It's from the uphill climb that we derive our value, and I mean this technically,

so almost all the positive emotion we feel, especially the emotion that fills us with enthusiasm,

and that's experienced in relationship to a goal. And so in some sense, you want a goal that you

can never attain, so you can always move closer to the goal that recedes as you move towards it.

You think, well, that's frustrating. It's like Sizzifus pushing the rock uphill,

but it's not because as you pursue that goal, you put yourself together and your life does get

better and richer and more abundant. That's why the highest levels of virtue and goal are in some

sense transcendent. You want them to be above everything you're doing, so you can continually

move towards something that's more sublime and better. That's what you are. You're here to live,

not to not to sleep. And the problem with the vision of my ties on the beach is that, well,

first of all, that's a vision of drug-induced unconsciousness. Second, it's only going to work for

about a week. Third, you're going to be a laughing stock in a month and depressed and aimless

and goalless. It's no, you want a horizon of ever-expanding possibility. And so it does happen to

people, because they've staked their soul on the attainment of an instrumental goal. And it can

be a pretty high order goal. But then you think, now I'm there. Now what? Well, the answer can't be,

well, I'm going to live in the lap of luxury. I never have to leave the fit. What do you want to be?

A giant infant with a gold bottle. You never have to do anything but lay in your back and suck.

It's like, you see the problem with that as a conceptualization? It's no, you want to be

like an active warrior moving uphill with your sword in hand. And that's dynamic. That's exciting.

And you're going to be pretty sick. These people that you're comparing yourself to, you don't really

know very well. What that means is that you see they're shiny outside, but you don't see the

reality of their life. There's always people out there who are doing far better than you on pretty

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