The Compass – ElPropósito4 min de lectura

How do we find our north again?

There are many ways to lose your sense of meaning in life, to lose your bearings. Finding your way back has to do with values, objectives, deep reflection and, above all, a clear purpose. Just as a person can lose their bearings, so can companies, all kinds of organizations and entire countries, simply because they are made of people. When most people don’t know where they are going, any road will do, to paraphrase Alice in Wonderland. The biggest risk, personal or collective, is believing that someone else hands us our life purpose. Purpose is unique and personal. So how do we find our north again when the compass loses its calibration?

The great thing about having a purpose is that it marks a path of our own, with the freedom to pursue it and the responsibility to follow it and come back to it whenever, for whatever reason, we stray. What about following someone else’s path? First we need to know whether we share that person’s values. That may be the first big step of all: working out which values define me and which define others, so I can judge whether someone’s path is worth emulating, following or copying. Owning our path doesn’t mean ignoring advice or refusing to listen. Plenty of other people’s strategies can work for us too. The question is how far we can copy.

So we find our north first by being clear on the values that define us, and second by having a purpose. What happens without a clear purpose? We copy, or try to copy, someone else’s. You see it clearly in people and organizations that can’t put into words a statement that gathers and blends the main reasons they exist in this world. Can that statement be improved? Yes. Does it evolve? Yes. It also opens the door to the next big topic: plans, objectives, goals and activities, everything that gives us traction day to day and lets us work and give meaning to our lives. That is why we can’t copy other people’s objectives and goals, let alone their values, and expect everything to go well. Once we accept that our life project, and carrying it out, is our own responsibility, we understand that nobody else’s purpose can be copied.

Without purpose we can end up in any port, and not necessarily the best one. Without objectives, life becomes a ship rolling back and forth on its way across the ocean, a constant to and fro that keeps us from seizing what life puts in front of us, in a world full of endless opportunities and endless ways to make the most of them. With values, purpose and objectives, we have the route, the roads and the vehicle to get from point A to point B. One thing I don’t want to leave out: just as there are values, there are anti-values, there are twisted purposes and there are objectives of objectives. Our great responsibility is to tell good from bad, to know what gives us freedom and what lets us keep living a life that, as the Stoics would say, is virtuous.

Warm regards and all the best,

Rodrigo Baccaro

P.S. This week’s VELA:

• What I was watching: Querida resistencia (Dear Resistance). I watched this fine documentary by Agustín Laje again. I admire all of Agustín Laje’s work, his effort and above all how simply he can get across such complex concepts and ideas.
  – What I was listening to: The Sound of Freedom. I haven’t seen the movie (yet), but I listened to this Jordan Peterson podcast on child trafficking and sexual exploitation. A horrifying subject.
  – What I was reading: Siempre en pie (Always Standing). Still working through this book, little by little.
  – What I was learning: The famous Italian OSSO BUCO. I love to cook, and this dish is one of my favorites.

Author: Rodrigo Baccaro

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