Days with meaning: is it time to design and refine your purpose?

Self care of your purpose.

Day Crafting explores the flow of energy from your maintenance (energy in) through your physical and mental work (energy out) and it also highlights how purpose helps focus your energy and accumulate meaningful progress. Clear purpose is only one factor in your self-care but it can be disproportionately important for some.

How is purpose a self-care component?

Individuals with a strong sense of purpose experience physical and mental health benefits attributed to a number of factors. Purpose can help us manage stress and adversity and promote resilience, bouncing back from negative events faster. It can motivate us to take more care of ourselves and engage in healthy behaviours. It can give us a reason to get up in the morning, set and achieve goals and give us a sense of belonging and Connection which can result in us feeling less isolated and more supported. Purpose often means contributing to something larger than ourselves with can provide a sense of fulfilment and joy.

I believe purpose has five interrelated components. Our values underpin our sense of purpose. Purposeful circumstances are the shape and structure that supports the right projects and days. How we sustain our purpose comes next and our actions and behaviours are the practice of our purpose at the working surface. Finally, the objectives of any task or project help hold it all together. Some of these elements can be more or less important and some may be critical to something feeling purposeful to you or not.

What defines your purpose can change during your life just as your self-care needs change with age and circumstances. What was purposeful for someone in their 20’s will most likely change through subsequent decades. In the context of Day Crafting, purpose is relevant at the scale of a day, project and to your identity.

Purpose is explored in depth in the Productivity Workbook.

The Practice

15 journalling prompts to refine and design purpose

Values

What are the core values that guide your decisions and actions?
How would you rank your values in order of importance to you?
When were you most proud of yourself, and how did that relate to your values?

Purposeful Circumstances

Can you recall a time in your life where you felt truly fulfilled? What were the circumstances surrounding this period?
How does your current life align with the circumstances you desire? What changes might you need to make?
If you could design your ideal day from morning to night, what would it look like?

Sustaining Purpose

How do you usually maintain your focus and motivation when working towards your goals?
Can you identify any habits or routines that make you feel more connected to your purpose?
How do you cope when you face obstacles or setbacks? What strategies could help you remain connected to your purpose during challenging times?

Practice

What strengths do you use that align with your sense of purpose and lead to meaningful progress?
How does your behaviour change when you’re engaged in a task or project that feels purposeful to you?
Can you think of any changes you could make in your actions or behaviours that would better align with your purpose?

Objectives

What specific objectives do you have that guide your actions? How do these tie into your broader sense of purpose?
Can you think of a time when achieving a specific objective felt especially meaningful? Why was that?
Looking ahead, what objectives might guide your actions as you seek to live more purposefully?

Written by Bruce Stanley on Tue, July 18, 2023

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Setting intentions – the Day Crafting tool you’ll use most

Have you heard of a stitching pony? Every craft has ubiquitous tools, the potter’s wheel, the smith’s anvil, the carver’s chisel – and the leatherworker has the stitching pony which is used to grip the material. To the Day Crafter the tool used most often has to be intention setting.

When self-care meant getting dirty and skirting peril

What does self-care mean to you?

Is it on autopilot or something you relish giving attention to? What problems do you encounter in your day to day self-care routines? I’m asking because I want to make the interventions in Day Crafting fit the kinds of problems we all encounter – and I’m starting to write the Self-care Workbook this week.

Day Crafting: The Productivity Workbook

Day Crafting is about developing the skills to use time meaningfully. It is the everyday art of making a good life. It is a set of methods to craft the style in lifestyle.

How is your day different from how it could have been? Bridging that gap is the practical skill of Day Crafting. It is the good life in two steps: balance and flourish today, then repeat tomorrow.