Should I chop life, or should I lock in?
Here's what happens when enjoyment and ambition want to co-host your life.
I don’t know if I’m alone, but here’s the thing… On some mornings, I wake up to two overfed fat men fighting sumo in my head:
Fat Man 1: "Bro, we need to chop life! Go out, have fun, enjoy yourself. Life is short, remember? 😉"
Fat Man 2: "Are you mad? We need to lock in! Work hard, life is not a bed of roses! 😡"
And there I am, caught in the middle like the referee in the sumo match, but the problem is, the two fat idiots are not even fighting each other; they’re fighting me.
Introducing… the "Chop Life" fattie
In the left corner, weighing 2400 kg, he’s known as the "chop life" fattie, the unofficial ambassador for the YOLO culture. You’ll usually find him in party shades, even indoors.
He’s always trying to make me understand that there’s a lot of life to chop. The other day, I was on my own, and he just showed up with the Instagram recommendation of this fine resort in Saudi Arabia.
"Let’s go to this place?" he whispered.
You know… this guy once tried to convince me to book a flight to Ibiza in the middle of the night because Chris Brown was going to be there, and I should leave my wife and baby behind, because YOLO.
Introducing… the "Lock In" fattie
And in the right corner, also weighing 2400 kg, is the "lock-in" fattie, the motivational-quote-forwarding menace. He’s always storming in like a disappointed parent who just saw my report card.
"Chop life with what money?" he asked me the other day.
“With the money I made from locking in”, I responded.
"You only have this one life to make an impression. And you want to be busy chopping it?”, he screamed.
To him, having fun is a distraction and resting is for the weak, or the dead.
The illusion that there’s a middle ground…
You'd think the solution would be balance, right? A perfect 50-50 split between chopping life and locking in. But anyone who's tried this knows it's like trying to walk on a thin rope during an earthquake.
When you're locked into work, you feel guilty about not living your best life.
When you're chopping life, you feel guilty about not being productive enough.
It's a special kind of torture where you can't fully enjoy either state because you're constantly thinking about the other.
But I’ve figured it out…
That… the real problem isn't choosing between "chopping life" and "locking in", the real enemy is the guilt that follows whichever choice I make.
I’ve realised that these two fatties are not trying to fight me, they’re just trying to optimise my life, but they're using different metrics.
One measures success by experiences and soft life.
The other measures it by achievements and progress.
And I’m stuck trying to maximise both simultaneously, which is impossible; it’s like trying to drive north and south at the same time.
And I’ve concluded that…
Maybe the secret isn't choosing a side, but accepting that this tension will always exist. Maybe it's okay to have seasons, periods where you lock in hard, and periods where you chop life harder.
The question isn't which choice is objectively better, it's which choice I can live with, and which fat dude I want to answer to at any point.
So I’ve stopped trying to evict them. They live rent-free in my head, and now, we take turns. Sometimes I chill out with Chop Life fattie, sometimes I grind with Lock In fattie.
Either way, I’ve chosen to make peace with the fact that I’m human, and humans are chaotically complex… It’s okay to have two fat men in your head.
So if you'll excuse me, I need to go lock in... right after I finish chopping this life a little bit.