What are my circumstances asking me to do?

David Brooks had this insightful column in the New York Times today about a commencement speech given by an economist at Harvard Business School. The speech was about living a meaningful life by finding your life goal and allocating your time and energy around that goal. Specifically, the speech emphasized creating personal time for yourself outside of your career or your studies to pursue family time or friend time or hobby time, and help yourself figure out that vision.

Brooks went on to add to the speech, articulating a second way of life focused on the moment. It was interesting for me to see these two ideas come head to head, as they are somewhat, but not completely, opposing ideas. He argues that young people can’t understand the meaning of abstract concepts like parenthood or old age until they are engaged in them, and it’s useless to try to plan so far ahead.

He claims the big question these types of people ask is, “What are my circumstances asking me to do?” This question creates a lifestyle that is much more concrete and short-term, driven by situational awareness and rapid adaptation.

I imagine the ideal life to be some combination of these two schools of life, thriving in the environment you happen to be in now, while keeping an eye out for new environments you want to try out.

The current surroundings perspective makes my immediate decision-making more relevant, which is great because it makes every moment more real. Whenever I have some downtime, I can figure out something to do to impact my environment. I don’t need to wait around to make my surroundings a better place!

On the other hand, the future goals perspective emphasizes the importance of change. It keeps me constantly tinkering with my life to figure out what new surroundings I want to put myself into.

from ken

Are you trying to change your life? I'd love to hear about it! ken.e.noguchi@gmail.com

photo by ZeroOne