Introduction: Explanation of the concept
By: The Path To Output
Tags: Effectiveness, Meaning, Concept, Lifestyle, Philosophy

In the first post, I want to introduce you to the graph that will serve as a guideline on your walk along the path to output. Remember what I said in the first post, “life is a sequence of actions, events and situations that is repeated endlessly”, so the events and situations are all dependent on your actions. In order to change anything, you need to make an effort and commit yourself to a specific goal. You are able to commit yourself by altering your behaviour and habits, simply saying, changing what you do. How to determine if your actions are leading you to the path that you want to take?

I created a concept which allows us to categorize our actions and see if we are heading anywhere. “The path to output” can be interpreted as “a way to live an impactful lifestyle” or “how to spend your time effectively”. The definition of output is “the amount of something produced by a person, machine, or industry.”(Lexico,2021) We as humans are given the power to produce something and you determine what that something is.

I classified all of our activities into three categories. Now it’s time to look at the graph. Starting from the outside, the red zone includes the activities that produce “negative output”( another name is “no output” activities.) This means the activity doesn’t bring you any benefits/results or doesn’t make you happy, it’s something that has no impact on your life. As mentioned in the prologue, it’s an activity that you don’t learn from and you do it to waste your time. It’s hard to give a general example because everyone has a different “output”. For me watching 6 season fantasy series is an activity that produces “negative output” as I don’t learn anything from it, and I don’t feel any joy doing it. Another example is meeting with the same group of friends every single day as there comes a point when you don’t experience any emotions, you simply meet in order not to be bored. The second type of activities, the orange circles, are activities that produce “zero output”. Those activities make you appreciate life simply because you are alive, they bring you happiness and joy. You might not learn from them, but you enjoy life and it’s vital for you to have those activities. Those activities emphasize emotions, so hobbies go into that category. The third and the most important type of activities are the ones that produce “positive output”(also referred to as “output”). Those activities make you feel that you have a purpose, you learn from them and they produce impact either on personal or global level or on both. For me “learning” produces positive output as after I acquire new knowledge, I alter my outlooks on certain things and feel that there is a change.

The aim is to have all of your activities produce either zero or positive output. The turquoise areas, where zero and positive output meet, are where you should aim to be, as those are activities that you have passion for and you understand that they benefit you, and in the future, they might benefit the whole society. The white areas which are identified as “underlying output” are activities that are essential for you to live. They are activities that give you energy and allow you to maintain a healthy lifestyle. Those activities include sleeping, showering, brushing your teeth and etc. If you are wondering what the magenta dot in the middle is, it’s the activity that we should all aim to find. It’s the activity that you have passion for, and you understand that you can contribute to the evolution of humanity by focusing on it. I chose the magenta colour as it’s a so-called “non-existent” colour, it doesn’t appear on the light spectrum and it doesn’t have its own wavelength. The idea behind this is that by concentrating on that activity, you are going to be able to produce your “maximum output”, you will be able to create something new, something that the world hasn’t seen before.

The aim is to have all of your activities fit inside the triangle. This doesn’t apply to me yet, but I am working on it. If you share the same vision(or we could call it philosophy), then welcome onto “the path of output” and I am looking forward to this journey.