Giving Thanks, Part 3 of 3 - Hit the Ground Running

Welcome to the final installment of Giving Thanks, my special Thanksgiving message for 2022.  Yesterday we covered the 3 areas every coach and mentor OUGHT to help you optimize.  Today we’re Awakening from the Meaning Crisis.

We are living through a strange time that is causing many of us to scrutinize what we have inherited on every level, and some of us are feeling this in ways that are particularly pressing.  Many of our traditional meaning-making mechanisms are in the midst of reevaluation, which leads to a meaning crisis.

My final item to share with you during this holiday season is an unbelievably brilliant, detailed, and clear set of lectures by the Canadian professor John Vervaeke called “Awakening from the Meaning Crisis.”  This deeply absorbing 50-part, 50-hour series covers the entire history of philosophy, religion, and cognitive science in the Axial Age.  As soon as I began watching it I knew I would commit to finishing it and as I write this I am prepared to start Episode 18 about Plotinus and Neoplatonism.  By the time you read this I will certainly be farther.

Words fail to capture the richness and splendor of this series.  Every episode brings succinct, fresh insights and reframings of philosophical concepts I thought I knew, to say nothing of the ones I didn’t.  Every viewing is rewarded with a deeper grasp of some element of reality that yields inspiration, wonder and, yes, meaning.   Every thought you have ever had likely has a place in the history of philosophy.  Try it and see:

I highly recommend it.  But don’t worry - if it’s not your bag, you can rely on me.  I watch things like this so you don’t have to 🙂 But, again, I recommend you do too.

Vervaeke created this in 2019, finishing just before the dawn of the year we call 2020.  While many of us were perhaps not aware of a meaning crisis before this, it seems impossible to deny in its wake.  Vervaeke was ahead of his time, and I now see abundant evidence of this.  It comes up in many, many of my conversations in a variety of ways.  The world has become an uncertain and disorienting place.  I can’t tell you how to navigate it for maximum prosperity, impact, and meaning, but I can give you insight, guidance, and the peace that comes from knowing who you are and what you are here to do.  And that is worth a lot.

2019 was already a while ago.  2023 is just around the corner.  What will it bring for you?  Will it bring the motivation that comes from meaning and mental health?  Or will you continue to struggle with the uncertainty of your existence?

If you would like to step into 2023 with clarity, confidence, and peace, I would like to talk to you.  You can book a call with me here: https://calendly.com/aaronjmarx/30min  Don’t wait long to book it - 2022 is almost done, and we should talk soon if you are going to hit the ground running in January.  See you soon!