Quarter Life Crisis

Update on the 33 Strategies of War by Robert Greene. To those of you who are not familiar with this book, check out the wiki. It’s essentially a “guide to the subtle social game of everyday life informed by the … military principles in war.” It’s been a fun read so far, especially the first section on “Self Directed Warfare”. Here’s one strategy that I’ve already begun implementing:

Create a Sense of Urgency and Desperation: The Death-Ground Strategy. When there are no other options, people fight harder. If the choice is life or death they have nothing to lose.

The idea is to take on more than you think you can handle and meet the challenge. If you always try to work within in your established comfort zone, you may never discover what you are really capable of. When people are pushed to the edge and are left with no options but to succeed, they are forced to attain a level of focus and creativity that does not exist without that type of pressure.

This is one way to get yourself out of your quarter life crisis: jump into unfamiliar territory and “depend on your wits and energy to see you through” instead of being insecure and indecisive about the future.