Two Running Mountains

There's a really good book called 'The Second Mountain' which posits the idea that we're crafted for more than just personal accomplishments and eventually seek out more fulfilling sacrificial endeavors - starting a family for instance which completes the satisfaction in our finite lives. Generally speaking no matter how hard we try, personal achievement will never be able to completely fill the void that demands willing sacrifice for something other than ourselves.

Of course it is a novel idea, and one that a lot of people will agree with. Something has been on my mind though. For those who realize that there is a second mountain to climb does it only reveal itself from the emptiness of the first. Is the first truly as empty as we might believe when properly accomplished? There are lots of people that dedicate themselves to their personal ambitions and seem to find all the happiness in the World from getting to the top. When talking about deep sacrifice should we be careful to excuse these common examples as extremes?

How about those who never get to the summit of their 'first mountains' and yet embark on another pursuit. Is it a good strategy? It seems like the overwhelming majority of us are in this category. We end up pursuing two mountains simultaneously while likely never getting to the peak of any. Granted we find more meaning in the pursuit of the second mountain, but because we've not accomplished ourselves in the first then the climb is more difficult than it ought to be. Thinking about it further, I think such scenarios make us almost ignorant or certainly less appreciative of what it means to climb these two mountains.

At some point in my life I'll be pursuing a deeper meaning. For now I think personal ambition takes center stage for me but it doesn't have to do so in isolation. We could always grow with the mindset that more needs to be incorporated as we move up the ladder. There's something very fulfilling about reaching the summit of these two mountains in our lifetimes.