It’s funny how we live in this world where the result is so important to us.

It’s such a gift to play, to discover, to touch, to be with and one with the work that the reward of it is nothing more than sustenance.

Which is to say, it’s not the true reward.

The reward is the work.

The successful response is the sustenance, so that you can produce more work, discover more, play more.

This makes the work every piece of the car, from the engine, to the tires, to the interior, to the last stitch.

All the successful responses of the work are fuel to move the car forward.

It’s still a car whether it moves forward or not. Some people can get it moving with just a couple of axles, tires, a frame, an engine, an accelerator, a brake, and a steering apparatus.

Some people don’t get it moving until the body starts forming.

Most people are hoping for fuel before they’ve hooked up the lines. Before the gas tank no longer leaks and is reinforced.

The beauty of movement is you get to see more. The challenges come quicker, more frequently, and feel foreign, new, and mysterious. This is good! And it can be a joy to feel. But it is a reactive joy. I move, I see, I react, I determine if there is joy or heartache or another core emotion.

Satisfaction in its truest sense will be the building. The iterating. Learning what the car needs and what it doesn’t as you discover more about what you believe it can be.

With actual cars we purchase, why do some people desire sports cars and others scoff at them? The instinctual or environmental selection. Preference. Belief in value and worthiness, and the opposite—frivolous, needless, indulgent.

If preference is instinctual and iterated upon in the reactive state — like getting just enough fuel in a working car to move forward and receive more stimuli — then the focus becomes on the meaning of the gift, the work, the act.

The reward is viewed as a measure of how far we can go. And this spits in the face of the value of preference — knowing what’s for you and not for you — a discernment of what’s worthy or needless.

Only you can determine this. But thinking on the destination distracts us. The endless chasing of another fuel station consumes us. And we feel anxiety all the time that we won’t find another one in time.

That our greatest opportunity will be seen as a hunk of metal on the side of the road rather than the most creative opportunity in human history — the discovery of how one wishes to assemble oneself, solving preferential problems that speak to them — is with us all the time.

The foundational requirements are straightforward, entirely reliant on you (you cannot be given them by someone else because you already possess them), and do not offer a predetermined roadmap.

As you begin on the way, it’ll reveal itself.

Here are the foundational requirements:

[1] Belief

Lean on your existing knowledge and experience to show you that you’ve already gotten here without a perfect plan, without limitless resources, without trusting yourself every step. Whether you felt like you believed or not, you acted enough to be placed here.

Therefore, belief starts not in endlessly looking forward — no need to occupy the mind with chasing the next fuel station — but backward. Objectively, you have mountains of evidence of being capable. You have overcome every challenge thus far.

The tool of belief will carry you forward. The tradeoff is accepting you won’t know exactly how.

[2] Faith

Simply put, you are part of something larger than yourself. Faith is required because it’s the baseline understanding that what you are, who you are, and how you behave has meaning not just for your history but for all humankind.

It’s a beautiful responsibility you didn’t choose but can handle.

[3] Trust

There are no accidents. No coincidences. No trivialities. What you do holds weight. Trust that you’re the best person to handle what’s put in front of you. For no one else will encounter it exactly as you will and execute it in your unique way.

Don’t question your actions. Don’t need meaning in them. Trust yourself more than any other entity, and you will know that you’ve lived a life to your full potential.

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Each of these foundational requirements occupies its own side of a triangle.

When these are fused together, they create an unshakeable power.

That power is conviction.

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It is the center. The core. The beating heart of what makes life feel good.

When it’s gone, we see only the mundane, the burdens, or the fog, or the regret.

When it’s present, none of that enters the mind. The body feels lighter. New challenges come in front of you — vistas in your windshield — and you know that you’re moving toward your potential.

Which is to say, unshakeable conviction is true enlightenment.

Holding the essence of what it is to live.

• Worthy challenge
• Belief, faith, trust you’re in the exact right position at the right moment
• Contribution to something larger than yourself. A contribution no one else can offer but you.

To feel clear. Grounded. Useful. Essential.

To love what you do, to love how you do it, to love what it helps.

And in so doing, loving yourself.

This is the way.

-Colby

P.S. This email was the philosophy. This video holds personal stories around this philosophy.