When I was a wee lad, doing something “on purpose” usually implied that I’d gotten myself into trouble and my assertion that “it was an accident” was being called into question. Doing something on purpose was, more often than not, a path towards unpleasant repercussions.
Naturally, I did less “on purpose” and learned to let the flow of the current take me.
Thanks to the guidance of influential adults like my parents, a few great teachers, and a mentor, I came to understand that the world was filled with choices and that I had to make them. Simply allowing things to happen…that wasn’t going to cut it.
During my junior or senior year in high school, one of the electives I took was “Library Sciences.” Yes, 17-year-old me was hanging out with the librarian at my school, learning the Dewey Decimal System inside and out, keeping the card catalog updated, and returning books to the shelves.
Did you catch that part about the card catalog? I’m talking Old School card catalog, too. Rows of wooden drawers that were filled with actual index cards upon which were printed all the relevant bits of information regarding each of the books in the library. A card for every single, dingle book. And when I say “printed,” I really mean typed, as in “letter, numbers, and words put on paper by a human being using a typewriter with great speed and efficiency, but not so fast as to jam the keys.” Where my typists at? Woot-woot!
During one of my excursions with the book cart to put books back on shelves, I stumbled across the Tao Te Ching by Lao Tzu. Instantly attracted and intrigued, I checked the book out and plunged in. To make a long story short, I wound up asking for my own copy for my birthday. I still have the copy I received and refer to it often.
Regarding choices, I learned this from Lao Tzu: non-action is action, so not deciding is, in fact, a decision. We tend to omit non-action when articulating the options before us. However, choosing to do nothing does not absolve one of the outcomes. This was a profound lesson for me, one that I’ve never forgotten. It’s a guiding principle today as surely as it was the day I realized its significance.
Going with the flow, then, is as much a choice as standing firm in the middle of the river, fighting the current threatening to pull me down and take me away. Choosing either path is, in fact, done on purpose. Now, whether one path is more purposeful than the other is another thing altogether…
A few years ago, I read the book The On-Purpose Person by Kevin McCarthy, and I thought again about the lesson of non-action and action. In the book, Kevin offers a methodology for prioritizing how we spend our time, talent, and resources to help us stay focused on purpose. Choice is central to Kevin’s method. At every step, the reader must choose how to spend their time and talent.
Learn a new coding language or binge on Stranger Things: action or non-action. Both are actions, both choices. Both are done deliberately, on purpose. And both can be precisely on purpose, aligned with who we want to be and where we need to be at a given moment in time.
Choose. Choose wisely. Choose with your purpose in mind. Then, embrace the outcomes. I believe it’s that simple. At home and at work, we get to choose. No more “accidents.” Leave those up to Mayhem. You…you get to choose.
Choose to love your purpose and pursue it relentlessly.
Illuminate Possibilities 