Essay
The Vertical Line (Contentment | Ambition)
Personal Context
In the previous issue, I discussed the horizontal line that represents your starting point in a personal development journey — being above or below the despair/stable-to-optimistic line.
There's a vertical line as well. Understanding where you fall on the vertical line is also essential for determining your context and approach to a life growth plan — and essential to evaluating any advice, guidance, or content you come across.
Professional or expert advice may be relevant to people on one side of the line but not the other, yet authors and creators never consider the reader’s context. Instead, they dish out one-size-fits-all generic takes, rendering it meaningless for most of the audience.
By knowing where you stand both above/below the horizontal line of the last issue and the left/right of the vertical line of this issue, you can craft a serious, meaningful, and effective growth plan.
The Vertical Line
The vertical line divides the types of goals and intentions that matter most to you, what you value and prioritize, and what you want your life to be moving toward. Some people are professionally or socially ambitious. This takes a different approach than those seeking peace and contentment.
On one side, there are people optimizing for serenity or comfort — a sort of personal bliss. On the other side, people optimizing for ambition (in various spheres, personal or professional).
I'm not here to judge one or the other. My point is merely self-awareness. Be aware of what you're after and be honest with yourself. There's virtue in both, and there can be vice in both.
This categorization can vary across different parts of your life. But typically, you'll have one or two key aspects prioritized above others — and that's where this self-awareness of the divide will matter most.
Over time, you'll change — and that's OK. Different approaches may suit you better in different seasons of life. But wherever you are in any given current stage, understand where you are. That context will dictate the starting point and strategies for progressing toward the desired outcome.
And just as with the horizontal line, the vertical line isn't actually a binary flipping point. It's a gradient. But it tends to be pretty clear which side someone falls on. And when you change from one stage of life to another, the switch can feel sudden.
Understanding your position brings clarity. So, even though it’s actually a gradient, I think it’s valuable to consider it as a line you fall on one side of.
The point here about the vertical line, and the ideas in the previous issue about the horizontal line, are setting up a bigger point I look forward to making in the next issue.