You Can Only Do The Dishes So Many Times

Twelve million of us are unemployed.

And in addition to the obvious downsides of financial
hardship, fear of the future, loss of control, boredom, lack of momentum,
feelings of humiliation, decline in motivation and lack of human contact, perhaps
the hardest part about looking for work is the devastating affect it has on the
human psyche.

Offices are where we do some of our most important existing.
Work informs our identity more than most things, so it’s a primary means to
express our sense of who we are. And if we lose our daily expression of that,
if we don’t have a consistent platform for being creative, passionate and
personal in our interactions with other human beings, there’s a noticeable
emptiness that starts to grow.

Eric Maisel calls this a meaning
crisis, in which meaning has leaked out and unhappiness has leaked in.

The secret is to take action on something meaningful.
Anything. By deciding to bite into something and do it really well, by making
the most of our talents and inner resources, we feel more alive. It’s a form of
living our principles and values.

Even if it’s a tiny step, as long as it helps us create
meaning in our lives, at the end of the day, it feels like we’ve met our quota
of usefulness. Besides, it’s only one part of a larger repertoire of activities
that are pretty much guaranteed to provide us with the experience of meaning.

The point is, without asking ourselves what tiny steps we
can take, today, that will help us create meaning in our lives, it’s going to
be an empty journey.

You can only do the dishes so many times in week.