To do what is right
A long term philosophy that will help you find the most meaningful thing you can do.
- Patience. Have belief that your essence will reveal itself. Listen carefully to yourself and your surroundings. Let things happen to you, with you, around you, within you. Trust. Enjoy.
- Motion. Think up courses of action, and plan them out. Take opportunities to help. Follow leaders you trust. Start little. Doing something is always better than nothing …
- Consciousness. … but not simply anything. Spend your time, attention and money wisely. Ask yourself where your behavior and your thoughts lead you. Adjust if you need, and patiently so. You don’t change from one day to the next.
Sitting in my favorite cafe, a question rang through my head and I jotted it down in my journal.
“What do you want to do NOW?”
My unexciting answer to my asking self: “Shrug”
It was a daunting moment. My good friend Aga and I would always envision the time of our lives, in which we could do “whatever the fuck we want”. And here I was, with no acute responsibility or pressure to do anything — and no drive or desire either?
I managed to answer the question in broader terms:
Asking self: “Do you want to do meaningful things?”
Responding self: “Yes! That would be great.”
AS: “Well, what is meaningful to you?”
RS: “Furthering myself, furthering others and helping others further themselves, accepting help and good influences, building something, maybe alone, maybe with someone else.”
These bits didn’t satisfy me. I meant them well, but they did not answer my question. At most, they conveyed a generic sense of good intentions, which deserved maybe one or two pats on the back.
In frustration, I went to speak to the cafe’s owner, a friend of mine.
I asked: “Fabio, what is really meaningful in your life? Can you do something right now that gives you joy and a sense of purpose?”
Despite being dumbfounded by the weight of the question, we enjoyed its beauty, and felt sad at how rarely we seem to ask it to one another. We then quickly agreed that we both did not know how to answer it, at least not in terms of ultimate certainty.
My initial comment was that it actually feels quite meaningful in this moment to sit around in a beautiful cafe, to spend time freely and without worry, and to ponder this question. In a way I was doing “whatever the fuck I wanted”. That feeling was balanced with a sense of slacking, as I was not investing my time into activity that immediately generated revenue or positive change (in the world).
Then again, to be lenient with myself, the time spent probably counts for positive change, as it generates clarity within myself, which should help me drive joy / change / revenue / (insert metric) for myself and others in the future. It is good to be patient in this way, and to believe in yourself.
We also agreed that it was important to spend every currency you have wisely. I think that is what consciousness means. There are three key currencies: time (which you spend) and attention (which you pay), as innately human currencies. And money, as a socially established form of communication and exchange of value.
It is very good to be conscious of how and where you spend your time, what and who you pay attention to, and how you spend your money. As you ask yourself what is important and meaningful to you, the answers should often influence your spending habits. Or should we say investing habits?
And as we pondered — Fabio, feeling out of place running a cafe, and I, not knowing what to do with my new found time-riches — we agreed that it was always good to keep in motion. Some like to move more, some like to sit more, but standstill is not good. One is a lot more than zero. To make our aforementioned patience pay off, we have to try as well.
“According to logotherapy, we can discover this meaning in in life in three different ways: (1) by creating a work or doing a deed; (2) by experiencing something or encountering someone; and (3) by the attitude we take toward unavoidable suffering.“
— Victor Frankl, Man’s Search for Meaning
Victor Frankl’s excellent and daunting read Man’s Search For Meaning helped me understand how essential meaning is to live a good life. So essential, that it can even save your life if you find yourself in a dangerous situation, for example if you are trapped in a death camp that crazy people built to kill others they don’t like. You can buy the book here*: DE UK
*Amazon affiliate links
