What seems important is to come to the conclusion, not that I am free to do anything I want, but that I am free. This distinction makes all the difference, and can easily account for how I have sat back at times, looking and thinking about all I have done, and felt it has not been enough, that something escapes me; that I have to discover instead of admire, accomplish instead of reflect, acquire instead of appreciate, and most fundamentally, do instead of be.

This distinction means the ability to find contentment is not a product of doing anything at all, but of being, and can explain how many successful people, whether materially wealthy, or skillfully accomplished end up discontented.

None of this rules out the desire to accomplish, to take on hobbies, or to achieve goals, but it reorients life so that one is not left constructing a sense of self from what one does, but from who one is. Perhaps only then does one truly accomplish; perhaps everything before that is just an over-compensation; someone else’s expectations; those of society, a parent, a culture; a lifestyle. Who, after all, when it is all said and done, are really, truly, and honestly doing what they want? – Almost no one…  I am.