Several months ago I wrote an article about winning the fight of your life.
In the article I attempted to shine some light on a uniquely human issue; that is, the issue of meaning making and living a deeply satisfying life in the midst of an ever increasingly – distracted, device-driven, see it now, get it now, buy it now, look this way, think this way, it’s all about me – culture.
In short, most of the priority messages the world and culture send us today are absolute lies – in this, we can easily become trapped in a prison of our own making (right where the world wants us). Once we are trapped in this cycle of keep up and keep away, it becomes dramatically more difficult to make meaning and live a deeply satisfying life.
What’s ironic is the doubling down effect that often accompanies the distinct lack of meaning (and lurking sense of emptiness) that comes with meeting and exceeding the wrong, worldly goals. The doubling down effect creates a tragic cycle of the search for meaning in all the wrong places over and over again – until we finally crack.
What must we do to break free from this insidious cycle?
The military uses the contextual term, “Danger Close”, meant for a very specific situation that precisely communicates a desired result. Imagine you are a soldier. You have been dropped into enemy territory, and after fighting all day, you find yourself very close to the enemy. The bad guys are inching closer, and you’re about to be overrun. In these cases, soldiers may call in a Danger Close airstrike – where bombs or other explosive ordinance are dropped so close to the soldiers (to destroy the enemy) that the soldiers may also suffer casualties.
Think about that. If ever a situation conjured up a powerful metaphor, this would be it. For those of us seeking more meaning in life, the shift needed to break free from the cycles we perpetuate is nothing less than a Danger Close commitment. We must seek to destroy the habits, default settings, and bad code within our operating systems (another appropriate metaphor) to make a powerful shift towards something worthy of our time and effort and life.
In the end, how we spend our time in this life is the most important decision we can make. If you find yourself in a Danger Close situation, call for an airstrike right in your lap. If you don’t know how, find a coach, a mentor, or both. Start taking positive, intentional steps towards a deeply satisfying life.
You can do this.
