What makes a fulfilling life?

It’s a mistake to continue doing something solely to extend the streak of doing. Longevity can be a sign of value, but it isn’t inherently valuable. I’m more interested in noticing that it was only just a year ago that I moved all of this to its own web site, than I am in noticing I’m creeping up on three years of writing these missives.

Are you feeling overwhelmed by the never-ending noise and distractions of our modern world? You’re not alone. In today’s fast-paced environment, finding inner peace has become more crucial than ever.

~ from Cultivating a Richer Life with Craig Constantine

Back in early 2023, I was delighted to be invited to again join Vivian Carrasco on her show, The Within (U) Podcast. I think those of you who’ve heard a lot of me, will find this episode a little different. (Thanks go to Vivian for being such an open and inviting hostess!)

To live a creative life, we must lose our fear of being wrong.

~ Joseph Chilton Pearce

I do vividly recall when I was still imagining I wasn’t living a creative life. I thought I was connecting dots linearly—measuring twice, cutting once, deriving and deducing my way to clarity—doing work that felt anything but creative. Fortunately, I did eventually realize how wrong I was.

For the ancient Greeks, eudaimonia was considered the highest human good. While the word doesn’t easily translate into English, it roughly corresponds to a happy, flourishing life — to a life well-lived. Eudaimonia wasn’t a destination — a nirvana that, once reached, initiated a state of bliss. Happiness wasn’t something you felt, but that you did; it was a dynamic, ongoing activity. What that activity centered on was the pursuit of arete, or virtue.

~ Brett & Kate McKay from, Aristotle’s 11 Excellences for Living a Flourishing Life

There’s simply no way to say it succinctly in English. I’ve always wondered if the language (some word or phrase) is missing because we Westerners don’t think about eudaimonia— Or if we don’t think about eudaimonia because we don’t have the language for it. I certainly do want a single English word for all of that—because I think about it all the frickin’ time.

So I make it really simple. I’d say art is: “That which you have no choice but to do, because your soul demands it”. Yes, it’s a fairly flawed definition. But it illustrates something that most people don’t get about artists or entrepreneurs. We do it, because if we don’t, life feels empty. The downside being, it doesn’t exactly come with an easy life.

~ Hugh MacLeod

Because, otherwise life feels empty.

And so we get to the crux of our human predicament — the underbelly of our anxiety about every unanswered email, every unfinished project, and every unbegun dream: Our capacities are limited, our time is finite, and we have no control over how it will unfold or when it will run out. Beyond the lucky fact of being born, life is one great sweep of uncertainty, bookended by the only other lucky certainty we have. It is hardly any wonder that the sweep is dusted with so much worry and we respond with so much obsessive planning, compulsive productivity, and other touching illusions of control.

~ Maria Popova from, Escaping the Trap of Efficiency: The Counterintuitive Antidote to the Time-Anxiety That Haunts and Hampers Our Search for Meaning

For years I’ve been finding myself judging my day, each evening as I go to sleep. I lie down, and try as I might, my thoughts go beyond simply reviewing. There’s a Steve Jobs quote about asking himself a question each morning. That’s great, but isn’t something I do. I realized that I’m asking myself that question at the end of each day after closing my eyes to beckon sleep:

If that was the last day of my life, am I satisfied with what I did?

So the longer-term challenge is simply designing your life so that you have more of this stuff and less of the fluff. Look at every activity as you go through your day and think, “Is this contributing to getting me a better day—today—and if not, is there anybody in the world who has managed to design this activity out of their lives and still succeed beyond my level?

~ Pete Adeney

The gig then is to design a creative life that’s fulfilling in that eudaimonia way, while still ticking all the “must do” boxes of work-a-day life.

You’ll feel much less of a need to control outcomes, which — in a brilliant instance of irony — frees your capacity to control your response, and create an outcome you like. If there is some action you want to take, you can take it with grace and cool-headedness instead of frustration and desperation.

~ David Cain from, How to Make Life Agreeable

This reminds me of the times I’ve actually enjoyed standing in line at the post office. Not because I’ve mastered this—but because I’ve noticed, in those moments, how often I used to feel impatient and desperate to escape anything I’d labeled unpleasant. Sometimes I still catch myself trying to wiggle free from discomfort. But I’m making progress. I’d even say I’m becoming more at ease with my own unease—learning to sit with the discomfort instead of always trying to squirm out of it.

Until next time, thanks for reading.

ɕ

PS: Also, after nearly a year, I finally got around to sorting out some styling problems in email. Originally, 7 for Sunday lived within my blog (https://constantine.name) and when I moved it to this dedicated web site, I had to switch to emailing just an excerpt. We’re finally back to sending the full issue in the email. …excpect, I haven’t yet figured out how to get the caption for the featured image into the email. I’m working on that, but didn’t want to make you wait any longer to get the whole thing in email. 🙂