SMART Summary
There’s so much pop psychology floating around about finding meaning, being mindful, etc.
Admittedly, this won’t cover all the in’s and out’s, but here’s the SMART Life take on finding meaning. (Hint: maybe the point is to provide meaning?)
Significance
Sort out what is significant from the necessary, short-term or urgent. Meaning isn’t to be found in a checked off to-do or bucket list. These things can help keep us motivated to move forward down the road, but why are we on the road in the first place?
Spending time thinking about measuring significance, not just accomplishments – that’s Smart!
Significance looks more like impact, helpfulness, change that can be measured in some way. In terms of significance as a path to meaning, it’s measuring how much of these things we provide to others, not accumulate to ourselves.
Measure Your Outflow
There’s a few high brow quotes about “what gets measured…” but they don’t really apply here, so nevermind. What we are interested in here is this: we have a choice what to measure.
In searching for meaning, measure from inside out. Measure what you are giving, how you are helping, what impact are you having. Maybe the quote we are looking for is: “it’s more blessed to give than receive.”
Accumulate Things That Matter
We all acquire and accumulate all kinds of things on life’s journey. Too much of it is laying around your space or taking up room in your head from the latest fad, fashion trend or frivolous… – ok, I think you get the point.
Read these death-bed quotes or search on your own, there’s too many to list here. You won’t find any that refer to accumulating more stuff, but you will see a lot about relationships, life experiences and making a contribution.
Recognize Regret
Ah, regret. Most of us have earned platinum level frequent flier reward status taking long trips on the mental plane to “Regretville”. Maybe we are fellow Regret Airlines frequent fliers!? If there’s a lesson to learn, let’s learn it. Take the lesson and leave the experience behind.
Searching for meaning is more fruitful when looking proactively rather than reactively. Recognize when regret is detouring you and decide to go a different way.
Treasure The Best Things
“Where your treasure is there will your heart be.” Be mindful that what you put value on becomes what your heart is attached to. Treasure people – long-term friends, shared experiences. Invest your time and money into developing connections, or cultivating the ability to make connections if necessary.
DUMB choices to search for meaning include:
Debt
Concerning financial debt from accumulating things that don’t matter, see Accumulate above. But there’s also relational debt from not keeping promises, emotional debt from letting yourself down, mental debt from not taking opportunities to learn. Don’t take on more debt, start paying it off now.
Unrealistic Expectations
More people are confused, dissatisfied, discouraged, disappointed, and derailed by unrealistic expectations than by almost anything else! I’m not saying don’t shoot for the stars – I’m saying shoot for the stars and don’t give up, while also being realistic about the expectations.
Elon Musk decided to shoot for the stars while acknowledging the probability of success was low. “I thought SpaceX would fail, but maybe someone else could use it to do better.” That’s realizing the probability is low but doing it anyway!
Measuring Meaning By Comparison
The next time you are tempted to not move forward from a vague sense of not being good enough, ask yourself “compared to who?” Going this one step deeper will help clarify that you are measuring yourself by – what exactly? And why does that matter?
Being Someone Other Than Yourself
It’s a common theme around here, but still true. We need the best version of YOU in today’s world, not a knock off copy of someone else. Lean into your uniqueness. Take an assessment, ask for feedback, discover what makes you unique.
