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- Clarity, Alive vs. Dead Time, Finding Purpose and The 10 Year Mirror
Clarity, Alive vs. Dead Time, Finding Purpose and The 10 Year Mirror
Srikar Karra
April 15, 2025
Welcome to Letters of Wonder — a space to explore the truths behind clarity, creation, and what it means to live a truly wonderful life.
Clarity
There’s a quiet ache in going through all the motions, yet sensing something is deeply off inside.
I know because I felt this for the longest time.
Like there was something off.
Something I couldn't quite put my hands on.
Why was I in these thought loops?
Why was I feeling something misaligned deep down?
And to the world, I would project somebody who had everything figured out.
I used to wake up and scroll on my phone for 20 minutes and wonder why the world felt so empty.
I spent time reading news I couldn't control and wondered why I was so hopeless.
I would avoid everything and have fun through the day.
And then the thoughts would arrive as soon as I went to bed.
Why was all this happening?
And why couldn't I tell anyone?
Looking back, I realized I was living in drift.
A state where I wasn't intentional with my life.
I let life happen to me. And I was bored of my own story.
And I realized that every day I numbed myself, I was trading clarity for comfort.
And eventually I lost both.
The thing is, in this state, you're not doing anything wrong.
You wake up and go through the motions.
You do the things and check the boxes.
But something still feels… hollow.
You're doing everything, but your soul feels sidelined.
The truth is that this is not called being lazy or broken.
It's just called living in dead time instead of alive time.
Alive Time vs Dead Time
I’ve been fascinated by this idea of Alive Time vs. Dead Time, a concept first framed by Robert Greene.
Alive Time is when you actively shape your life, even in small ways.
Dead Time is when life just happens to you—and you’re barely present for it.
Most people think they can’t always live in Alive Time.
“What about the things I can’t control?”
True.
You can’t control everything.
But you can always choose how you respond.
And that choice is where Alive Time begins.
It’s not about controlling every outcome.
It’s about showing up to your life with presence and responsibility.
Alive Time is when:
You create instead of consume
You feel instead of escape
You sit in the silence and ask, “What needs to change?”
You act—not from force, but from alignment
On the other end, Dead Time is when:
You consume more than you create
You numb instead of feel
You avoid silence because it asks hard questions
You act out of habit, fear, or distraction—not from clarity
For a long time, I felt a little aimless and bored.
I was participating in conversations that drained me.
I was working on things that I didn't like.
And I always thought that it was supposed to be that way.
But the truth was, I hadn’t fully reflected on what I wanted out of life vs. what life was just handing me.
I hadn’t experienced an excitement for life.
So I began to reflect more and actively pursue more.
And over time, I found what energized me.
The people, the activities, the work.
When you start reclaiming your time from the dead…you begin to feel fully alive again.
Even if nothing changes on the outside, you will know inside.
You will feel the energy shift with the ones who light you up.
You will pursue the activities that set your soul on fire.
And life will feel vibrant.
Finding Your Purpose to Reclaim Alive Time
A boy once asked a monk, “How do I find my purpose?”
The monk looked at him gently and said, “Just lean into what pulls at you. Even if it feels small. Even if no one else sees it.”
The boy frowned.
“But I don’t know where it leads.”
“You’re not supposed to,” the monk said.
“You’re supposed to follow it anyway.”
So the boy did.
He leaned into his strange questions. Questions no one asked.
“Where do dreams go when we wake up?”
“Why do we miss things we never had?”
“Can a whisper carry truth louder than a scream?”
People called him odd. Distracted. Lost.
But he kept going.
He asked questions in markets, temples, fields.
He listened to old women speak of grief, and little children speak of stars.
He wrote down every word.
He didn’t know why.
He just knew he had to.
Years passed.
He worked to make ends meet, but kept doing what lit up his soul.
And then one day, without meaning to… he had pages—thousands of them.
Filled with the soft, hidden wisdom of the world.
So he turned them into a book.
That book reached people he’d never meet.
Held by hands he’d never touch.
It made some cry.
Made some leave the life they’d settled for.
Made some begin again.
And the boy went on to become a world-famous author.
Then one day, someone asked him,
“How did you find your purpose?”
He smiled and said:
“I didn’t. I just followed what felt alive— until it led me somewhere sacred.”
Purpose doesn’t always arrive in a flash.
It reveals itself slowly.
In the things you feel quietly drawn to or the things you almost ignored.
And no, it doesn’t have to be tied to money or a title or a career.
Sometimes, your purpose is to raise kind children.
Maybe it’s to create a beautiful piece of art.
Maybe it’s to love the people around you more.
Whatever it is—lean in.
Because purpose doesn’t always shout.
But it always pulls.
The 10 Year Mirror
How we live our days is how we live our years.
If your days repeated again and again, where would you be in 10 years from now?
Use that to figure out how to make your life more beautiful.
A beautiful day is a beautiful life.
Lean into what feels right. Not just what looks right.
Follow the quiet pull of purpose, even while carrying responsibility.
And each day choose just a little more Alive Time.
Because that’s how everything starts to shift.
