Feeling adrift? Discover how one person's deep reflection sparked a transformative journey towards a more fulfilling life. The speaker shares insights from their 'two by 20' experiment aimed at redefining work, joy, and connections. Learn about embracing new beginnings and the importance of self-discovery while navigating life’s transitions. Explore the innovative framework that encourages meaningful action and personal growth, setting the stage for an enlivened future.
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Quick takeaways
The speaker embarks on a 'two by 20' project to intentionally explore and enhance personal fulfillment across work and life.
Key qualities for a fulfilling future include simplicity, significance, and joy, focusing on personal values rather than societal expectations.
Experiments in vitality, connection, and contribution are implemented to evaluate and improve health, relationships, and professional growth.
Deep dives
Exploring Life's Direction and Feelings
At a pivotal moment, the speaker reflects on whether their current feelings about work align with what they want for the future. Despite understanding their personal values and pursuits, there’s a recognition of a desire for change. This led to the creation of a new project focused on exploring various aspects of work and life, termed "two by 20." The aim is to examine if different experiences can evoke the desired feelings of fulfillment moving forward.
Defining a Two-Year Experiment
The concept of the "two by 20" project revolves around setting a two-year window to learn, do, and build towards a more satisfying future. This time frame is seen as an opportunity to create significant shifts without feeling overwhelmed. The idea embraces the concept of 'tension,' which acts as a motivating force to be productive and engaged. Planning for both immediate actions and long-term visions informs the structure of this exploration, emphasizing intentionality.
Focusing on Simplicity, Significance, and Joy
The speaker identifies three core qualities for the upcoming season: simplicity, significance, and joy. Each characteristic is tailored to their personal experience, aiming for fulfillment and ease rather than stress. While simplicity seeks to minimize complexity in life, significance emphasizes what personally matters rather than societal expectations. Joy is approached as a state of awareness and appreciation for life's moments rather than merely a pursuit of happiness.
Running Experiments Across Life's Buckets
Experiments are framed around three crucial life categories: vitality, connection, and contribution. To enhance vitality, hiking and early morning workouts have been incorporated to promote health and mental clarity. For connection, implementing weekly check-ins with a partner has become a constructive way to evaluate personal relationships. Contribution experiments focus on forms of personal advising, public writing, and learning new modalities to foster growth and fulfillment in professional endeavors.
Sharing the Two by 20 Journey
Given the interest expressed by friends, the speaker considers sharing their ongoing "two by 20" journey more widely. This openness aims to inspire others grappling with similar life transitions, regardless of age. The approach underscores that such explorations are not solely for those nearing retirement but can benefit anyone seeking deeper fulfillment. Plans are set to document and update their progress, creating a communal space for others to reflect on their paths and possibly embark on their own transformative journeys.
Have you ever felt like you were drifting through life, unsure if the path you’re on is truly aligned with who you are and what you want? Even for someone like me, who has dedicated his life to exploring meaning, purpose, and how to craft a life you truly love, I recently found myself at a crossroads wondering – is the way I’m feeling today, especially about my work, really how I want to feel for the next 20 years of my life?
I know, it sounds crazy. After all, I’ve done extensive work to uncover my core values, the “Sparketype” that makes me come alive, and the missions that ignite my passion. And for the most part, I spend my days doing work that matters, surrounded by people and cultures I care deeply about. Yet that inner voice kept whispering – is this really it? Is there another level, another blend of simplicity, significance and joy that I’m being called to explore?
That persistent questioning led me to secretly launch what I’ve dubbed my “two by 20” project. For the last 9 months, I’ve been on an intensive journey of learning, doing, and building – running a series of intentional experiments across my work, relationships, health and creativity. All with the goal of figuring out what adjustments I may want to make to set myself up for a truly enlivened next 20 years of contribution and self-expression.
So if you’ve ever hit a milestone and thought “What’s next?”, even if your life is good, I invite you to join me on this adventure. Stay tuned as I reveal the backstory, guidelines and early experiments that may just inspire you to craft your own “two by 20” and step into your most vibrant work and life yet.