A Modern Journey
1. Experience a single ancient wisdom tradition as a child
We adopt whatever traditions our parents make us follow by going to church, celebrating important holidays, and listening to whatever the various religious authorities say. Or, perhaps we didn’t have any real traditions growing up so it’s a non-issue.
2. Reject all ancient wisdom traditions
As we get older, many of the traditions and ideas seem naïve and childish, especially since we live in a rational and scientific world. We move away from ancient wisdom because it seems like a lot of work for nothing, or maybe we had a particularly bad experience with some hypocritical, judgmental religious folks. We decide we don’t need any of it.
3. Get out in the real world. Realize life is hard
We get to a point in our life when we realize that life is far more difficult and different than we expected, especially when we’re transitioning from college to “the real world.” No one cares about our ideas or our sense of justice, and we have far less autonomy than we would prefer.
4. Experiment with Tim Ferriss / lifestyle design
We begin testing out all sorts of personal development strategies. We read articles with instructions on how to make more money or start your own business or get a promotion. We think we just need a little more work-life balance and then we’ll be okay. Some of this advice is effective. Most of it isn’t.
5. Succeed or don’t. Either way, feel empty
We become even more frustrated that even after trying to take matters into our own hands, we’re not any more satisfied than we were before. Maybe we made some marginal improvements, but there’s still a sense that something is missing.
6. Rediscover the benefits of ancient wisdom
When we run out of LifeHacker and Tim Ferriss blog posts to read, we yearn for something deeper and more meaningful than an online passive income business.
This is where The Ancient Wisdom Project comes in. I want to help you discover that the teachings of ancient wisdom traditions are incredibly relevant and useful to our modern lives. I personally tested out 8 different ancient wisdom traditions to date and discovered they were far more effective in helping me navigate both internal and external struggles I have encountered.
Learn more about each of these traditions below.
