There’s an adjective that I recently learned (from the book 4000 Weeks, which I covered back in Episode #606): telic. It comes from the Greek word telos, which means “end”, and is used tp describe an action that is directed toward a specific endpoint.
Learning the concept of telic activities was significant for me because it allowed me to observe that nearly every activity I undertake in a given day is pursued with the attainment of a particular long-term outcome in mind. As an example, I essentially never go on a run for fun or to enjoy being outdoors; I go on runs because I am trying to hit the cardiovascular strain target for the day that is recommended by the fitness band I wear.
Can you empathize with this situation? As someone involved in or interested in the fast-moving, challenging data science industry, I bet there’s a good chance you too are absorbed by telic activities in order to get ahead or try to stay ahead.
Now, there’s no question that it is essential to focus some parts of your day on telic — outcome-driven —activities. You must engage in activities that enable you to achieve the outcome of nourishing yourself, for example. And many days, the reality of capitalism is that most of us must engage in providing goods or services to others in order to keep a roof over our heads and keep food on the table.
The point I’m bearing toward, however, is that the experience of living is not made rich by pursuing telic activities alone. What I am proposing is that there is great joy, freedom, and a richness of experience to be found in atelic activities — activities that we engage in with absolutely no outcome in mind. Examples of such atelic activities include:
Sitting on a beach and watching the motion of the ocean
Painting (poorly!) because we enjoy experimenting with colors
Going on a trail run to enjoy being immersed in the sights, sounds, and smells of nature
If you’re anything like me, it could be deeply uncomfortable at first to engage in such atelic activities. You might think to yourself “I could be spending this time productively!” But pushing past these inner calls for productivity and leaning into the initial discomfort of atelic activities is likely to be rewarding. When you’re consumed by telic activities, by always pursuing outcomes, you’re missing out on being, on appreciating being alive for the fleeting moments that you have. It is through what can feel like the vulnerability of atelic activities that we cultivate a delightful appreciation for the transient beauty of being, of the fragility of the passing moment that you can never get back, and of the people and surroundings in our lives that will never be exactly the same as they are right now.
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