“Don’t aim at success—the more you aim at it and make it a target, the more you are going to miss it. For success, like happiness, cannot be pursued; it must ensue, and it only does so as the unintended side-effect of one’s dedication to a cause greater than oneself or as the by-product of one’s surrender to a person other than oneself. Happiness must happen, and the same holds for success: you have to let it happen by not caring about it. I want you to listen to what your conscience commands you to do and go on to carry it out to the best of your knowledge. Then you will live to see that in the long run—in the long run, I say!—success will follow you precisely because you had forgotten to think of it.”

Perhaps my most often shared quote – I think I’ve found a way to include this in every speech or presentation I’ve given in the past 10 years.  Obviously one of my favorites, but then again, most of the highlights or quotes from MSfM are my favorites!  I like this one because it gives us direction – and maybe because it is quite contradictory to the world we live in today.  He tells us NOT to seek success and happiness, for they are too elusive – but MEANING – in discovering meaning we will find success and happiness.  Kind of ironic – “success” and “happiness” are elusive terms, hard to define in his mind; but “meaning” – that is one he feels we should understand better.  Again, somewhat contradictory to a world that is constantly feeding us “happiness” in consumer goods and foods, and telling us “success” is the ability to consume at an ever greater rate.  When I look at it that way, maybe MEANING is a little easier to define – experience the world and love of others, create things that beautify the world, and wisely choose your attitude towards life and its struggles.  I wonder what the world would be like if more people choose to discover meaning rather than chasing success and happiness?

For those of you who usually find your link to The Meaning Project Podcast here, I’m sorry.  Not yet.  Not today.  You see, I did some really meaningful work with Cam Beaudoin of Accelerated Accessibility last week – We did a LinkedIn Livestream discussion where we talked about mental health and meaning in the workplace, the MBTI, and how that related to accessibility.  You find out more about Cam from his LinkedIn profile, and if you really want to watch the livestream recording, you can find it here on his LinkedIn page.  Of course, I’d really like it if you gave me a few days to get the audio and video from Cam to upload to the Meaning Project Podcast and Youtube channel – because, you know, statistics….

Which brings me to another point – if you are enjoying the Meaning Project Podcast, do us a huge favor and subscribe, like, share, comment, and rate – these are all things you can do depending on what app you use to listen to the podcast on, and all ways that help us get a little bit of Mental Health and Meaning to others byway of the Almighty Algorithm.

And… if you REALLY enjoy the podcast, you can rep your favorite podcast on Mental Health and Meaning by sporting some sweet and meaningful merch.  We’ve got tshirts, sweatshirts, coffee mugs, etc.  Check it out here: The Meaning Project Podcast Store

And if you want to support the podcast as a Patron – and have access to some exclusive merchandise – check out The Meaning Project Podcast’s Patreon page.  Your support there will help us upgrade tech and production quality, and maybe guarantee the timely Monday morning release you are used to!

As always, thank you for the opportunity to bring a little bit of mental health and meaning into your day – if you have ANY suggestions, questions, comments, or ideas, please feel free to share.  My goal, for quite a while, has been to share more on mental health and meaning with more people – if there are ways you think I can do a better job of that, please let me know!  And if you have feedback on the new Patreon page or merch store additions, I’d love to hear it!