The pursuit of purpose

Hi, 

I have this thing now that I have only heard stories about… a commute. A commute is a very interesting time, you aren’t really doing anything (other than being an attentive driver) so there is a lot of time to think, listen to podcasts or books, and music alike. 

I have used this time to catch up on previous Modern Wisdom podcasts, and there was a conversation between Chris Williamson (the host) and Cam Hanes that has just been stuck in my head all week. 

It really has been one moment from this podcast. 

Chris quoted Viktor Frankl: “When a man lacks purpose, he seeks pleasure”

Chris continued to offer his extension of this: “A man who does not enjoy pleasure seeks purpose” (Cam Hanes, who runs a marathon every day obviously resonated).

I think that flipping something doesn’t automatically make it true, but I think there is a truth to this statement. 

The part of me that resonates with this idea is that I would much rather get up early and go for a long run than a night out on the town Friday night. But I don’t necessarily say this as a good thing. I think that the pursuit of meaning, especially when it comes to doing really difficult things, can be just as gluttonous as a night out. 

I have a lot of quotes of people quoting other people today, Andrew Huberman tweeted a quote from Dr. Robert Sapolsky.

“Dopamine is not about the pursuit of happiness, it is about the happiness of pursuit.”

The pursuit of purpose falls into gluttony when you are allow it to consume you in the way another vice would, it becomes more about the dopamine than it is about the discipline. 

We are all chasing our dopamine fixes. True discipline is turning off the quest for purpose, and being still in the moments with the people you care about… even if that moment feels “purposeless.”

Once you find your meaning, you are no longer in the pursuit of it. 

My assumption is that meaning has a lot more moments that feel “purposeless” than we assume. 

Hard work, Discipline, Plans, Goals, Aspirations, are all great things, but it’s when you are more concerned about the endless pursuit of those things where the trajectory shifts a few degrees, and if you are as into aviation as I am, you would know, that shift your destination hundreds of miles from your intended target.

There is value in the discipline of pursuing meaning, but you have to value discipline in the pursuit for it to be meaningful.

That’s all for this week, 

Kyle