This is an email from The Weekly Writing, a newsletter by The Writing On The Wall.
May 16
Is Your Work Meaningful To You? Exploring Who We Are vs. Who We Think We Should Be
I thought about several ways to title this newsletter. I thought about “ I’m resting more lately and I hope you are too” or “my dog is trying to chew my computer to bits, so this may be short.”
What I really want to ask is what I’ve been asking myself a lot lately.
What feels meaningful to me right now?
Not what will get me from point a to point b? Not how do I accomplish earning x amount of dollars this week?
What is meaningful to me right now?
It’s a luxurious question to ask. It implies that you have the support system and the time to do what is meaningful to you.
My situation right now- a work sabbatical, a period of prioritizing rest over productivity, getting to know myself better, and being able to do so without worrying about how I’ll support myself certainly is unique.
The journey to where I am right now has been tough.
It was not easy getting to a point of allowing rest.
It hasn’t been easy learning to lead my life with my compass pointed at what is actually meaningful to me instead of assuming that the outcomes my conditioned mind value -society-valued markers of success- are what is meaningful to me.
I’d like to ask that we all try something, wherever we are in our lives and careers.
- Answer the question: what is meaningful to you?
- Find time to do 1 thing a day that is meaningful to you. It doesn’t have to be a big thing. It can be small, like 15 minutes alone in the morning. Make it yours.
- Take it one step further. If you enjoy your meaningful moments, envision your life with more moments driven by meaning rather than the outcome. What does that life look like? How far out of reach does it seem? What comes up for you?
The work of unlearning our “shoulds”- I should do this, I should be this, I should, should, should is some of the hardest work we will ever do.
I challenge you to lean away from shoulds and into the discomfort of being who you want to be.
It’s funny, isn’t it, that being ourselves is often a small part of this massive, amazing life, and what society thinks we “should” be is often a very large part.
Lean into who you are, and away from who you feel like you should be. Let me know how it goes.
xx
Camille
