Saha. Period.

How I Discovered My Life's Purpose

Tue, 01 Sep 2009 14:26:00 -0400

kareem, now you just need a photo that explains it all ; )

Do you know what your life’s purpose is?

I didn’t, until a little over a month ago.

Maybe my story will give you insight on finding yours, if you haven’t already.

My Story

I’m lucky enough to have been born in Canada to a middle-class secular family who emphasized education. I thus basically have unlimited choice about what kind of work to do, where to live, and who I am “allowed” to love. I felt a purpose would serve as a guide to help me narrow down the choices I was privileged enough to be able to make.

In 2006, I got promoted at FOX Interactive Media (FIM). I was building new and cool products for MySpace. I had broken the six-figure salary barrier, and was living in an apartment 6 blocks from the beach in sunny Santa Monica, California with my wonderful long-term girlfriend.

The problem: I wasn’t happy.

I felt there was more that I was meant to do, more that I could *give back*. But I didn’t know what.

The next three years were tumultuous. I quit FIM and started eduFire with an amazing business partner. The girlfriend had become a fiancee, but we broke up. I left eduFire a little over a year after starting it. I learned a lot while building some web projects. I consulted while living out of backpack in places like Buenos Aires, Cape Town, Vancouver, and Budapest.

Perhaps you can tell, but the key question I often didn’t know the answer to was: “what do I want?”

Channelling my inner philosopher, I worked to know myself better. I felt that it would be easier to make decisions once I had a direction. I wanted to figure out how I could give back, and how to find meaning in the two areas I saw most significant to being happy: work and love.

I saw two therapists, talked to countless friends and mentors, devoured books like The Road Less Traveled, The Alchemist, Man’s Search For Meaning, and Mating in Captivity, and did exercises from blogs like Illuminated Mind and StevePavlina.com.

I challenged myself by living in places where I didn’t speak the language, journalling regularly, getting in the best shape of my life, and forcing myself out of my comfort zone in all kinds of different ways. I also stayed grounded by reconnecting with great old friends and spending more time with my family.

I also tried to discover my life’s purpose using Steve Pavlina’s exercise (short version: keep writing answers until you cry). I discovered my purpose on July 20th, 2009 - 18 months after I started. It was on the leafy and cool back patio of a coffee shop in Budapest called Eckermann’s. During those 18 months, I often felt like the exercise was going nowhere, so I’d put it aside for weeks or months until I felt inspired to pick it up again. I often had to stop beating myself up that the answer wasn’t coming, and trust that it would.

It ultimately came after writing about 150 potential life purposes. Three new ideas came to bear in the week that I discovered it:

1. This Seth Godin TED Talk caused me to start thinking about the tribe of people I am energized to spend time with.

2. Po Bronson’s What Should I Do With My Life showed me that few people discover their purpose without wrapping in their personal history. So I mined my past for influential events that might help me discover my purpose.

3. Aaron Ross’s Pebblestorm blog has a bunch of insightful questions that helped me connect the dots between my passions, who and what I find inspiring, and what change I feel compelled to create in the world.

So What is it, Already?!

So here it is:

I’m here to help others live lives of magnificent fulfillment by daring to find love and enjoy meaningful work.

How I Figured it Out

I’ve been interested in how people create meaningful work and find love for some time. Two questions I ask that often kick off fascinating discussions are “what do you *like* to do” and “how did you guys meet?” I always find myself energized when I come away from conversations with people who’ve found what and, um, who they like to do. Work and Love natural were fits for my purpose.

One of Aaron’s questions is to figure out who is drawn to you. When answering, I took a look at my blog, which has about 800 subscribers. “Inspiration for finding meaning” is the tagline, and it pretty much sums up the stuff I enjoy posting there and (I assume) the stuff you all enjoy reading.

I mashed that up with a phrase I scribbled down a few days prior: “magnificent fulfillment”. I know too many people who live lives of quiet desperation. They’re too scared to follow their passions, so they stay with the miserable status quo. The opposite of quiet desperation, I reasoned, is magnificent fulfillment. Wouldn’t you be stoked to live with magnificent fulfillment, and have tons of friends who did too? Hells yes!

You must *dare* to live with magnificent fulfillment, because you often have to stray from the status quo and break expectations people have about you. Thinking and acting for yourself - taking responsibility for what you want - requires daring. You take the job or start the company or don’t go to law school or talk to the pretty girl because you decide to, not because someone else thinks you should.

What Does This Mean For You?

You already know you purpose. It’s inside you right now. Nobody can tell you what it is. That’s one of the benefits of being human - you get to decide your path.

I’m here to help you figure out your purpose and live a more meaningful life. If you’re here because you know - deep down - that you want more meaningful work and relationships, you’re in the right place.

I’m not going to tell you what’s meaningful. Nobody can do that. But if you’re willing to come on a journey, I’m going to try and help you discover it yourself and connect you with people who are doing the same. I’m still figuring out what form this will take. But it’s going to be fun!

I’m doing this because I truly believe that if you were doing meaningful work and having better relationships, the world would be a much better place.

Stay tuned!

Google Reader - Send To buttons for Instapaper and Evernote

Sat, 15 Aug 2009 19:16:12 -0400

Google Reader - Send To buttons for Instapaper and Evernote:

woo hoo! I’ve been hoping this would happen for a while — post stories to Instapaper from Google Reader. Neato.

From one of my favorite photographers: Toby Glanville.

Sat, 25 Jul 2009 21:25:04 -0400

From one of my favorite photographers: Toby Glanville.

Manhattanhenge Timelapse via the Flickr Blog.

Mon, 13 Jul 2009 20:22:13 -0400

Manhattanhenge Timelapse via the Flickr Blog.

Wow. Via bauldoff: Addicting video of the day: Kitsune Noir...

Wed, 08 Jul 2009 18:14:21 -0400

Wow. Via bauldoff:

Addicting video of the day: Kitsune Noir asks, “What If Aphex Twin Was A Little Girl?”

The video features this little girl, cut up and remixed to create an amazing little song using only her sounds. The effect is slightly creepy at the beginning, but then gets amazing around the 42 second mark.

"What the lizard brain wants is for us to lobby congress so no newspaper ever goes out of business."

Fri, 26 Jun 2009 21:10:55 -0400

“What the lizard brain wants is for us to lobby congress so no newspaper ever goes out of business.”

- Seth Godin talking about the Amygdala at Jelly Talks. (via tlvx)

Some guy called Matt is giving away free sunflower plants in...

Fri, 12 Jun 2009 11:55:00 -0400

Some guy called Matt is giving away free sunflower plants in Greenpoint/Williamsburg. He says he wants to fill the neighborhood with them. I think that’s pretty neat.

Free Sunflower Plants

Via Jenn.

That’s my dad with the red handkerchief around his neck in...

Fri, 05 Jun 2009 20:19:00 -0400

That’s my dad with the red handkerchief around his neck in 1975, along with his brothers, sisters and parents. My aunt beth (the little girl in the photo) posted this photo to a website she’s been maintaining for a while in an attempt to find Lauren, her older brother (standing to my dad’s right), who left home shortly after this photo was taken (I believe) and hasn’t been seen since. The title of her website is “Have you seen my brother?”

“The Creators Inn by Elvine is a capsule hotel in...

Mon, 18 May 2009 15:27:05 -0400

“The Creators Inn by Elvine is a capsule hotel in Gothenberg, Sweden, that puts up creative types visiting and working in the city — for free.”

Awesome.

From The Moment Blog.

Focus!

Mon, 11 May 2009 22:02:39 -0400

Focus!

ITP

Mon, 11 May 2009 21:57:54 -0400

ITP

This is one of my favorite videos ever.

Sun, 10 May 2009 00:29:28 -0400

This is one of my favorite videos ever.

liz made this with a little bit of help from me. It makes me...

Mon, 04 May 2009 15:18:57 -0400

liz made this with a little bit of help from me. It makes me very happy. What do you think?

This guy’s website does a really good job of presenting...

Thu, 30 Apr 2009 21:21:46 -0400

This guy’s website does a really good job of presenting the movie: sanejulesblaine.com

This video is awesome + crazy ending.

Mon, 27 Apr 2009 16:46:00 -0400

This video is awesome + crazy ending.

Sweet. tlvx: Today Muxtape launched for musicians. Justin + I...

Tue, 21 Apr 2009 22:56:31 -0400

Sweet.

tlvx:

Today Muxtape launched for musicians. Justin + I have been working on this since our preview release + we’re more than pleased with how it’s turned out. Thanks to everyone who joined + made striking profiles + uploaded such incredible music already.

(If you’re a musician + would like to join, we’re invite-only for now so get in touch, or ask someone already on the site for one of theirs.)

Some of the musicians I discovered today: Dr. Zilog, Made By Robot, The Lark, Metavari, Restless People, Spanish Prisoners, EL*7, Dgenetics.

"I love everything about http://www.tweenbots.com/"

Sat, 11 Apr 2009 22:09:01 -0400

“I love everything about http://www.tweenbots.com/”

- Holy shit, me too, though I have no idea why the word Tween is involved.

via jackcheng

Hell yeah, play Daft Punk’s console with your keyboard!...

Mon, 30 Mar 2009 11:21:00 -0400

Hell yeah, play Daft Punk’s console with your keyboard! (via kanye west)

Apparently when I type expletives into coop it smartly adds a...

Thu, 19 Mar 2009 14:01:03 -0400

Apparently when I type expletives into coop it smartly adds a pile of dog poo next to my posts. How awesome is that.

Ian and I were messing around with sprites (a collection of...

Thu, 05 Mar 2009 16:34:32 -0500

Ian and I were messing around with sprites (a collection of icons in one image, each assigned to sections of the page with css — a neat trick) and I noticed these fun and interesting additions to flickr’s menu bar. Really secret, eh?