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Purpose
Purpose can mean so many different things for different people. Purpose is a way to reason out and define the meaning behind what you do. Purpose could be self-centered. It makes me happy. I feel fulfilled. It makes money. Or maybe purpose is people-centric. It helps other people. It informs and educates. It entertains. Or purpose could be ideal or values driven. It’s a way to practice respect and compassion. It provides healing and restoration. It helps growth and development.
Each purpose valid, each reason meaningful, making purpose is a very subjective concept. For the sake of Productivity and Process, maybe Purpose can be a more specific and quantifiable concept.
I think Purpose can be better defined and clarified when asking and answering this question. What value or benefit do people want or need in their lives and what obstacles get in the way of obtaining it, and what is the solution to solving that problem? Being the source, provider of that solution can be Purpose. It is self-centered as in, it’s a knowledge, process or product that only you can provide. It is people-centric as in, it is helping people get something that will be a benefit or value. It’s also ideal and value driven because usually the transferring of solutions and value is a social, communal principle.
Purpose is what helps define what the Product is.
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Be the one
Aspiring for of the giving, given, generosity
Inspired by the beginning, a new day everyday
Find hope in the simple, unseen
Motivation in the unconditional, intrinsic
Wherever you are, you are where you are meant to be
Leave behind a trail of creativity
Look forward to the unknown
Embrace the discovery
Be present, be in this moment
What’s done in the here and now is done in infinity
It has meaning. It has value. It matters.
It moves forward, through time and space
As an effect, as a lesson, as a movement, as a ripple
Generosity creativity through fearlessness
Be the one.
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Raw Untamed
I’ve never had a good experiences with my Ego. Not talking about “ego”, as in arrogance or pride. I think for some or many people the Ego serves them well. It helps drive their ambition, thrive in a competitive environment, or even just function in a practical capacity. My Ego has always felt uneasy, uncomfortable, awkward, it felt like it wasn’t me. I see for many people the Ego helps drive success and achievement. And for me somehow it would always backfire, end in embarassment, feel exposed or even ridicule. Most people if not all, at a conscious or subconsious level, know when people are operating with their Ego and enjoy watching anyone else’s Ego crash and burn. So I never really trusted my Ego. Something I tried to stay away from, even though it would still get the best of me.
I think most people are most comfortable relating at the superficial level, interacting with each other’s Egos. Talking about sports, stocks, politics, business, celebrity gossip, etc. is a way to engage at a superficial level, exchanging at the topographical abstract not having to make thoughts or feelings literal. Most people want to exchange at this frequency because going deeper is uncomfortable, getting literal, direct is something people don’t practice with themselves let alone want to do with people they barely know. Maybe it’s judgment. Let’s talk about things that we can’t judge ourselves over.
So I’ve come to know or at least become aware of what this “thing” is. This state that made me feel uncomfortable, lead me toward “self-destruction”. Why the Ego manifests, how and where it comes from. Where it gets its power. It’s made me feel less of a need to avoid it or see it as completely detrimental. The Ego is agnostic, it’s a matter of where it gets its power from that determines the color of its energy. The Ego can simply be like the clothes you wear, a tool, a car, uniform something you put on our use, think of the Iron Man suit. But that’s the key, the Ego is something we should control not the other way around – not the Ego controlling us.
As I’ve become less afraid and wary of the Ego, maybe there’s a way to harness it. Maybe it’s not so much a monster, well it is a monster if we don’t know what it is and can’t control it. Maybe the Ego is more of a wild stallion, an unbridled power that can be harnessed and tamed but bleed into the edge of the wild and unknown. A force of nature with untamed raw energy.
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Creative Process
Process is the other part of the creativity equation. The creative product, expression, invention, concept, business idea, writing, art is one side of the coin. The other side, often overlooked and undervalued is the process. The creative part is what makes it unique, innovative, inventive, worthwhile and the reason for doing what we do but the process is what makes it real and uniquely personal.
Different artisan woodcrafters can make a chair but they will all make it differently. Each taking a unique process. They might have the same exact tools but use them differently, from the order of how they use them, to how much they use one tool over another, down to the details of how they use the tool in their hands.
Given the same, identical idea, but give the idea to different people, they will do it differently because their process will be different. One process might value efficiency. One process might emphasize quality. Another process may seek uniqueness. Another process might involve collaboration. Another process might be long and sustained. Another process might be quick and move onto the next thing.
The process gives it shape and substance. The process is function and form. This process becomes an equal expression of who we are not just the creative piece. The process is just as unique and personal as the idea or expression. It is the invisible fingerprint of the final product.
I think in the long run, the process is what creates value and is transferrable, the end product is not the absolute. Understanding or mastering the process is the underlying principle, transferring those principles is a matter of simply substituting wood tools for writing tools or paint brushes or computer code or business concepts or design tools.
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Approval Process
It used to really be discouraging when people close to me didn’t understand, didn’t support or believe what I was doing. Most times they wouldn’t say anything to me directly, they might even say they support me but instances, moments of truth, their doubt or discouragement would come through.
Those hurt and I’d end up doubting myself and what I was doing. Or maybe those moments were just bringing to the surface the doubt and insecurity I was trying to overcome.
But I’ve come to realize it’s unrealistic to expect people you know or are close to, to support or understand you, let alone share your beliefs or conviction. Proximity isn’t depth.
And wanting to get other people’s support or belief is trying to get validation before anything’s ever happened. It may feel good for a while but sometimes it can actually be detrimental. It’s temporary fuel to try to squeeze motivation out of another day. It’s a numbing anesthetic to insecurity and fear. It’s dependence for not having confidence yourself.
But ultimately, I think it’s embracing the process over seeking approval. The value isn’t in its approval, the value is in the process you brought to it. Most people can only see or pay attention to the final product. And that’s okay. Our attention, ability to communicate, and imagination is limited. Because we all have a responsibility that requires time and work to the process and then share it to the world.
Like anyone, I think my greatest desire is to be understood. Give life to my expressions. Create the internal into the external. I can be the only person that can have the level of conviction and belief to bring into the world, what only I can see.
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Bring Yourself
I think it’s not what you do, what you make or your work that’s important or brings meaning. It’s a trap, it’s an unsustainable mindset to equate the value of my work or job being equal to the value of who I am. The mindset may provide ambition, growth, desire, upward drive but it is a scarcity mindset that creates and pushes competition that can leave behind a wake of broken spirits and promotes the mentality “only the fittest survive”. But how does one function practically in this environment, someone that doesn’t want to encourage or play into the competition, but has to or wants to be in the “game”.
I believe the real value of work is being able to bring yourself into what you do. The amalgam of all your experiences, insight, curiosity, creativity and perspective to bring together what you do, the way only you can do it. Whatever the job is, even with its limitations, constraints, under-appreciation, under-valued, unfitting, dissatisfaction, there’s always a bit of you that you can be. Maybe it’s generosity, humility, creativity, insight, process, efficiency, organization, camaraderie, communication, gratitude, openness, balance, patience… Whatever “That” is, it’s important and it matters. Even if no one sees it, even if no one recognizes it, even if no one acknowledges it. The value is in the value. The value is in staying true. The value is in being you. People feel it. It’s the value of the individual to the whole but not for validation, affirmation or acknowledgment – that can never be satisfied or fulfilled. The value is intrinsic, it can never be taken away and never given by others.
Whatever work you’re doing, even if it’s not the “right” work for you now, keep staying true, keep bringing yourself to the work without expectation, without a results-oriented mindset, value the intrinsic, humility, openness and the right work will find you, in a way that will be more fulfilling, worthwhile, satisfying, provide openness, growth and challenge in ways that you would’ve never imagined.
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Write Noise
Writing is a discovery, it’s a relationship, a dialogue with the internal. Writing sorts thoughts into words on paper, a screen. Writing is seeing your thoughts in physical form. Writing creates a loop between what’s inside, bringing it into the physical world, and then reading it, bringing it back inside to the internal. It maybe a way to reaffirm what you’ve already thought or maybe it’s a way to create nuance, insight and awareness, to see your thoughts as a process. To build, grow, remain open to ideas, creativity, experience and uncovering imagination.
Writing can bring calm to chaos. Chaos to calm. Silence to noise. Noise to silence. Order to disfunction. Disfunction to order. Clarity to unfocus. Unfocus to clarity.
Writing is an unending through-line, a journey sparked by curiosity and the instinct to create.