Adventure – ElPropósito4 min de lectura

How courage and responsibility go together

A new year is here, and with it come goals, resolutions and good ideas for taking on this year’s challenges and intentions. I admire people who take action and steer their lives toward their goals. I also admire those who deliberately stop to think before moving forward, and I applaud anyone who decides this year will simply be a breather, with no particular goal in mind. Today, though, I’m thinking about the adventure of setting goals and then putting all our energy and resources into reaching them.

I’ve written many times about how a lack of purpose can leave goals unmet. Part of it is a painful absence of meaning, and part is missing that first spark we need before we set out to do anything. Rule 7 of Jordan Peterson’s 12 Rules for Life is "Pursue what is meaningful (not what is expedient)." This week I was struck by hearing Professor Peterson and Dr. Andrew Huberman discuss the link between responsibility and adventure. Put simply, they’re the same thing. (It blew my mind, and I have a big head.) The episode runs three hours and is worth every minute. You’ll find the links at the end, in the VELA.

What I liked most was how exciting a strategic plan becomes, personal or organizational, once we’re fully convinced of one thing. If we’re aware enough to carry it out with precision and rigor, with the resources we have and the passion and energy it demands, and we tie it to a higher purpose, we’re starting down a road that will turn us into someone different from who we are today.

Adventure means risk, every kind of emotion and countless sensations along the way. So what sparks an adventure? Human beings are wired to move. We’re made for great things, and we’ve accomplished remarkable things for humanity, in medicine, art, music and every other field. Just look around and you’ll see both worlds: nature, created by God, and the greatness created by man. That tells me much of our willpower comes from passion for what we do and from the electrifying thought of doing something that truly gives our lives meaning.

So which adventures are the best ones? Those where we know that what we’re after carries deep meaning, because it’s aligned with our life purpose, and also a great responsibility, to ourselves and to humanity. By responsibility I mean knowing that we alone are the architects of our own lives. Courage gets us to take the first step into that great adventure, and responsibility keeps us steady on the road. They complement each other, two sides of the same coin. If we stop and think about it, the decisions we make today, however small, have a deep impact on the future.

Every action and every choice is an act of creation and an act of responsibility, to ourselves and to others. Starting an adventure, whatever it is, can lead us to deep emotions, lessons and change. It helps to ask what gives our decisions meaning and what lets us move forward with conviction in what we’ve chosen. Maybe the question that matters is this: what adventure will you take on this year, and what impact could it have on your life and on the lives of others?

Warm regards and all the best,

Rodrigo Baccaro

P.S. This week’s VELA:

• Watching: Senna. A Netflix miniseries that brought back so many great memories from my childhood. Senna was a childhood idol, and I mourned his death deeply and still do. The series nails some wonderful details I loved, like everything involving Honda. Fascinating.
• Listening to: How to Best Guide Your Life Decisions & Path. Two titans together in one of the best episodes on the planet. Highly recommended. Jordan Peterson and Andrew Huberman.
• Reading: Globalismo: Ingeniería social y control total en el siglo XXI. Agustín Laje’s brand-new book. It’s excellent and I’m devouring it. It’s packed with quotes and surprising details, and it’s worth it 300%.
• Learning: Castling. One of my goals this year is to get back into chess.

Author: Rodrigo Baccaro

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