Blood & Ink: Purpose x Pleasure

Is this not the hallmark of our generation?

Frankl’s prophetic quote rings like a clarion call for a distressed generation.

This applies to everyone, but men most particularly.

It is virtually self-evident that the vast majority of modern culture exists as nothing more than a feeble attempt to fill a purpose-sized hole in the lives of our generation.

While we parade those who make and market the latest mango-flavoured stimulant delivery system or the growing market of “anxiety-relieving t-shirts” as successful and driven entrepreneurs, they are peddlers of petty trivialities capitalizing on the weakest parts of the masculine psyche.

Alas, I am not here to attack with this post. I am here to confess:

I have lost my way…

I returned home to Costa Rica this week—bags filled with holiday goodies. Face plunged deep in the effervescent glow of social media and 12-second dopamine hits. I still struggle with excessive stimulant use and addiction. I have two different Substack publications—one of them collecting dust—for no good reason. It just wasn’t ‘exciting enough’ to keep going. I have been chronically overcommitted and juggling projects for almost a decade of my life now. I neglect my physical training and daily routines.

I feel no better—and oftentimes no ‘further along’—than any other man confronted with the hydra of hyper-stimulating emptiness.

I don’t speak about this much, but the true catalyst for my adventure into radical growth and personal change was minimalism.

It wasn’t a Tony Robbins experience. It wasn’t a mid-life existential crisis.

I found Minimalism in my late teens, got rid of 90% of stuff (and my desire to have stuff), and noticed for the first time a base layer of peace, focus, and quality of life that I had never felt.

Like JFM of The Minimalists says,

“Minimalism is the thing that gets us past the things so we can make room for life’s most important things—which actually aren’t things at all.”

It proved beyond a shadow of a doubt to me that there were things I could do, actions I could take, that had unbelievable returns on my quality of life.

It’s a funny coincidence that no Warrior culture worth its salt has ever developed a Maximalist approach to stuff. Almost everything is a distraction from purpose.

The highest path is straight and narrow.

That initial domino of Minimalism grew into meditation, therapy, psychedelics, early bio-hacking, lifestyle design, nomading, on and on and on and on.

I need a radical reset.

To make the main thing the main thing once again.

To get back to life’s most important things, which aren’t things at all.

I shaved my beard yesterday. I’m moving homes in 4 days. A good start. I’m also going to update this publication at the end of the month, more to come on that.

Losing your way is no problem. It is inevitable. Mistakes, missteps, and missing the mark happen.

Just reorient, reassess, recommit.

Let’s get back to purpose, on purpose.
EB.