To Figure It Out, or Not To Figure It Out

Written By Srivatsa Srinivasan

A Practical Guide for the 22-Year-Old and the 55-Year-Old

“To figure it out, or not to figure it out — that is the question.”

At 22, it feels urgent.
At 55, it can feel exhausting.

Yet both ages often stand at the same crossroads:

Am I supposed to build myself… or realize I was never just this constructed self to begin with?

Modern life pushes one answer:

Figure it out.

Find your purpose.
Build your career.
Optimize your body.
Heal your mind.
Create your legacy.

And there is truth in this.

Without discipline, reflection, and practical action, life can drift into confusion.

But there is another truth, quieter and deeper:

Who is the “you” trying so desperately to figure it all out?

The Two Schools of Thought

School One: Figure It Out

This is the world of:

  • Career planning

  • Therapy

  • Goal setting

  • Self-improvement

  • Financial security

  • Better habits

This path says:

Become better.

And practically speaking — you should.

At 22:
You need direction, skill, mistakes, and action.

At 55:
You need refinement, meaning, wisdom, and often simplification.

Ignoring practical life entirely is rarely wisdom.

School Two: Don’t Overidentify With the Person

This path asks:

Who is anxious?
Who is striving?
Who is afraid?
Who is trying to “arrive”?

Your roles change:
Student.
Parent.
Executive.
Retiree.

Your mind changes.
Your body changes.
Your social identity changes.

So perhaps beneath all these temporary forms is something deeper:

Awareness itself.

From this perspective:

You do not need to solve your existence entirely through mental effort.

Sometimes peace is found not in perfecting the character,
but in loosening your grip on it.

The Joke, Perhaps

We spend years attempting to solve ourselves
As though we are complex equations
Rather than temporary expressions of life.

Like a wave attending seminars
On how to become water.

Practical Wisdom by Age

If You Are 22:

Your challenge is not to prematurely escape life through philosophy.

You still need to:

  • Learn skills

  • Build discipline

  • Take risks

  • Fail

  • Earn

  • Serve

  • Understand responsibility

Practical Advice:

  • Figure out enough to stand on your own feet

  • Build competence before chasing abstract enlightenment

  • Avoid endless comparison

  • Use ambition, but don’t worship it

  • Begin inward awareness early so success does not become your identity

Core lesson:

Build the person, but remember you are more than the person.

If You Are 55:

Your challenge is often the opposite.

You may have already:

  • Built the career

  • Raised the family

  • Chased the goals

  • Won some battles

  • Lost others

Now the deeper question emerges:

Was all this striving my full identity?

Practical Advice:

  • Simplify

  • Release unnecessary ego battles

  • Mentor others

  • Focus inward more deeply

  • Shift from accumulation to understanding

  • Recognize that peace may matter more than endless expansion

Core lesson:

Refine the person, but loosen attachment to the story.

The Hidden Trap at Any Age

At both 22 and 55, people can become trapped by extremes:

Too much figuring out:

Leads to anxiety, overthinking, endless optimization.

Too little figuring out:

Leads to passivity, avoidance, confusion.

The Balanced Path

Perhaps the wisest approach is:

Figure out:

  • Your responsibilities

  • Your ethics

  • Your livelihood

  • Your harmful patterns

Do not obsessively figure out:

  • Every existential question

  • Every identity label

  • Every future outcome

Because some things are lived,
not mentally conquered.

So… To Be or Not To Be?

Perhaps:

Be enough to function.
Figure out enough to reduce suffering.
But not so much that you forget
You were never merely the character.

Yes, pay your bills.
Yes, be kind.
Yes, improve where needed.

But maybe release
The compulsive need
To mentally conquer existence.

A More Grounded Answer

For the young:
Act boldly, but don’t lose yourself in becoming.

For the older:
Honor your journey, but don’t mistake your history for your essence.

For both:
Live sincerely. Improve practically. Look inward deeply.

Final Reflection

Life may not require that you perfectly “figure yourself out.”

It may require:

  • Enough clarity to live responsibly

  • Enough humility to know the mind cannot control everything

  • Enough inward stillness to remember who you are beneath the noise

So perhaps the answer is:

Figure out what must be figured out for practical living.
Release what cannot be solved by force.
Be fully human — but remember you are also deeper than the human role.

To figure it out, or not to figure it out?

Maybe wisdom is:

Figure out enough to live well.
Let go enough to live free.

Srivatsa Srinivasan https://aishree.me
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