Let us now get serious about our days and who are becoming because of them. Let’s get serious about the aim and enjoyment of a meaningful life. It is time to value the hour once more and refuse to give up our lives to the world’s distractions and nonsense. It is time to make our own way and get back our day. For this, we declare: We Shall Reclaim Our Agenda.
Clarity on What Is Meaningful
What will give us a sense that we are one more in command of our life’s agenda? Clarity. Direction. Progress.
We begin developing clarity about the current state of our life’s agenda by realizing that all human experience is segmented into two fields: meaningful activities and nonmeaningful activities. This forces a clear distinction when evaluating our days. Do I find what I am doing each day of my life meaningful? Is all this busywork in line with what I feel is my life’s work? These are the questions of the self-determined. Such questions make us reevaluate everything–every task, responsibility, and opportunity that is laid before us by the world must now be questioned as to whether or not it aligns with our goals, whether or not it enlivens us, whether or not it allows us to feel fulfilled. To those activities that come up short, we must be unblinking and once and for all release our belief that we must be doing them.
Some will moan at this work. They will say, “But I do not like my answers. You do not understand. I have to do this terrible job. My workday is not my choice.” To those who believe this, only time and maturity will help them uncover the truth: work, just like our emotions, is ultimately a choice. Whether or not we wield that power is up to us. If we don’t like the work we are doing, we have three choices:
Continue hating what we do;
Change our perspective and find meaning and joy in our current tasks; or
Quit the dispassionate work and seek out what will make our soul sing.
One would hope everyone would, at some point, and as soon as responsibly possible, choose the last option.
Do we have to quit every job we hate? No. Surely, we could stay in any job and succeed–greatness can be cultivated in the soil of any experience. But we all know that the seeds of greatness grow faster in the hearts of those doing work they love than in the bitter hearts of those enslaved by work they despise.
Some give their entire lives away to work they dislike because they never have the resolve to ask, “What if I were free and strong enough to go find something more engaging and fulfilling? What if the world isn’t giving me what I want because, based on all my distractions and lack of discipline toward a goal, it’s simply unclear what I am asking for?” In such bold questions we unsettle ourselves and unleash a new kind of desire and strength within.
* Source: The Motivation Manifesto by Brendon Burchard