The BEST that LIFE can offer: orienting toward your highest purpose

Buy my book, "The Value of Others"

Inspired by my recent trip to Japan, I would like to share with you one of my favorite poems:

O snail!
Climb Mount Fuji
-- but slowly, slowly.

Like many haiku, there is a substantial amount of wisdom contained within these three lines, much of which pertains to the best that life has to offer. If you don't see it yet, allow me to offer three lessons contained therein to edify you. Find your Fuji, and climb it as slowly as possible.

Social Media

Become a Psychonaut and join PsycHack's member community:

Book a paid consultation:

Presented by Orion Taraban, Psy.D. PsycHacks provides viewers with a brief, thought-provoking video several days a week on a variety of psychological topics, inspired by his clinical practice. The intention is for the core idea contained within each video to inspire viewers to see something about themselves or their world in a slightly different light. The ultimate mission of the channel is to reduce the amount of unnecessary suffering in the world.

#wisdom #psychology #japan

[psychacks]

Inspired by my recent trip to Japan, I would like to share with you one of my favorite poems:

O snail!
Climb Mount Fuji
-- but slowly, slowly.

Like many haiku, there is a substantial amount of wisdom contained within these three lines, much of which pertains to the best that life has to offer. If you don't see it yet, allow me to offer three lessons contained therein to edify you. Find your Fuji, and climb it as slowly as possible.

Social Media




Become a Psychonaut and join PsycHack's member community:

Book a paid consultation:

Sound mixing/editing by: valntinomusic.com

Presented by Orion Taraban, Psy.D. PsycHacks provides viewers with a brief, thought-provoking video several days a week on a variety of psychological topics, inspired by his clinical practice. The intention is for the core idea contained within each video to inspire viewers to see something about themselves or their world in a slightly different light. The ultimate mission of the channel is to reduce the amount of unnecessary suffering in the world.

#wisdom #psychology #japan

[Khan-rzqi]

In an Era where both men and the family unit has become almost obsolete, it’s almost paramount that you fellas find some sort of purpose or meaning in life. Most of you will never get that lovely family that you so wish for, those days are gone. Upgrade and push yourself fellas, you don’t have a choice, or risk drowning in depression.💯

[drwayne_carter]

This struck a cord with me because my mental health has not been good lately: "We are happiest when we're climbing. So, if you're in a rut, if you're not feeling very good, then maybe you either need to start gaining elevation or seek out a higher mountain to climb". I immediately hit the like button when he said that.

[Padronfan]

“You will discover who you are as you climb it” - excellent

[Guildofarcanelore]

As my father told me as a young man, “you can only go as fast as you can go.”
When you try to go faster you end up making mistakes that end up costing you more time and you end up going slower.
I didn’t understand as a kid. I get it now.

[ese]

Mr. Taraban! I’ve been listening to you for a while and I must say your ability to meld logic with emotional awareness is *chefs kiss* immaculate. Keep doing what you’re doing! Highly inspirational

[andromeda]

"Because this my friends, is where happiness and fulfillment lie. Not in the gaining. Not in the achieving. But in the climbing. If you ever actually achieve then either the whole journey ends or you have to suffer the decline that inevitably follows"
What a great analysis for a great poem 🗻

[kelschc]

Quite possibly my favorite of all the episodes. It really resonates with me because I am a very very slow climber, and part of the reason is, well, I like to enjoy the view on the way up and don’t want to miss anything. Thank you Dr. Taraban for bringing some much needed Eastern knowledge, wisdom and perspective to a world that simply moves too fast.

[TOBZ]

I’ve never heard anything truer. It’s importants to find purpose in life especially as men that’s the only thing we have left in our control.

[tor]

You're slowly (slowly :)) becoming terrific at presenting these ideas. Thanks for the consistently great content.

Fellow psychologist chiming in: in a lecture on self-compassion a few years ago the lecturer made a clear distinction between goals and directions - and he referred to something very akin to the latter part of this video. Goals are good...they provide meaning for some time. The problem comes when you achieve them: now what?

Directions are better. They provide meaning, endlessly. Being completely honest could be a direction. Being hard-working. Being kind to yourself and others. You can develop traits like these tremendously in a year or two - but you'll never be "done." You'll keep failing, now and then, and probably keep discovering new roadblocks that you weren't aware of. Or you'll become pissed, depressed, or give up, and start all over again.

Find a direction, or a few directions that align with each other. Don't choose something that you can ever be completely done with.

[igstan]

This reminds me of my favorite poem ever, learned in high-school and still remembering it now at 38. It's written by Lucian Blaga, a Romanian writer and philosopher, in 1964. Here goes the original in Romanian (my English translation will follow):

== Întrebare și răspuns ==

Ce ne va tine totdeauna tineri?
Adu o jertfa zi de zi
zeitei mari, paginei Vineri!
Hraneste cald, oricare-ar fi,
un vis ce nu se va-mplini!

And here goes my (almost literal) English translation since I'm not aware of any:

== Question and answer ==

What will keep us forever young?
Make a sacrifice, each passing day
To grand goddess, pagan Friday!
Nurture slowly, whichever it might be
A dream that will never come to be!

Above, "nurture slowly" would be "nourish warm" in the original, but I don't think that conveys the intended meaning too well in English.

Also, the part about the pagan goddess Friday took me a while to understand, but in old Romanian tradition this goddess would forbid women from doing house chores on Fridays. So I presume what Blaga intended that verse to mean was: forgo some of your daily chores or obligations (which is a kind of sacrifice if you end up with a less than clean house or clothes, or eating unhealthy food maybe?) and dedicate the time to that burning passion of yours.

I love it so much because in just 5 verses it manages to touch on a lot of important issues in life: you'll feel young and motivated if you have a passion; a passion will require some sacrifices; you have to cultivate that passion, but not too hastily or so much that it either dies of malnutrition or of being overfed and then you're left out without a dream to pursue. A small objection here is that one might then switch to another passion, to which someone might object that if you burn through a passion so quickly, you don't get to explore its full potential, its full richness of pleasures that it can reward back to you.

Anyway, it's a poem I love :)

[louiskucinski]

and no matter how slowly one goes its still progress !!

[_-_]

Climbing slowly also means you won’t make slide down from rushing up the mountain too quickly. Climbing slowly will make you surpass almost everyone you encounter, living life with a steady foot.

[VHS_GIS]

There is no such thing as perfection, only the continued climb for excellence!!!

[rimantasjankevicius]

Slowly, slowly also means: focus, concentrate to now moment and do climbing at the best you can. It not only destination is the measure of traveller's spirit, but also quality of effort to present task extending your quality qualification.

[GratefulZen]

This is great, Orion… it’s not in the achieving, it’s in the doing! Takes care of “fear of failure resistance” & self- condemnation for “failure” to reach goals. Thank you!

[markmcgowan]

Love the first two points. Strive for the highest goal and do it according to your unique characteristics.

[TheBishop]

7:10 exactly. “Happiness is not a destination, but a way of life.” -Unknown

[OhDangItsBazn]

Thanks for the upload. I like this because in a way it’s contrary to the ideals ingrained in a lot of us, especially in the states. It’s common to hear that “life’s too short” and so we need to make things happen, which creates haste. And often times the speed at which we can make things happen is seen as valuable. Hustle-culture, for example. It’s a status quo that I think gets ingrained so deeply, that the all value is taken out of the journey and only placed in the end goal.

It also reminds me of another belief held amongst many in Asia that’s similar: the idea of “happiness”. In the states, it sometimes feels like happiness is the only truly acceptable emotion - not always, but it’s almost like “it’s bad to be sad” (toxic positivity) maybe not in an extreme/literal sense, but being happy, seeking happiness, and avoiding sadness and distancing yourself from anything that doesn’t make you happy is a concept I’ve seen pushed a lot in my life. And a lot of us will make big, life-altering decisions chasing happiness, even if we’re unsure happiness will be the outcome of the decision.

Whereas in a lot of Asian countries, I think happiness and sadness are seen as equals, like yin and yang. Sadness is embraced, rather than avoided or buried - because really they can’t exist without the other - and even on a biological level, sadness as an emotion wouldn’t exist if it didn’t serve a purpose.

I’ll disclaim, this is anecdotal, and I could probably be mistaken on a lot of it. Hell, I think this is the premise of the Pixar movie ‘Inside Out’.

Regardless, great video as always!

[DrKamranIqbal]

Dr. Taraban, you are doing a massive service to a lot of people through your youtube posts. God bless you!