Purpose, Push Pops, and Doc Scurlock
Or- I scream, you scream, we all scream for purpose.
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As promised, today we’re talking about finding your purpose. Whenever someone talks about this, they usually bring up the Japanese concept of Ikigai, the four-part Venn diagram where you search for the sweet spot between things you love and are good at, and things the world needs and will pay for.
The problem with Ikigai is that it doesn’t give you the answer, it simply gives you options. It may point you in several different directions. You need to decide which you’ll follow.
I could conclude that I should drive an ice cream truck because I do love ice cream and I am a good driver, the world can always use more ice cream and although it may be in sticky coins from the pockets of children, people are willing to pay for it.
Fortunately, I know myself well enough to know that I don’t want a life dealing with other people’s kids who can’t decide between the rocket pop and the nutty buddy.
I recently recorded an episode of The Strategic Veteran podcast where we talked about the very real problem of veterans struggling to find purpose after leaving the military (I’ll let you know when the episode airs).
The idea of Ikigai can absolutely be used to generate potential Courses of Action, or as we call them in the military, COAs. Some will be throw-away COAs, but by using the Venn diagram to generate plenty of potential options you can begin to narrow them down by asking:
Is this something I want to devote my life to?
Is this something I would do if I didn’t have to do anything?
Does this provide meaning and value?
And, unlike joining the military, you aren’t signing a four-year contract.
Pick an option, try it out and if it’s not a good fit, find another.
You don’t have to be tied to your past. Or as Doc Scurlok, (played by Kiefer Sutherland) eloquently put it in Young Guns, “The past is like an old yellow-back novel. When it’s done you throw it out and start a new one.”
Finding your purpose may be the work of a lifetime, but it is the work that makes the lifetime worthwhile.
And when it seems as though you are destined to drift through life without purpose, remember the words of Oddball from Kelly’s Heroes (RIP Donald Sutherland)
“Have a little faith baby, have a little faith.”
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See you next Thursday!