Each Frame a Dragon: Escaping Trivial Pursuits for a Meaningful Life

Imagine each stage of your life, each area of focus, as a separate picture frame. Now, imagine that within each frame lurks a dragon – a challenge, an obstacle, a fear – that must be confronted to move onto the next. If you are actively avoiding crucial aspects of your life, like your living situation or financial stability, you're essentially running from a high-level dragon. This act of avoidance reveals the surprising triviality of your current, more immediate concerns.

Frame transcendence involves aligning yourself with what truly matters. It's about recognizing the hierarchy of your values and understanding that what occupies your mind right now may be less significant than you think. But getting to that understanding, moving beyond that limiting frame, requires courage. It demands facing the very dragon that's holding you back.

Consider this: your deepest desire is to write, to create worlds with words. Yet, you're stuck in a job that drains your soul. You might tell yourself that this career is what you should be doing, clinging to a sense of competence, while your real passion withers. In this scenario, your unwritten books are the dragon – the daunting task you must tackle to break free and embrace your true calling.

The Pursuit of Vertical Transcendence

Continual transcendence should be your aim. When you reach a point of comfortable competence – say, around 80-90% mastery – it's time to seek new horizons. The most significant growth happens in that initial climb; the final refinements often offer diminishing returns. This doesn't necessarily mean scaling upwards. Sometimes, transcendence happens horizontally, broadening your skills and experiences across different domains. That can be just as valuable.

Vertical transcendence, however, demands a deep connection to your personal value hierarchy. What sits at the very top? The foundational questions – "Who am I?", "What is this life?", "What is my purpose?" – often lie at its base. These are age-old questions, explored for millennia. Answers vary, but the very act of seeking is the journey itself.

Embrace the Dragon

Life, like a game of Stardew Valley, isn't about finding a final, definitive answer. It’s about playing, learning, restarting, and building anew. Embrace the process. So, the frame you should be moving towards is the one that frightens you the most. It should be challenging, not impossible, demanding you to level up. That is where your dragon patiently waits at the gate.

This dragon is the guard. It prevents you from escaping the confines of your perceived limits, from pursuing what truly sets your soul on fire: writing that book, starting that business, having that difficult conversation. Facing that dragon at each gate is the fundamental struggle for anyone seeking to break free and ascend to the next level of themselves.

This journey goes on and on, from dragon to dragon, gate to gate, until you reach the ultimate one, the "Moomon Kwan", the gateless gate. This represents the greatest, most challenging dragon in your quest for self-actualisation.