You, Me & the Purpose-Focused Life
Monthly Muster • Humans ≠ Optimized
We made it, friends!!
It’s the end of a month, sprint, quest…thing…
Whether you’ve been traveling with us in real time, or you’re just joining us for this stop, I hope you’re enjoying the new format of this newsletter, and this month’s topic of purpose. We’ve started exploring how purpose provides an enduring, even permanent, anchor or focal point to our lives, transcending what we think or feel in any given moment.
In the midst of an age that would reduce us to our functions, purpose reminds us that we are creatures made for more than efficient execution—we are made for the conscious, reflective, loving pursuit of who we are designed to become.
We started with our SloDo “Purpose as Mirror,” a mindful communication prompt that invites us to reflect on what others’ directions reveal about our own.
Next, we took a deep dive into “The Purpose-Focused Life, or Why Humans Can’t Be Optimized,” exploring how purpose serves as destination, standard, and filter, and keeps us awake to the reality that purpose isn't just what we do, but how we hold what we do—with reflection, choice, imagination, and integration across time.
We then shifted to doing something with what we learned, by using Focal Practices as a way to have “A Conversation on Purpose” with ourselves, get reacquainted with what “purpose” means to us, and how we live it out in our daily lives.
We wrapped up with a Character Reference from “C.S. Lewis and the Paradigmatic Power of Purpose,” observing how the purpose that Lewis identified for his life illuminated his destination, sharpened his vision, and equipped him to pursue a hoped-for future.
I hope you’ll check out anything that you missed, and that you find something inspiring, challenging, or otherwise worth incorporating into your days.
And—let me know what you think of this new format!
Recommendation
I loved this essay by Robert Talbert over at Intentional Academia, where he explores what he calls the “Law of the Whole Person. It states: Each person is made up of uncountable components that cannot be separated into discrete parts.” Purpose invites us to bring our whole person into living it out. Worth a read.
The Chaos Club reads again!! Rachel and I catch up on what we’ve been reading, what we loved, and what we plan to read next. Check it out, mmmkay?
And finally…
It’s tacofredag!!
While I usually get most of my tacos somewhere out in the wide world, I did discover this recipe for shrimp tacos that is legit slap-yo’-mama good. At the very least, I get a big goofy grin when I make them, eat them, think about making and eating them.1
I recommend it, is what I’m sayin’. So if you like shrimp, cilantro, and lime cabbage slaw, I think you’ll like this recipe.
And if you’re curious about how to create sustainable systems in your purpose-focused life (or you just want to talk about purpose), book a free Curiosity Call with me! We’ll take a look at what’s broken, missing, or confused in your processes, tools, or practices, and then see how I can help.
Let’s be hopeful, creative, and wise—together.
Shalom,
