The other night I was camping with a buddy at the intersection of Hollywood and Vine in the Anza Borrego desert. It was a quick one-night turnaround with a couple nice rides on our mountain bikes, a soak at the Agua Caliente Hot Springs, a bottle of wine watching the stars come out and of course a dose of waxing philosophic. Quite enjoyable.
There’s something about getting out and having fun in the desert that brings me closer to me. Maybe it’s the lack of distraction, the warmth, the bigness of the expanse, the simple living. I like it.
I spend a lot of time with people and organizations wanting to get closer to themselves. Closer to their essence. Their genius. That thing that they were created for. Not just what they were created TO DO, but the thing they were CREATED FOR.
Several years ago I was doing some soul searching (what a shock!) and asked a few colleagues “So, what do you think my purpose is?” Brian, a good friend on the east coast, responded back, “Your purpose is to remind us of our purpose.” I liked that.
Finding our essential purpose, our reason for being, our “WHY DO I EXIST?” is one of "The Three Big Questions Everyone Asks Sooner or Later", according to my friend Dave Phillips who wrote the book by that name.
And, I believe one of the ways we connect with our sense of “creation” is through “RE-creation”… or more simply stated… having fun. There’s a lot more to it (perhaps), but just as we were uniquely created, I believe that we reconnect by being re-created… by stripping away the “must-do” list, the entertainments and electronics, and all the other distractions and simply enjoying ourselves. For an organization this might look like celebration or taking a deep breath to reflect and take in the good, as opposed to solely focusing on the challenging.
There’s a lot more to this. Books have been written in fact! But for today… a good question might be “Why do you exist?”
Onward!
V
