Most people are trying to build the platform of their lives all by themselves, while working all the new levers at the same time. I think of CEOs, business leaders, soldiers, or parents who have no principled or ethical sense of themselves and end up with some kind of “pick and choose” morality in the pressured moment. This pattern leaves the isolated ego in full control, and surely represents the hubris that will precede a lot of impending tragedies. This pattern is all probably predictable when we try to live life backwards and build ourselves a wonderful superstructure before we have laid any real foundations from culture, religion, or tradition. Frankly, it is much easier to begin rather conservative or traditional. I know some of us do not want to hear that.
From “Falling Upward: A Spirituality for the Two Halves of Life” by Richard Rohr