Off-Trail Living

To have more purpose in our life, it helps to first know what life purpose is. This is why our eight-hour Purpose Discovery Workshop uses the first hour to explore the nature of purpose.

One way of understanding purpose is to contrast it with other approaches to living. As a metaphor:

Imagine that you are in a large metropolitan area. You are on one side of it, and, for whatever reason, you want to be on the other side. Let’s also say that you don’t have GPS, so you pull out a map and start looking at roads that would get you to where you want to go. You see several possible routes, and you pick the one that looks best. You drive it in your car, have little traffic, and arrive at your destination.

This highway approach to getting somewhere has these characteristics. You:

• Travel on roads created by other people

• Share the roads with other drivers

• Can zone out while you drive, paying little attention to what you’re doing

• Stay on the planned route, ignoring possible side trips that come up

• Have a relatively convenient and easy trip

• Know where you’ll end up before you start 

Now, let’s compare this with another form of travel: off-trail hiking. Here you’re walking through wilderness without following established paths. Instead of using a map, you navigate by the natural features of the land and sky. While you have a general sense of direction and destination, you’re not entirely sure where you’re going, but you know that you’ll recognize it when you get there.

This off-trail approach can be characterized as follows. You:

• Create the route yourself–discovering the way forward

• Pay close attention to your travel, always looking for navigational clues 

• Enjoy small and big moments of beauty around you

• Encounter many obstacles that redirect your progress 

• Respond to opportunities that arise with curiosity

• Have limitless ways of proceeding 

• Experience emotions such as fear, frustration, gratification, and exhilaration

A purposeful life, of course, is off-trail living. It’s thoughtfully discovering the way forward in our lives rather than mindlessly following existing paths. It’s embracing uncertainty–often with only a general sense of where to go–but anticipating great and often unexpected rewards. It’s paying close attention to where we’re going and frequently adjusting our way as we encounter both obstacles and opportunities. It’s both difficult and greatly fulfilling.

Updates

• Today is my birthday (62). Even after all these years, birthdays are still a big deal for me, and they stir both joy and anxiety. 

• The Life Purpose Lab is partnering with UConn Human Resources to offer Purpose Discovery Workshops for staff members. Our first workshop went really well. The participants had both the wisdom of experience and an openness to possibilities. They were a joy to work with.

• Thank you, Susan, for your help in drafting this essay!

• In reading this newsletter, you might be asked to donate money to me. This request is Substack’s doing, not mine. Their business model is to take a cut of donations.

• If you find this essay helpful, please share it with someone who you think might like it.