What is a meaningful pursuit and how can find yours?
The world is changing rapidly and if you are not careful you could easily lose time every day, week, month or year without feeling proud and happy with how you live.
We don’t often take a step back to look at how technology, natural disasters and global pandemics like COVID have shifted our relationships with ourselves, others and our work.
We no longer expect to go to the office five days a week, we no longer have a job for life, and we can no longer rely on a pension. If I work throughout my life, I need to at least do work I love (or work towards it). A lot of us feel this way. We now live multi-stage lives where we want to do meaningful work alongside value-aligned colleagues in the service of people who care.
Life is no longer linear, we don’t get an education, get a job then retire. We continuously earn, learn and return as we live longer as a population and have more access than ever to new technology and opportunities.
We are required to upskill and reskill regularly and this can feel overwhelming unless we redesign how we work, learn over a lifetime and earn money. But first, let’s consider whether you feel caged, comfortable or charged with your life currently before we consider how to design a life that works for you.
What one of the three C’s are you?
- Caged – You feel stuck
- Comfortable – You made it, you worked so hard to get here. You are successful externally but not fulfilled internally
- Charged – You are working on something incredible, pushing up, becoming the best person you can be
Most people are comfortable in life, and often can feel caged but rarely feel charged up. Today, I will share a framework which worked well for me and for my clients too in shifting from a feeling of being caged in or unsatisfied with being comfortable to regularly being charged up.
But what does it mean to be charged?
What you find is that people who feel both successful and fulfilled have something I like to call meaningful pursuits. I define these as:
Long-term vocations aligned with your values in service of something bigger than yourself.
Andy Ayim, 2024
This definition in itself is a privilege that not everyone in life will experience. But what an exciting endeavour it is when you find something so compelling beyond financial reward that it leads you to do life work that changes lives.
Start with inner work
I have previously posted about Auditing Your Time. This is a great way to look back before looking forward. For example, every 6 months I look back through my digital journal (called my Tracker) and I review:
- What brings me energy?
- What drains my energy?
- What actions will I take based on the lessons I have learned?
This is a great place to start for most people, keep a journal if you don’t have one already and use it like a second brain to track your curiosities, memories and decisions.
I have a whole course on how I set myself up in Notion with a free template over at my membership.
Once set up, be patient, create the habit of creating regular entries in your journal then trust the process.
6 months in, you can reflect and review then at the 12-month mark you can do the full-year review.
This will provide an awareness of who you are, how you spend your time, and ultimately what you care about.
Playing YOUR Long Game
It is important when finding your meaningful pursuit not to compare to others or even worry about how others think or feel about YOUR pursuit. Take ownership of what is yours. This is your life-long journey of Becoming who you were born to be through the pursuit of something meaningful to you.
Three lessons I have learned from people who have meaningful pursuits are:
- They honour daily practises such as prayer, meditation, going for a walk
- They know what things make them feel most alive, such as swimming, speaking on stage, laughing with loved ones etc
- They take control of their time by saying No a lot more than yes because they are so focused on meaningful pursuits they must protect their time
Do you currently have any daily practices you would love to honour?
Block recurring time in your diary to honour these practises today.
Are you aware of what makes you feel most alive?
Make space to do these things regularly as they fill your cup.
How do you spend your time?
Prioritising yourself is the most important step to unlock the two steps above. Own your time.
For me, this is about being in service to something bigger than yourself. I see service through two words: connection and empathy. What you remember after an experience is how you made someone feel, so ask yourself, how do you make yourself feel before considering how others are made to feel from interacting with you?
Meaningful pursuits are all about knowing yourself and playing your own long game. Don’t lose your magic, get charged up, and find your meaningful pursuits.
We are all authors creating meaning in our lives through narratives, take ownership of your story today.
And of course, if you ever need help from a coach, I’m just a call away!