You wake up, go to work, pay the bills, and do it all over again. You’re waiting for that big break, that promotion, or that magical moment when everything finally makes sense. Here’s the hard truth: that moment isn’t coming. You’re pushing a boulder up a hill, and if you’re banking on the view from the top to make you happy, you’re setting yourself up for misery.
Albert Camus, the French philosopher, called this the “absurd.” He used the Greek myth of Sisyphus to explain the human condition. Sisyphus was condemned to roll a rock up a mountain for eternity, only to watch it roll back down every time he neared the summit. It sounds like a torture sentence, but Camus argued it’s the perfect metaphor for our lives. We strive for order and meaning in a chaotic universe that couldn’t care less about us.
The difference between suffering and struggling isn’t the situation—it’s your attitude. You can’t control the rock. You can’t control the hill. But you can control how you feel about the push.
Is This Hell or Just Tuesday?
Let’s be real: the situation is absolutely fucked. We are all trapped in a repetitive cycle with one guaranteed end. If you stop and really look at it, the lack of inherent meaning in the universe is terrifying. Most people spend their entire lives running from this realization. They distract themselves with fake positivity or religious delusions, hoping that someone or something will eventually swoop in to fix the mess.
Camus calls this “philosophical suicide.” It’s the coward’s way out. You try to bridge the gap between your desire for meaning and the world’s silence by lying to yourself. You tell yourself the grind has a “higher purpose.” It doesn’t. The rock is just a rock. The hill is just a hill. Once you accept that the universe owes you nothing, you stop being a victim of it. You aren’t suffering because you’re unlucky; you’re suffering because you expect the rock to stay up.
Why Hope Is a Trap
Hope is dangerous. When you focus on the destination, you devalue the journey. You tell yourself, “I’ll be happy when I get the raise,” or “I’ll be happy when I’m married.” That’s a trap. If Sisyphus is standing at the top of the hill dreaming about the rock staying there, he’s miserable. He is a prisoner of his own hope.
You need to kill the hope that the situation will change. It won’t. The bills will keep coming. The work will keep piling up. You will die. That sounds dark, but it’s actually liberating. If there is no final reward, you are free to stop performing for an audience that doesn’t exist. You don’t push the boulder to get it to the top; you push it because you’re alive to push it.
The Ultimate “Screw You” to the Universe
Camus concluded his essay with the famous line: “One must imagine Sisyphus happy.” This isn’t about toxic positivity. It’s not about plastering a fake smile on your face and pretending everything is fine. It’s an act of defiance. The gods punished Sisyphus to make him miserable. If he stands there smiling, enjoying the burn in his muscles and the grit under his fingernails, he wins.
By enjoying the struggle, you become the master of your fate. You aren’t “forced” to push the boulder; you choose to push it. You look the absurdity of life in the eye and say, “Is that all you got?” That is true freedom. It’s the same logic the military uses when they say “embrace the suck.” You accept the pain, you find a grim satisfaction in the difficulty, and you keep moving.
Control the Reaction, Not the Situation
You can’t stop the world from throwing chaos at you. You can’t control the economy, your boss, or the traffic. But you have total control over your internal state. This is where the real work happens. It’s easy to be happy when things go your way. It takes discipline to be happy when the rock rolls back down.
Start paying attention to your thoughts. When you feel anger or resentment bubbling up, don’t suppress it. Just note it. “Huh, I’m pissed off about this email.” Acknowledge it, then ask yourself: is there anything I can do about it? If yes, do it. If no, let it go. Dwelling on things outside your control is a waste of energy. That energy is better spent pushing the rock.
Drop the Meaning and Start Living
Stop searching for some grand, objective meaning to your life. It doesn’t exist. You’re not going to find it under a rock or at the bottom of a bottle. Meaning isn’t something you find; it’s something you create. It’s a choice you make every single morning when you get out of bed.
You don’t need a reason to enjoy your coffee. You don’t need a reason to enjoy the sunset. You don’t need a reason to enjoy the struggle of a hard workout or a difficult project. The meaning is in the doing. Catalog your birds, arrange your books, make your money, make your love. Do it with intention. Do it with spite. Do it because the alternative is laying down and dying, and that’s boring.
The Struggle Is Enough
The rock is going to roll back down. It’s guaranteed. But that walk back down the hill? That’s your time. That’s the moment where you realize you are still here, you are still breathing, and you are still capable of trying again. The struggle toward the heights is enough to fill a man’s heart.
Stop waiting for the endgame. Stop waiting for the world to make sense. Find joy in the absurdity. Find pride in the grind. Look at your life, look at your boulder, and smile. You’re still pushing. That’s the only victory that matters.