Elon Musk is concerned for our future.
And he wants to avoid feeling depressed about it.
He wants to wake up in the morning excited for the future, so he wakes up to build the future he’s excited for.
It’s NOT complicated.
In fact it’s very simple, even if the future he’s excited for demands a colony on Mars.
This future is depressing
This is one thing that surprised me when I began researching Elon.
Because I didn’t know what was driving him I lacked an appreciation for the scale of his thinking.
I’d seen him as going after important, ambitious goals, rather than a leader focused on the future of our species as he’s talking about here:
You see he’s talking about something simple, how you feel waking up every day, and then “tying” this to his view of our depressing future—
I think it’s important to have a future that is inspiring and appealing. I just think that there have to be reasons that you get up in the morning. Like why do you want to live? What inspires you? What do you love about the future? If the future doesn’t include being out there amongst the stars and we’re not a multi-planetary species, I find that incredibly depressing.
This type of clip is common for Elon where often he goes “meta,” tying his goals to a grand mission and purpose.
Here’s the other side.
This future is greatest ever
If you spend enough time modeling Elon’s brain, you consistently see a mix of “away from” and “towards” motivators.
In the clip above for instance, he’s moving “away from” a depressing future “towards” a future that is inspiring and appealing.
You see in this clip below he begins with the defensive reason he’s focused on space before shifting in the positive direction—
And so there’s the defensive reason of protecting the future of humanity, ensuring that the light of consciousness is not extinguished, should some calamity befall Earth. But also, and that’s the defensive reason, but personally, I find what gets me more excited is the fact that this would be an incredible adventure. Maybe like the greatest adventure ever. And it will be exciting and inspiring. And there need to be things that excite and inspire people.
Do you see why I’m laying it out this way for you?
Depressing < Elon > Exciting
This is a formula that you might see captures Elon’s drive.
On the away from side is a depressing future he’s looking to avoid, while moving towards the positive future he finds exciting.
In the middle is Elon, taking the actions to keep putting distance between the future he’s looking to avoid, while closing the gap to achieve the future he wants.
Something CRUCIAL to keep in mind is that we’re NOT talking about what’s “true.”
Elon might be right—a future confined to Earth, waiting for a next extinction event, might be a terrible future, especially relative to one like Star Trek.
But that’s just his PERCEPTION.
Meaning, Elon has concluded one future is depressing, another is exciting, and he’s put himself right in the middle of creating it.
This is my point.
It’s not about whether he’s right or wrong, or whether these are the grandest or stupidest goals for Elon and humanity.
The point is that Elon knows what future he wants and he does everything he can to create it.
#1 thing driving your goals?
Having strong enough reasons to put your hands on the wheel.
Do you see my point?
What drives achieving every goal is—You caring so much about an outcome that you do EVERYTHING in your power to create it.
See, Elon’s goals are incredible to me.
It means more than ANYTHING to me that his highest purpose is serving humanity, and that he’ll work 100 hours a week doing it.
I dream of a world where every single one of us is focused on creating the best future for our ENTIRE species.
BUT you can never make your life about what the world needs, or the goals other people think are important.
Your life is your life, and this #1 thing driving your goals is why something matters to YOU—
Why your goals deeply matter to you.
Why you wake up every day and further them.
Why, if the going gets impossibly tough, as it has for Elon, you keep driving through.
How about you?
Do you see the point I’m “trying” to convey here?
That we could get all wowed talking about how grand Elon’s goals are.
We could celebrate how wonderful it is that he’s focused on goals for humanity.
How crucial it is for more of us to be focused on important, time-sensitive goals for our planet and species.
We could go deep talking about your why, and how fulfilling it is to live a life of definite purpose.
Yes, there’s lots of big picture, important sides to this.
Yet my most important discovery is that things aren’t always as they seem and we must be VERY careful about making missions in our world, for there are many sides to this reality that we often fail to see.
So most of all I’m “trying” to convey here—The force driving Elon’s and your goals is knowing what matters so much to you that you’re grabbing the wheel driving it through.