"Purpose gives meaning, not happiness."
That was my thought for the week. I scribbled down some ideas that were coming to me as I surveyed my surroundings and made sense of why I was thinking about purpose.
I've been reading a book a week starting about 3 weeks ago in an effort to read more- you can check out what I've finished reading and what I'm currently reading over in my books section.
I always say I want to read more, and I buy some interesting titles, but they just end up sitting in my book shelf looking brand new for ages. So I set myself a goal of reading a book a week (currently stuck on the textbook I'm reading taking a bit longer).
Anyway, my third book for the year was "Man's Search for Meaning" by Viktor E. Frankl.
This was a really insightful and poignant read and was just full of wisdom that I think can only come of being able to find that survivor mindset in the midst of such a harrowing experience.
I think the week I read "Man's Search for Meaning", I was already a couple weeks into my routine, and it primed my mind to think about the "struggle" I was going through, and to think about it in terms of meaning.
So now, in this 4th of 5th week of executing the plans I made at the start of the year, I pause for a second and take stock of where I am in this moment.
The goals at the start of the year included eating keto, losing weight, reading a book a week, writing a blog post a week etc etc.
This means I haven't eaten a takeaway, or ordered anything from uber eats for about 5 weeks, I cook a weeks worth of keto meals at the start of every week, I spend about 1 and 1/2 to 2 hours reading after work every day, I train 6 days a week and I go to bed at 10pm every night.
I'm not going to say it's been "easy"- but I can't say it's been hard.
If you had seen how hard it was for me to not order junk food while watching a movie before, you'd be wondering where the real Ron was and what I had done with him.
I don't say it was easy because the easy things were ordering food, watching Netflix, missing the gym, and going to bed at 3am.
Getting up every morning at 5am to run isn't easy.
Not having a donut, or pizza or KFC this whole time isn't easy.
But I don't say "hard" because the goals I set for myself, I really want to achieve.
So it's a no-brainer that I need to choose the actions that map to the things I want for myself. There's nothing "hard" about that decision in itself- I want the things so I say 'yes' to the right things.
And this is what I've found in the 4-5 weeks of sticking with the plan-
It's not as "exciting" as my previous life of doing whatever I wanted, whenever I wanted- but it's a lot more fulfilling when I complete the tasks I need to do for the day, knowing they move me closer to my goals.
I think my life is easier now because I know what I want (at least this year), and I know what the purpose of my activities are every day. Either they're getting me closer to my goals, or they're not.
Life's much clearer, and simpler that way- at least for me. There's less anxiety, less fear, because (for me) there's less uncertainty. I know what I need to do every day, so I know sticking to it means more success- and not sticking to it could cost me what I want this year.
And that's not to say the results are guaranteed- but we don't have any control over the future, we can only do what we can do now. I don't mean to sound like some motivational speaker, and you've all heard these things before. This is just a genuine review of what I'm experiencing 5 weeks into making and executing a plan.
Before when I could do anything, and eat everything, with my time I was filling it with things to make myself "happy". Now that I have some goals I really want to accomplish this year, every day has a purpose.
And that purpose, for now, gives this life, meaning.
Thanks for reading, see you in the next one!