A Truth About Life: Life Has No Destinations. It Is An Eternal Journey.

Hello again and welcome to Uvelopin (which is you developing). Today's agenda is to share another truth about life which I have found to be definite, and it is that life has no destinations, because it is an internal journey. I found this to be true through my personal experiences, that of others, and good old logic! By logic, I am referring to the law of diminishing returns and the nature of all growth curves. It's simple! Simply put the law of diminishing returns says that, on a fixed factor (a non-flexible factor, such as land), you can only increase a variable factor (a flexible factor, example labour) in order to achieve increasing productivity so much so that, you'll eventually get a peak of productivity, after which total productivity begins to decline, and marginal productivity (the extra productivity you achieved with each addition of the variable factor on the fixed factor) decreases so much so that it becomes negative. I could give a better explanation and draw a graph, but even I would fall asleep.
I hope you guys are still awake though (LOL).
Let me bring it down to an everyday situation. Imagine renting a house, say a one bedroom flat (that is, a flat with one bedroom, one living room, one kitchen, and a bathroom). Now, you have all this space for say 500k per year. One day, it hits you that you have all the space doing almost nothing, and you decide to take a roommate and split the rent so you can pay less. You take the roommate and now, you are spending 250k per year, right? That's amazing, and you then decide, why not get a second roommate and let this person sleep on the floor beside the bed (since your first roommate sleeps on the big bed with you); and when you get this second roommate, you split the rent again, and you are now paying about 167k. Even more amazing, right? Then, you decide to get another roommate who can sleep in the living room, and do now, you are paying 125k. Now, you have the strong illusion growing in your head that you can keep getting roommates until you are only spending maybe 1k per year. But there's one problem, you can't get to that level because it would mean that 500 people are now living in the flat. Imagine the discomfort! You may then say that maybe you can handle paying 50k a year, so that would mean 10 people are living in the flat. If you can handle living with nine other people in a single bedroom flat, that's ok, but you and the others may find it very uncomfortable when at least one or two of the roommates has one or two guests, and three or four of the roommates are in the house at the same time. The house will be so crowded that some people may need to leave during that time. And what if they don't want to? What if it causes conflict? But, that's only looking at it one way. What if having 10 people living in the flat now costs so much in repairs that you are now spending more to keep the flat and its resources together, just because the flat was rented in your name and so you are responsible.
The points to be made here is that everything has a maximum capacity, and the maximum capacity of the flat may have been 5 people, and so anything more than 5 will result in diminishing returns (meaning that getting more roommates to make more savings becomes a bad idea after the fourth roommate). But, why am I saying all this? I've learnt to discover that every single point, person, relationship, place, animal, spiritual status, educational level... ANYTHING in life has a capacity and thus obeys the law of diminishing returns, and follows the same format as all growth curves in existence (total growth curve is the same as all total growth curve, marginal growth curve is the same as all other marginal growth curves, and all average growth curves are the same as all other average growth curves in life!). What this then means is that, life has no final destination, and there is no ultimate goal, and no final rest point.
Mind blowing, right?
Now, I know some of you find this unbelievable right now, but please, stay with me. Let's start with describing the growth curve. I didn't want to get an image, because you can find that anywhere else online (just google growth curve). The growth curve always starts from a point (it could be 0, it could be 1, 5, or any point you can imagine), and it is assumed that inputs to achieve growth will vary in quantity, but the size of the containment for these inputs will be fixed. Now, the growth curve always starts with an acceleration (example from 500k per year to 250k per year with addition of just one roommate), but eventually slows down (example from 166k to 125k per year), and it continues in this low rate until it reaches its peak (the point at which full capacity is reached with five occupants, each paying 100k per year, but the house's resources can support everyone and still provide good comfort), and beyond this peak, the growth curve begins to drop (that is, you are now going to spend more on repairs and there will be discomfort and conflict after you add the next roommate, and it will get worse and worse from then on with each addition you make in the same flat).
Even the biological growth of humans, plants, and animals follow this concept and is seen as we all reach our prime age or prime decade (the period after which you can't grow taller, after which your body just won't metabolise some nonsense anymore... etc), and then we get older and older, and need someone to care for us, then we die eventually; and from a previous blog ("A Truth About Life: Reincarnation Exits") you can see that it doesn't even all end at death. Life is an eternal journey, and thus has no destinations. There is always a "plus factor", always one more step to take.
To some, this may be disheartening, but consider it this way, that the extra step you take is the addition you make to the so called "fixed factor" in order to increase its capacity so that you can keep enjoying that point on the growth curve where growth is accelerated. Now, you may be wondering how to know when it's time to increase the capacity of the fixed factor, what the fixed factor in the situation may be, what the variable factor may be, and how to determine the capacity of your fixed factor.
The fixed factor is usually that thing that you don't want to change and believe you still have so much to gain from, and the variable factors are usually those things that you are willing to do, or willing to sacrifice in order to benefit more from the fixed factor. You will know when it's time to increase the capacity of the fixed factor when it is no longer giving you the satisfaction you expect from it (always listen to your heart), and in many cases, all you have to do in order to increase the capacity is do something new.
It's easy to know all these things when you listen to yourself in any situation. The fixed factor may be the relationship you are in; at a point, you may get uncomfortable mostly because you have exhausted what the current conditions of your relationship have to offer (same house, same town, same city, same bed... etc), and you may be depressed because, now you don't know what to do. You always dreamed of a good stay home wife/husband, a great paying job, a large house, kids, and now you have all that, but you are still not happy. Why so? Simple! You aimed at a destination, a rest point, and that's an illusion of life (because the peak of the growth curve has been reached, and you can't remain there forever). Life is eternal and there's always one more step to go.
Some people at this point of dissatisfaction with their fixed factor (using a relationship as an example here) will consider walking away from it all. But, sometimes, all you need to do is add to the fixed factor (the relationship). In this case, you may take a trip, change jobs, find something new to do with your significant other... anything; but just do something new!
As for how you can determine the capacity of your fixed factor, it may not always be necessary to try, but, I'll tell you what I do. I live life like the ground under me could collapse at any point. Not that I'm paranoid, or an anxious wreck; I do set goals, but the difference between me and the regular goal setter is that I set new goals on my way to achieving the current goal at hand. I do this so that I don't ever find myself at the peak of the growth curve from which I could fall. So, I always have one more step to go even before I reach the peak. In other words, there is never a peak!
Now, don't think I'm just an insatiable person. That's not it either. I just believe that every time you reach your so called peak and stop to rest, life (which is an eternal journey on its own) passes you by. Why do you think all companies have to rebrand to increase sales of the same popular products they have been selling for years? Life passing you by can mean someone mastering your current position and advancing on it, and then yours becomes old news. There is no real destination in life. Just keep moving forward.
I don't know... Was I all over the place with this blog? I guess I become even less articulate when I'm extremely passionate about a topic (SMH). I apologize....
anyway... What do you think? How do you view life? Do you believe in permanent goals? Or do you live like me (like the ground underneath you won't stay solid for very long, and so you have to plan your next step? Did I communicate at all?
Please, feel free to air your opinions. I love you all! Till next week....