I’ve been lightly reading David Deida’s Way of the Superior Man in my spare time. A chapter titled, “Be Willing to Change Everything in Your Life,” described fulfilling life’s aspirations in a manner that has stayed with me.

As you open yourself to living at your edge, your deepest purpose will slowly begin to make itself known. In the meantime, you will experience layer after layer of purposes, each one getting closer and closer to the fullness of your deepest purpose. It is as if your deepest purpose is at the center of your being, and it is surrounded by layers of concentric circles, each circle being a lesser purpose. Your life consists of penetrating each circle, from the outside toward the center.

Further, he describes each layer has having an individual purpose and lesson. Sometimes it is necessary to go through each level to reach the final destination.

If your deepest purpose is to meditate and realize God, you might find that before you can totally dedicate yourself to this practice you must work your way through the concentric circles of playing with sexual partners, using drugs, getting married, raising children, developing a career, and finally, having dissolved your fascination and need to do all of that, getting down to the business of full-time meditation.

I like to think of them as having a different order and appearance for all of us. This seems to neutralize the discomfort I see witnessing people around me going through different layers I’ve already moved through.