If asked to offer a one word life goal, progress comes to mind. I want to live a life of progress, of getting better, of moving toward the purpose I was created to fulfill.
One of the things that often stands in my way of progress is activity. It's easy for me to believe that if I'm active I'm making progress. But not all activity is progress. Not all activity is a step closer to living a life of purpose. In fact, activity can often become a distraction. It can become a reason we sometimes unknowingly adopt to avoid living out our purpose. How do I know the difference? There's an easy measure. It's this question: If I stop doing this activity right now, will my purpose suffer? If I stop scrolling on my phone right now, will my purpose suffer? No. If I stop writing this article right now, will my purpose suffer? Yes. My phone is often an activity, my writing is almost always progress. The point is moot, obviously, if you don't know the purpose you're trying to fulfill. If you don't have an endgame in mind, it's very difficult to distinguish an activity from progress. Without knowing if my next step has meaning, it's hard to distinguish a meaningful step from a simple step. I'm not suggesting EVERY step has to be filled with meaning, but if you want to live a life of meaning, more steps than not will have to be progress. You can't get somewhere by taking a lot of steps to nowhere. More than ever, we live in a world that bombards us with potential activities. It's up to us to discern whether they are activities or progress. There can be a lot of meaning found in knowing the difference. There can be a lot of meaning found in going somewhere instead of nowhere. And often, that meaning is purpose.
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Robert "Keith" CartwrightI am a friend of God, a dad, a runner who never wins, but is always searching for beauty in the race. Archives
November 2024
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