Dancing With Purpose, Tribes, & Life Maps
Wednesday Wisdoms for October 16, 2024
Welcome to Wednesday Wisdom, our 3x3 Newsletter where I distill worldly advice for better living with 3 quotes, 3 observations, and 3 questions.
This email forwarded to you? Are you reading the free version? Click below to adjust your subscription.
Dancing With Purpose
🤨 Quote
“It is neither work nor play, purpose nor purposelessness that satisfies us. It is the dance between.”
Bernard de Koven
Source: Hidden Potential
Observation 🧐
Life tends to ask us to think in extremes, black and white, even and odd, this way or that.
But so much of life is about the sliding scale between these extremes.
Our purpose is no different.
Feeling like we have a purpose can help propel us forward and energize us, it can invigorate us to action and pick us up when we’re knocked down.
But it can also be stressful, sometimes leading us to feel like we’re not fulfilling our purpose, or that we’re behind our peers, or that what we think is our purpose is in fact a red herring.
Purposeless is no different. It too has its pros and cons. Feeling purposeless provides a kind of freedom, one that allows one to explore interests and areas of life without guilt. But it also comes with the burden of potentially feeling lost in life, adrift without meaning for one’s existence.
Both sides of the spectrum provide richness and bleakness. It is the slide between the two ends, the ability to find a comfortable middle ground, that provides us the greatest grasp of life. Those who can dance between the two will find the most enjoyment.
🤔 Question
If you feel purposeless, what story do you tell yourself about purpose that may be impacting your actions?
If you are invigorated with purpose, what could sideswipe you to feeling purposeless?
Tribes
🤨 Quote
“People must belong to a tribe, they yearn to have a purpose larger than themselves.”
Edward O. Wilson
Source: Loneliness
Observation 🧐
While we’ve grown up in western culture with a focus on the self, it is in fact the focus on others that we long to be a part of.
We may not say it out loud, but we’re drawn to those like us, those who can relate, who are interested in the same things, who understand parts of our lives others can’t.
These are the people we build our tribes around.
And it doesn’t need to be a single tribe. We’re incredibly diverse creatures with lots of interests and emotions. We will naturally be drawn to multiple tribes around those interests.
And it is here we see true community come out. People offering advice, people offering their own experience or expertise, people sharing stories.
We may pursue independence, we may push others away in our quest to be free, but it is in community and that sense of belonging that we thrive.
🤔 Question
What is a single attribute you look for in a community and how would you go about building one?
Beneath the paywall this week we explore the wisdom of Friedrich Nietzsche. Click below to support and get access.