You want to be free from sin.
You want to be free from vice.
Do you know why you want to be free from sin?
Because you’ll go to heaven.
Now, I wouldn’t count on going to heaven after you die.
After you die — chances are you’re going to go to the ground, to rot there.
But you can go to heaven while you’re here.
But you must be FREE FROM SIN.
Do you know what actually happens when you’re free from VICE?
You DON’T HAVE THE VICE IN YOUR LIFE.
It’s that simple.
When you’re free from sin, free from vice:
—you don’t have “sinful thoughts” — which means that sin, vice, wickedness, negativity, all this filth — is NOT part of your mind.
What that means is that it doesn’t torment you. You are free to saturate yourself with BLISS AND JOY.
—you treat others good — and are treated good in return.
Goodness makes long-term sense from pure self-interest point of view.
—there is not such thing in your life as VICE — therefore, via-negativa, you can ONLY EVER DO GOOD
Only ever “do good”, only ever “be productive”, only ever “be in the right place”
The benefit of being FREE FROM VICE is ASYMMETRICAL
The closer you are to purity — the more EXPONENTIALLY LARGE the benefit.
There’s a GULF between being 90% trustworthy and 100% trustworthy
The 100% trustworthy will dominate the market, long term
The 100% level of trust permits exponentially higher risks to be taken in a cooperation, partnership. The 10% risk of betrayal ruins the most remunerative prospects.
There’s a GULF between some vice being entirely absent from your life — and it being present, and lurking in the dark, ready to bite you when you’re at your lowest.
To have Achilles heel is to be FRAGILE.
To be fragile is to NOT be antifragile.
To be fragile is to be UNABLE to take the most remunerative risks — because the threat of obliteration (breaking) is too high.
To be antifragile is not only to withstand — but to GAIN from the turmoil.
WHEN there’s a WEAKNESS in the way you live, in the way you build your systems, in the way you think — you will not be able to take the most lucrative risks.
Those risks will expose this weakness in you — and RUIN the whole venture.
You don’t want Achilles heel
It doesn’t merely set you back daily — it will be the breaking point of your most ambitious undertakings.
It will hinder your ascend to higher level.
It’s not true that you can move up by merely optimizing “the GOOD” in your life — the productive, the attractive, the ambitious, the noble — while tolerating the LOWS, the VICES, the SKELETONS IN THE CLOSET,
There will come a time when those things will be the chains which won’t let you ascend any higher.
They will be impossible to be reconciled with the higher realities.
Verily, your decision to keep those vices or dispense with them — will be the ultimate test of your single-mindedness and commitment to higher goals.
There always is a price to pay — and the truest price is psychological. What you must give up, what you must sacrifice — is psychological — and therefore the hardest price, and truest.
And yet when you ENTIRELY eradicate the BREAKING POINTS, the WEAKNESSES — you CAN’T LOSE.
You can ONLY win.
Again, this enables TREMENDOUS POSSIBILITIES.
You can take massive risks, you can do CRAZY experiments — and you can’t lose.
— If you eradicated cognitive biases — you would almost be infallible.
You would KNOW WHAT YOU DON’T KNOW. And what you knew, then, would be VERY VERY LIKELY CORRECT. Incomparably more correct then what someone else may think he knows.
— If you never “wasted time” — then you would basically be EFFORTLESSLY PRODUCTIVE ALL THE TIME.
Productivity at the cost of enormous willpower exertion is not an attractive deal.
However if you can OPTIMIZE your life to be FREE from TIME-wasting activities and time-liabilities — that would become a habit — and thus would not exert willpower.
It also protects you from million traps of losing motivation, not having energy, becoming sick… if you truly NEVER engage in TIME-wasting, always VALUE your time and do WHOLESOME THINGS — then you’re basically protected even in the worst case scenario.
When you’re tired or doing less-great or any nonsense — no lowly-vice shall re-emerge to waste your time and energy and attentional resources
—If you ALWAYS KEPT YOUR WORD — you would unlock the full benefits of FEEDBACK LOOPS and LEARNING FROM YOUR MISTAKES
because until you keep your word — you just don’t know if it’s PLAN which has failed — or you yourself.
I write about this in detail in this text:
Highly recommended.
—If you absolutely EMBRACED ALL — all challenges, all fears, all possibilities — then you would know the TRUE CONFIDENCE, one which cannot be undermined,
Because for as long as your confidence depends on something — there is always that FEAR of losing that thing — and with it your entire certainty, your entire edge, your entire footing, your entire confidence.
However — if you ALWAYS take upon EVERY challenge — you will eventually develop a deeper kind of faith — a FAITH IN YOURSELF.
A faith that whatever is thrown at you — you can handle it.
Such confidence cannot be undermined from the outside. No one can take it away from you.
It’s the readiness to not merely deal with specific challenges — it’s the readiness to deal with ALL the challenges of life.
You can only imagine the benefits of having such power.
Those are just some examples…
Be free from VICE and sin,
Be perfect, actually.
But NOT perfect in what you’ve done.
Not perfect in being free from failures,
Be perfect in your ERADICATION of VICES, of things which are holding you back,
Be RUTHLESS there
Though it sounds like stupid religious idealism — there are actually tremendous benefits
Try it for yourself