sitting on the sidelines doesn’t translate to a better life. Rather, they understand how to make calculated investments and take advantage of opportunities that arise.
A saver may recognise that having money leftover is good. But an investor knows exactly why it is good, and knows how best to use it for their benefit. Using our time and money wisely helps to overcome entropy and inflation, preserving health and wealth in the long term. Investors recognise the benefit of developing multiple sources of income, and detaching their earning potential from their time. And most importantly, they invest knowing that a better future than their current lifestyle awaits them.
That said, investors don’t have all the answers. They may be able to apply their time and money wisely, but without the foresight of the saver they risk continuing to play the game in favour of ever increasing rewards. Further still, they risk having the value of their investments become the only thing of value in their lives. Therefore what we invest in — what we work on — becomes even more valuable than even the ability to invest itself.
Mastering Work
A master of the Working domain isn’t a person who consistently wins “Employee of the Month.” It’s someone who understands the value that work plays in their life.
True masters of Work recognise that they have agency as to how and where they work, as well as how their work fits into their lifestyle. They understand the importance of continuous learning and building communities of like-minded people. A master of work knows what skills are necessary to maximise the value of their time. A worker knows how best to be of service to others.
People who understand the value of work take care to apply themselves wisely to that work. They understand that a measured level of stress and sacrifice is necessary to continue being valuable to others. This doesn’t mean endlessly hustling, rather the worker embraces the challenges of life willingly. They recognise how to use their skills to remain agile in an ever changing world. And they understand how to create a strong self image, regardless of the type of work they do.
Succeeding in the domain of Work is powerful, but again, is not holistic. A worker who doesn’t understand the concept of Saving will continue to work thinking that they must, believing there is no alternative. Without understanding Investing, a worker will fail to transform their work into a reward they desire. A worker who does neither will fall victim to the trappings of both, working forever with nothing of value to show for it.
What Stops Us From Discovering Our Life’s Work?
It’s clear that a combination of Saving, Investing, and Working are all required for Modern Day Mastery.
A Saving mindset offers prudence to investors and hope of a better life to workers. The Investing skill help savers realise their ambitions, and offer workers alternatives and options. And Workers remind savers of the importance of action, while showing investors how to channel energy to causes they believe in.
A person embodying all three of these masteries is someone who knows how to not only navigate modern life, but thrive within it. They know how to save and spend money, and how to apply their time wisely. They plan effectively for their future. And the actions they take consistently move them towards their ideal position.
But if these skills are the simple keys to success, why is success so difficult to attain? Why do so few people accomplish great things, and what stands between us and discovering our life’s work?
Entrapment
The simplest and most common reason is that the system does not allow people to succeed easily.
There are many people stuck in minimum wage jobs, saddled with debt, with little time to dedicate to upskilling or developing upwards mobility. Further, the system encourages ever-increasing consumption, creating food, pharmaceuticals, entertainment, and social movements that get you to consume as much as possible.
This is a universal and simple truth. It is not fair, nor is it virtuous. But there is very little that you or I can do about it, and our ability to opt out of this system is limited. The only things we can control are how we feel about it, and what we do once we understand the situation we are in.
It may be the case that we genuinely have no time to improve ourselves or our circumstances. I’m sure there are plenty of people who fall into this group. Even those possessing the skills to become legendary can find themselves falling short of greatness due to circumstances beyond their control. There are many would be legends – actors, athletes, or social media influencers – who don’t make it In their chosen domain. Instead, they’re pulled into a life they don’t want to live, that prevents them from manifesting the skills they need to break free.
Complacency
In some cases, entrapment can lead to complacency. Perhaps you work in a job that is good enough. On the surface this is fantastic: your bills are paid and you’re able to save a little bit of money. But the problems with complacency aren’t obvious at first. These problems creep in through the blind spots in your chosen strategy.
Complacency will have you stagnate while the world moves on without you. It is the neglect of new technology, the ignorance of societal trends, and the disinclination to learn new skills. Complacency is a dear friend to entropy, slowly closing the walls in around you while you are none the wiser.
The only cure to complacency is proactive evolution. We have to continue growing and improving our potential in order to become the person we want to be. We will not be saved by another, nor should we expect to be. Complacency encourages us to remain idle and expect handouts, and deprives us of the agency necessary to improve our lives. It is a rot that threatens to destroy us from the inside, and must be rooted out at all costs.
Our life’s work won’t complete itself, but modern life will make you believe that it’s ok to complete someone else’s. Nothing could be further from the truth.
Fear of Nonconformity
Perhaps you understand these concepts and the importance of preserving wealth, investing wisely, and improving your skills. Perhaps you realise that by developing these skills, you find yourself on the cusp of a lifestyle that stands in the face of everything the people around you said was possible. And perhaps the beliefs of those people stand in the way of you making a decision that will change your life.
Being different is a natural result of mastering modern life. The average person does not have mastery over these domains, and instead falls victim to the pitfalls that ensnare the majority. The fear of becoming someone different, being afraid of our evolution – these feelings doom us and hold us back. This may manifest as a personal fear, a cultural bias, or an expectation from family or friends to live life a certain way. These beliefs paralyse us and prevent us from making decisions that leave us better off.
Regardless of the source of these beliefs, we have to be willing to walk our own path. Greatness is not attained by being normal. If it were, then nobody would be great.
Lack of Meaning
Meaning is the essence of life, the North Star that guides our actions. It is our hopes, our dreams, and our ability to serve others that gives us purpose. And the easiest way to suppress an individuals potential is to deprive them of meaning.
Our work has been separated from its telos — its reason, its logical end. In the past, the telos of work was to serve your community, fulfil your duty, or align oneself with the cosmic order. Nowadays, that meaning has been hijacked, and the telos of modern day work has become earning money.
Money buys you relief from your job. You understand that your work is soulless, and so your money buys you reprieve from this knowledge. These comforts allow you to escape, for a time, before you are pulled back into work on Monday morning.
The vapidity of an existence without soulful progress will dull even the keenest minds. Forget your life’s work — finding anything of meaning is difficult if not pursued with intent.
Modern Life Itself
Modern life is exhausting.
We are overstimulated by advertisements, social media, and news outlets. The rapid growth of Artificial Intelligence is leaving us barely able to tell the difference between fiction and reality. And the rate at which we can access information is only becoming faster and faster.
In the span of a generation, we have progressed from mobile phones being rare to everyone carrying a supercomputer in their pocket. We live in an era of sensory overload, one that threatens to destroy our minds if we cannot overcome the allure of the platforms damaging us. It’s no wonder that people find themselves grappling with mental health challenges at a staggering rate.
The global standard of living has risen exponentially in the last 50 years; modern life is vastly different to even our parent’s generation. However, to say that these have no negative aspects whatsoever is naïve.
It is important to understand how technological advancements and societal shifts serve us as individuals. It is also important to discern positive and negative aspects of activities, technologies, and ideologies we are exposed to. We have a duty to use the positive aspects of the things we come across to our advantage.
Even if there are aspects of modern life that don’t serve us, we are still living in the best time in human history. We cannot take this for granted, and we need to use whatever boons we have to live the best life we can.
The Great Work
Discovering your life’s work isn’t a new concept. The Great Work, or magnum opus, was the journey the alchemists of old undertook in order to transmute base metals into gold. In some cases, it was the pursuit of creating the Philosopher’s Stone – a stone with the power to create the elixir of life, a potion purported to grant the drinker everlasting life.
The Philosopher’s Stone was pursued by alchemists for centuries. The idea was that if it was discovered, all of the alchemist’s worldly desires would be met. Money would be no object, and nor would time. The existence of the Stone would solve all of life’s problems.
And so the question became: how would one attempt to find it?
Solve et Coagula
The simple thought was that the Philosopher’s Stone was not something to be “discovered” in the traditional sense. It was something to be created.
Solve et Coagula, or “dissolve and coagulate”, was an alchemical process of breaking down components to their raw essence and combining them in a new, reassembled form. This occured over 4 stages:
- Nigredo or blackening: the dissolution or decay of the base components, often through cooking or burning;
- Albedo or whitening: the purification of components, through cleansing and rinsing;
- Citrinitas or yellowing: the blending of components, through mixing and refinement;
- Rubedo or reddening: the integration of the components, and completion of the alchemical process.
The alchemists were masters of transformation. They would putrefy and purify the aspects of reality they wished to transform, before recombining them as a greater form than the sum of their parts. They sought to understand the makeup of each base element, and used this knowledge to inform their alchemical practices. While the alchemists were never able to create true gold and never discovered an elixir of life, the methodology and frameworks they left behind offer more benefits to humanity then artificial gold ever could.
Legendary Thinkers
Alchemy at its core is a transformative art. While the goals of alchemy may have been misguided, its quest for achieving perfection remains.
In addition, much of the alchemical process evolved into the scientific techniques we use today. Despite its roots in its attempts to transmute lead into gold, alchemy has experienced a resurgence in the modern day as a spiritual process rather than an physical one. The idea is that the transformative aspects of alchemy can be applied to self-improvement and individuation.
Self-improvement is timeless, and has appeared across cultures and philosophies the world over. Many of these ideals were conjured by those I deem legends: thinkers so prolific that their legacy is respected to this day. But rather than focus on external accomplishment, these thinkers believed the truest rewards came from understanding and mastering the self.
Epictetus
The legendary philosopher Epictetus understood the importance of mastery over one’s mind. Epictetus lived the majority of his life as a slave or exile, and even suffered with disability. Despite this, he believed that you could attain freedom simply through understanding and controlling the self.
His teachings, found in the Enchiridion of Epictetus and Discourses, have guided thinkers from Marcus Aurelius to Voltaire and beyond.
“Only the educated are free.”
“If you want to improve, be content to be thought foolish and stupid.”
― Epictetus
Montaigne
Michel de Montaigne produced hundreds of written works throughout the sixteenth century, solely for the purpose of understanding himself. However in doing so, he also popularised the essay format of written text, and influenced Western philosophers for centuries. Due to his repeated studies of the self, his writings are full of contradictions; Montaigne wasn’t afraid to change his mind if new information presented itself.
To Montaigne, the pursuit of knowledge of the self was the highest purpose we could aspire to.
“I study myself more than any other subject. That is my metaphysics, that is my physics.”
“Wonder is the foundation of all… Wonder is the foundation of all philosophy, inquiry the progress, ignorance the end.”
— Montaigne
Musashi
Insight wasn’t just found in schools and studies; Miyamoto Musashi found his on the battlefield. As a lifelong traveler and winner of over 60 deadly duels, combat prowess was essential for survival. His mastery of his signature two heavens as one swordfighting style proved that he was willing to create unorthodox solutions to his problems.
Musashi believed in the importance of learning as many diverse concepts as possible and applying them wisely. He demonstrated this by creating masterpieces of art and literature, and his legacy lives on in Japan as the greatest swordsman who ever lived.
In order to survive in a dangerous world, Musashi dedicated himself to continuous evolution and fiercely guarded his independence. This allowed him to hone his beliefs, develop his skills, and live on long after his death.
“Become acquainted with every art.”
“The true science of martial arts means practicing them in such a way that they will be useful at any time, and to teach them in such a way that they will be useful in all things.”
― Miyamoto Musashi
The path to mastery is clear: develop the skills essential for survival in the society and age in which you live. Use the tools available to you to invoke evolution faster than societal shifts strip you of your advantages. But above all, prioritise personal growth above all niceties, and find sanctuary in the ideas and beliefs you cultivate.
What Is Your Life’s Work?
I’m sure the answer to this question is obvious at this stage.
It’s you.
You, your spiralling growth, your health, and your mastery of your life is your Life’s Work.
The process of discovering your Life’s Work is simply putting your life in order such that you have the freedom to improve yourself. It requires mastery of the aspects of life that prevail in the modern age, namely Saving, Investing, and Choosing Work You Love.
By channelling your energy into developing the skills necessary to succeed, you put yourself in the most fortunate position. This in turn allows you to create the best version of yourself, moving through the spiralling transformations essential to become it.
Of course, the attainment of the ideal self, the Philosopher’s Stone, is no more possible than catching lightning in a bottle. It’s not that saving some money, covering our expenses passively, and doing good work solves all our problems. All it does is give us the skills and opportunity to achieve the greatness that many cannot due to circumstance. This path simply unburdens you – from there, it is up to you to live according to your potential.
I once read a proverb that has stuck with me: “Beyond mountains, there are mountains.” Achieving your goal is not the end. It is the beginning of something greater: something you can move towards with more power than you held before.
On Financial Independence as a Goal
After pursuing Financial Independence for many years (it inspired the name of this website), I find it to no longer be a worthy goal.
It may provide Independence, but it alone does not provide Meaning or invoke Growth. Financial Independence does not require Honour to achieve, and its strategies for acquisition defy Temperance.
Financial Independence alone does not make you mighty; only the manner in which you conduct your life beyond this mountain does.
I cannot say hand on heart that I am the best that I can be. Of course I cannot, nor can anyone reading this. Our Life’s Work isn’t meant to be a endless grind to optimise every aspect of our being. It’s simply to put ourselves in the position to do so, and not succumb to the indulgences that threaten to destroy us along the way.
The Stoics didn’t shy from material success; many understood the importance of doing good work and being rewarded for it. However, they did not do the work for the material successes that work offered: it was a vehicle to develop further in one’s virtues. Achieving FI doesn’t make you more virtuous, and seems to be pursued for its own end. It is for this reason that I no longer align with the pursuit of Financial Independence.
Avoid extremes and create alternatives to them, then use the freedoms you create to become the best version of yourself. That is power. That is virtue.
The Third Journey
My personal philosophy comprises almost forty essays totalling nearly a hundred thousand words, written over the course of fourteen months. I’ve referred to this simply as the Scott On Fire Philosophy, not knowing how to name something so impactful to my life. But as I look back on my writings and understand how I got here, the path is clear.
My philosophy is simply The Third Journey.
The reasoning is simple: The First Journey comprises our early life and transition to work becoming our primary duty. It’s the belief that working hard will reward us fairly. But events like burnout, health scares, or a mass layoff or redundancy shatter this illusion, ending The First Journey and moving us towards The Second Journey.
The Second Journey is one of rebellion and escape. Its underlying belief is that work is broken, and we must try to rid ourselves of it as quickly as possible. Paradoxically, The Second Journey’s approach to escaping work forces us to idolise career progression. It has us avoid spending to ensure we maximise our escape velocity. It puts off meaning in favour of building the wealth believed necessary to find that meaning. The Second Journey ends when we wake up and realise that we are living a life we hate instead of creating one we love.
The Third Journey flips the script. On The Third Journey, you develop the skills necessary to save and build wealth. That wealth is used to control how you work, while creating a life you don’t need to retire from. It’s embracing intentional work with open arms, and serving others in a way that doesn’t cost your soul. This allows you to stay connected to your communities, and help them in the ways that only you can.
Closing
Your Life’s Work is one that deserves your full attention. It’s the continuous improvement of the self, the spiralling ever upwards towards an ideal we constantly strive to attain.
The Third Journey, my personal philosophy, gave me the time and space necessary to cultivate my Life’s Work, my magnum opus, my Philosopher’s Stone: the ability to prioritise the version of me that will change my life for the better.
Modern Day Mastery allows you to pursue your Life’s Work sooner. Saving, Investing, and Choosing Work You Love are the three broad skills I believe are absolutely essential to unlock the ability to pursue our Life’s Work. The absence of one or all of these skills will render most of us unable to reach our true potential.
You have the power to shape your destiny. By following the principles of The Third Journey, you will end every day slightly richer, stronger, faster, wiser, and more prepared for the world. From there, it is up to you to become the best version of yourself.
These are the principles that I have used to change my life. It is my hope that they change yours for the better as well.
Thank you for reading.
The End?
This article marks the close of the largest personal project I have ever undertaken. While I will discuss The Third Journey — my philosophy of action — again in the future, my attention is turning towards The Spiral Path — my philosophy of character. Expect to see more about The Spiral Path, and the mighty virtues that underpin it soon.
For those of you who have read this far, I thank you. And for those of you who expected a more financial slant from a Financial Independence creator, I hope the reasoning for this evolution speaks for itself.
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- I don’t suggest that top performers are lucky. Discipline is absolutely involved, however innate characteristics that are often luck-based have a surprising amount of impact over elite performers. The book Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell illustrates this well. ↩︎