Engage Your Inner Compass With Something Larger

You’ve had days when you felt utterly energized—hours fly by as you tinker with code, shape clay, or volunteer at a local shelter. Those moments share a quality: you’re in touch with your “Something Larger,” that internal compass guiding you toward purpose. Neuroscientists have found that engaging with meaningful goals lights up the brain’s reward circuits even more than sheer pleasure activities. It’s like discovering a private cheering squad inside your head. When you follow that compass, you tap into deep reserves of resilience, creativity, and joy—resources you can carry through even the toughest setbacks. But after months of routine, you realize you’ve drifted away from that spark. You find yourself marking tasks off a to-do list, but your eyes glaze over. By revisiting those moments when you lost yourself in purpose, you can name the driving force beneath them—connection, justice, creation—and reconnect with the energy that launched you. Aligning daily actions, from morning routines to late-night emails, with your personal calling doesn’t guarantee easy days, but it does fill each one with a stabilizing meaning that no temporary stressor can erase.

Spare a moment now to list those rare times when you felt truly alive—when hours vanished and your purpose felt clear. Name the deeper “why” behind them, then jot down three actions you can take today that echo that purpose. This simple realignment fuels your internal compass and transforms random tasks into steps on a meaningful journey. Try it as you plan tomorrow’s schedule.