"Many traditional sources of meaning, such as religious faith and community, have been in decline for decades, creating a vacuum. Then the Covid-19 pandemic triggered a mass shift in priorities: People were kind of adrift. Now an economic downturn, threats of AI-driven redundancy and future uncertainty may prompt you to wonder: what's the point?"
"The concepts of finding your purpose (implying there is only one) and self-actualising (or becoming everything that one is capable of becoming, identified by pioneering psychologist Abraham Maslow as the peak of human experience) are not just daunting, but broadly unattainable. Instead, cultivate more meaning moment by moment."
"Set the bar low, and accumulate small changes over time. In their book, Burnett and Evans identify four key components to meaning-making: wonder, flow, coherence and community. It can be quite straightforward to improve upon these."
A meaning crisis exists as traditional sources like religious faith and community have declined, worsened by the pandemic and current economic uncertainty. Rather than pursuing an elusive single life purpose or complete self-actualization, meaningful living emerges from everyday experiences. Bill Burnett and Dave Evans, mechanical engineers applying design thinking to life problems, advocate lowering expectations and reframing how meaning is sought. Their approach identifies four key components: wonder, flow, coherence, and community. By cultivating these elements moment by moment and making incremental changes, people can build a more meaningful life without requiring dramatic life upheaval or achieving impossible ideals.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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