Pursue What is Meaningful not What is Expedient
“Do what you love” can mean many things. But the essence of it is simple: do things because they hold meaning and bring purpose to the activity — not because you think they need to achieve a specific outcome.
When the Thought “What’s my Goal here?” Becomes the Gatekeeper
I grew up with a father who would often ask me what the goal or purpose of whatever I was currently doing was.
I was a creative, dreamy kid. I did things because I felt drawn to creating something beautiful — or meaningful to me.
Having an entrepreneurial father who was not “the creative arty type” conditioned me to question why I wanted to do something. And then, slowly without realizing it, I started doing it to myself.
As Don Miguel Ruiz (author of The Four Agreements) would say: you are domesticated as a child… and then you start to domesticate yourself as an adult.
How do you domesticate yourself? It's a powerful question to ask yourself.
Domestication: The Quiet Loss of Play
I like the word domestication.
Like a wild and free playful lion cub, we learn by playing — just for the fun of it. But as we get older, society and familial conditioning trains us to ask what the “purpose” or “goal” is.
And here’s what most of us don’t notice:
Even the act of asking a question can interrupt the flow of expression.
Because suddenly, instead of creating… you’re evaluating. Instead of exploring… you’re justifying. The muse can’t breathe in a room that’s being audited.
Why Flow Needs Space
Rick Rubin — the famous music producer — built his entire approach around protecting that space.
He would deliberately get out of the way. He would avoid rigid timeframes. He’d create an environment where creative expression could run wild, so the muse could flow freely from the musicians.
The legendary, iconic music that came out of that studio wasn’t born from pressure. It was born from permission.
That’s not laziness. That’s respect for the creative current.
Expedient Is Seductive
Expedient is seductive. It sounds like being responsible. It sounds like being smart. But it can quietly erase your creavitity.
Expedient choices are the ones that “make sense.” The ones you can explain. The ones that fit neatly into productivity culture and social approval.
And they often come with an invisible rule:
You only get to do what matters if it earns its place.
Meaning becomes something you postpone until:
- you have more time
- you’re more confident
- it’s more useful
- it has a clearer outcome
- someone validates it
Meaning gets put on hold until it has a “reason.”
And that’s the trap.
A Better Question Than “What’s the Goal?"
When you notice yourself tightening up — trying to justify the thing before you even begin — swap the question.
Instead of: “What’s the goal?”
Ask: “What feels meaningful here?”
Or:
- What feels alive right now?
- What would still matter even if nobody external to you observed it?
- What aligns with who I really am/what I love?"
- What am I being pulled toward, without needing a reason?
Meaning doesn’t always arrive as a plan.
Sometimes it arrives as a quiet “yes this feels right.”
A Simple Practice to Protect What Matters
Try this for one week:
1) Choose one meaningful thing (keep it small).
2) Give it 10 minutes a day.
3) Remove the outcome requirement. No measuring. No proof. No productivity points.
Just relationship. Just presence. Just expression.
This is how you re-train your system to trust flow again — and to stop negotiating with your own aliveness.
The Real Point Of Doing
Pursuing what’s meaningful doesn’t mean you abandon outcomes.
It means outcomes stop being the condition for your aliveness.
Do the thing because it matters.
Because it’s true for you.
Because it brings you back to yourself.
And if your mind protests, you can simply answer:
Meaning is the goal.
What feels meaningful to YOU?