"Work to become, not to acquire." Kevin Kelly
I’ve noticed those who are truly fulfilled in life are working to become. They’re focused on an idea more than a title, or status, or some monetary goal. I’ve also noticed firsthand, almost universally, those who have worked to acquire wish they could reverse their fortunes and trade them for something else. That ‘something else’ is most often the relationships sacrificed to attain the fortunes.
The wealthy have to elude those who are out to take the fortunes they’ve banked. The multi-millionaires I know would swap their treasures for just a little more time with the ones they loved.
Those who have built up high walls and amassed collections of excess work to hide it because of some sort of fear, fear of it being found, or their collections being taken, or put on display, but why?
Similarly, those who have chased fame and have garnered popularity must now disguise themselves when they go into public.
But when we work to become, we aim at something more whole, the idea such as becoming an artist, or philanthropist, or teacher, or creator. When we aim to become instead of acquiring, we are focused on others, on what our life will ‘do’ instead of what it will consume.
When we focus on becoming, we take our eyes off the prize and look to humanity as a whole; we gaze at what we can do to cause some degree of change in poverty, disease, suffering, beauty, love, joy, forgiveness, and truth. These are noble pursuits we won’t have to hide from or wish undone.
This is why we should work to become. It’s a worthy pursuit because there is no amount of acquiring that will ever fill the void in our spirit that longs for meaning.
Work to become, not to acquire.
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