I believe that in order for a leader’s life and work to feel purposeful, that leader must have found the (a) meaning of life. I do not know how it can be any other way. There are lots of folks more than willing to guide you into finding your purpose—lots of books, seminars, workshops, etc. Right?
Have you considered the absurdity of looking for your life purpose if you have not reached your own understanding of the meaning of life? That is like trying decide what sporting goods you need to pack for your vacation when you haven’t decided where you are going on vacation, what you want to get out of that vacation, who is going with you on vacation, whether you want to play sports on vacation, and if so, what sports are available to you there.
What is the meaning of life? None of us, I guess, can truly know. We certainly can have strong beliefs about it, but is it possible to unequivocally know beyond all shadow of a doubt? I don’t think so, but tell me if I am wrong. So, we must make one up, I suppose. And perhaps making up that meaning should be based on some observation of what we are seeing over time. What can you see, my friend?
I see a planet that appears to revolve, and life that appears to evolve. And what else do I see? I see a continual conflict, a conflict between the light and the darkness, between love and fear, between oppression and liberation. What else? Relationships, relationships everywhere.
So what can I surmise about the meaning of life? That it moves. That the movement seems to be an evolution. That the evolution tends to revolve around friction and evolve through relationships. So, to me, life (and therefore leadership, which is simply a part of life) is about evolution.
So if your leadership actions are not inherently tied to fostering evolution, you will never consciously tap into the power of timing. All you will have to work with is time, and you will lead with a significant disadvantage compared to those leaders who are now developing a sense of what timing is.
So what does this have to do anything, Otis? Well, in prior posts we’ve talked about the inner angst, and how it is related to an unresolved wound. But there is another source of the angst, and it seems to be the insatiable desire of the human being to find a sense of completion, of fulfillment, of peace, to end the feeling of lacking something we cannot quite put our fingers on.
Just as a baby’s cry has the undeniable and uncannily powerful effect of stirring the mother to notice and to act, so our inner angst spurs us to evolve. Without that drive to evolve, new lands wouldn’t be discovered, new markets would not be tapped, paradigms would not be broken and oppressive regimes (and bosses, you've had one) would never be toppled. All gets swept up in the wave of evolution, and your purpose is to engage in it and your leadership is about using that wave to translate vision into reality in a way that uplifts people and positively affects life itself.
But we have lost our way in that. So many leaders have misplaced their angst, and further, have misinterpreted what will soothe that angst. Nothing will make it go away, I suppose, for to be a human being is to feel a lack of something. But you can understand the meaning of it, and you can participate in it, and therefore it you can find it very purposeful. And herein lies a need to understand time and timing.
More on that in the next post.