“How you live a meaningful life is in the granular now. It’s in how you greet your barista, how you pause before a sunset, how you show up to the hard conversation…Meaning is not the mountain. It’s the steps. It’s not the symphony. It’s each note, well played.” – Bill Burnett & Dave Evans
Clarity Kickstart:
Are you waiting to live a meaningful life until you know exactly what that looks like? Until you can define it, explain it, and pursue it with crystal clarity?
When it comes to meaningful work and a purposeful life, we can put a lot of pressure on ourselves to ‘figure it out’ and ‘get it right.’ And while there indeed are many ways we can do this – clarifying our vision for the future or writing our personal purpose statement, for instance – we actually don’t have to wait for anything to live with greater meaning and purpose.
Not a single thing.
This week, pause for just a moment before entering a room or building.
Take that moment to ask yourself how you might make the moment meaningful:
* Sincerely thanking your team during the meeting for their efforts .
* Asking the cashier about his day and genuinely wishing him a great one.
* Telling your young child how much you appreciate her drawings.
* Commenting on someone’s post with how their message truly reached you.
* Experiencing a bit of wonder at the birds congregating around your feeder.
Opportunities to bring meaning to work and purpose to life abound in our everyday. Take a moment each day to intentionally bring that to the forefront, and you’ll start to feel a greater sense of meaning in no time – regardless of whether you have everything else ‘figured out’!
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