As a coach, you hear the word purpose rather a lot.
The narrative is that purpose is what many people lack, and that discovering it can bring us meaning and fulfilment.
Purpose is important, but inadequate on its own. The idea that we have or don’t have a purpose is also too simplistic.
John Vervaeke outlines 4 aspects that together grant meaning. I think they’re interesting to explore:
Purpose is the first aspect. It means having goals beyond the present moment. It gives you direction by helping you organise your actions over time. But purpose alone is dangerous; indistinguishable from cult-mentality. It can become brittle and disconnected without the other aspects.
On Day 1, I said I would be writing about what’s interesting to me.
Maybe this sounds a little trite. If you write online, there is often an expectation to mould your writings into short, punchy essays, layered with hot, contrarian takes.
But following what’s interesting is deeper than this.
To follow what’s interesting is to trust your sense of salience. Salience is an exquisitely complex way of pulling meaning from the world. It’s fast, yet utterly personalised. A lot of it happens beneath your awareness. You don’t know all the inputs and you never will.