I looked at the clock. It was 12:13am. I’d been working for the last 11 hours without a break. I was building a website for a cause I believed in. I lost myself. Time evaporated. I was engaged in solving a problem. Progress was made. I felt good about how I spent my energy as time passed.
There are other times I wonder whether I’m on the right path. I feel lost. I ask myself, “Am I living out my purpose? Maybe I need to spend time to find myself.”
There’s two problems with this – First, this presumes we’re lost to begin with … It makes an assumption that something is wrong. Second, it assumes we can be found if we search long enough.
We only exist in relation to the world around us. When we turn inward to discover ourselves, we only get more lost.
There are situations we care about. Problems we think need to be solved. Principles we hold dear. Things that are meaningful and bigger than we are. It could be a business idea, a political cause, a social idea, your family.
The easiest way to get lost is to try to find yourself. The easiest way to get found is to lose ourselves in something else that’s bigger than we are.
