Tomorrow, he was longing for tomorrow, whereas everything in himself should make him reject it.” That which pulls human beings from one day to the next in a universe marked by absurdity is, as Albert Camus put it in The Myth of Sisyphus, meaning. Or, simply, human beings need something to look forward to. A recent social media trend would likely gain Camus’s approval then: The “great lock in” or the “September reset” is aimed at taking stock and making changes to improve the quality of one’s life. Google Trends says search for the term has surged by 1367 per cent this month. As the year rolls towards its end, the trend is aimed at taking stock of where one stands and making changes. The idea is to reboot one’s life in pursuit of goals, new and old.
In a world engulfed by chaos, working on the self, striving for change, are the contemporary equivalents of rolling up the Sisyphean boulder in the pursuit of control. So work on that work-out plan, go out and make more friends, have your cake and plan to eat it too. Remember, what makes for a happy life is not how things fall in place but how one strives to ensure that they do.
