Stop Trying To Arrive


Stop Trying to "Arrive": Why Your Unfinished Business is Your Greatest Asset

Most of us are secretly exhausted by the idea of “arriving.”

We live in a culture obsessed with the “Done” list—polished profiles, clean narratives, tidy success stories. Uncertainty is treated like a flaw.

But what if the parts of you that feel unfinished aren’t liabilities at all—what if they are your greatest asset?

We want to arrive.

But the French philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre offers a radical, slightly terrifying, but ultimately liberating counter-argument: To be human is to be perpetually unfinished.

The Quote That Reframes Everything

In a world that constantly asks "What have you achieved?", Sartre quietly asks, "Who are you becoming?"

"Man is not the sum of what he has already, but rather the sum of what he does not yet have, of what he could have." — Jean-Paul Sartre

This perspective flips the script on modern anxiety. Here is why this matters right now:

1. The Comfort of the Unknown

As the article notes, this idea runs through Sartre's Being and Nothingness. We usually define ourselves by the past (what is known/comfortable). Sartre argues consciousness is shaped by what it is not yet.
The Spark: If you feel like an "imposter" or that you haven't figured it all out, you aren't failing. You are simply exercising the human condition of reaching forward.

2. Anxiety is the Price of Admission

The text highlights a profound truth: "The anxiety of not having everything figured out is, in fact, the price of freedom."

The Spark: That knot in your stomach isn't a sign that you are lost; it is a sign that you are free. If you had no choices left, you would have no anxiety. You would also be a statue, not a person.

3. Becoming > Arriving

We tend to think a career setback ends a story, or a massive success closes it. Sartre reminds us that success does not close the story either.

The Spark: "Arriving" is a myth. The capacity to choose again—to imagine differently despite uncertainty—is the only metric that actually counts.

⚡ Let's Discuss

This philosophy softens the blow of failure and challenges the complacency of success. But it's hard to live by in a results-oriented world.

I’d love to hear your take:
Do you find the idea of being "always unfinished" comforting or stressful?

What is something you "do not yet have" that is currently driving who you are becoming?

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