Finding our way between striving and savoring
The Question Beneath the Noise
Every life, whether admitted or not, circles around a question: How should I live?
We try wealth, status, comfort, distraction — but none of these hold steady. They are like compasses that spin in circles. The real task is to find orientation: a destination to aim for, and a compass to guide us there.
When we find that orientation, life stops feeling like drift. It gains coherence. It becomes a story worth telling.
Purpose as Destination
Purpose is the destination that gives meaning to our effort. It doesn’t have to be dramatic or grand. It could be nurturing a family, creating art, serving a community, or exploring knowledge. What matters is that it matters to us.
Without purpose, even success feels hollow. With purpose, even struggle feels worthwhile. Purpose turns ordinary days into part of a larger journey.
Fulfillment as True Compass
But a destination is not enough. We also need a compass: a standard by which we measure whether we are truly living well.
Happiness is too fragile for that role. It comes and goes with circumstance. Fulfillment, by contrast, can hold sorrow and joy together. It embraces beauty and struggle, love and loss, growth and rest.
Fulfillment is the compass that keeps us aligned with our values and our deeper longings. It lets us live widely and deeply, not shallowly.
The Risk of Blind Ambition
Without a true compass, ambition often runs blind. We chase success for its own sake, or for the applause of others. We climb ladders that lean against the wrong walls.
Blind ambition feels productive but leaves us empty. It fills our calendars but not our souls.
The antidote is not to kill ambition but to align it — to let our fire serve a purpose that fulfills rather than hollow us out.
The Fire of Passion
This is where personal passion enters. Passion is soul’s ambition. It is the whisper that says, this matters to me.
Following passion feels risky because it exposes who we are. But it is also where vitality lies. Even when the world doesn’t reward us, passion rewards us with aliveness. It fuels both purpose and fulfillment.
To ignore passion is to slowly slide into cynicism. To follow it is to live awake.
Mortality’s Reminder
All of this is sharpened by mortality. We don’t have forever. The cup will be taken from our hands.
Rather than paralyze us, this should free us. Mortality makes today urgent. It reminds us not to defer joy, not to waste time, not to let fear dictate our days.
Every breath is borrowed. Every sunrise is bonus time. Mortality teaches us to treat life not as endless rehearsal but as a performance happening now.
Two Travelers
Picture two travelers setting out on a long road. One carries no map, no compass. She follows the crowd, hoping the path will make sense. Her days blur.
The other traveler pauses at the trailhead. She chooses a destination. She sets her compass. She still stumbles, still wearies, still faces storms. But when she arrives at day’s end, she knows where she has been heading — and why.
The difference is not luck. It is orientation.
Practices for the Oriented Life
- Clarify your purpose. Ask: What story do I want my life to tell?
- Choose your compass. Align with fulfillment, not fleeting happiness.
- Check your ambition. Does this pursuit enlarge me or hollow me out?
- Listen to passion. Notice what fascinates you, and protect it.
- Remember mortality. Let the reality of time sharpen your choices.
Closing Thought
Life is brief, and the world is noisy. It’s easy to drift, to chase what others value, to lose track of what matters.
But orientation changes everything. With a destination and a compass, with passion and gratitude, even ordinary days take on dignity. Even sorrow gains meaning. Even joy becomes more vivid.
The question is not whether life is short. It is. The question is whether we will live it oriented — guided by fulfillment, fueled by passion, awakened by mortality.
Because when we do, we stop drifting. We start living.
