Sunday With Sisson | Mark's Daily Apple

've talked about the importance of having a mission in life—of having a real reason to get up in the morning and attack the day.  ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ [BLOG |]( [PRIMAL KITCHEN |]( [PRIMAL BLUEPRINT]( [Mark Sisson with Coffee Cup]( Good morning, everybody. I've talked about the importance of having a mission in life—of having a real reason to get up in the morning and attack the day. I've also long thought that one of the real epidemics plaguing the modern world is that many people lack that kind of mission. We don't have higher meaning or purpose. There are exceptions, of course, but the majority of people seem to derive meaning through their consumption (and of course that's what the media culture largely encourages)—the latest superhero movie, the new Netflix program, their quest for ever more artisanal coffee. I love a good movie and care about my coffee, too, but they don't satisfy that deeper yearning for a purpose. And as much as you might profess to love the latest Avengers flick, it's not the same. We need something bigger or more, for lack of a better word, meaningful. I'm not claiming to have the answer to this, or even approach it. Instead, I have a question. Can we create our own mission? Can meaning and purpose emerge from within? Can we consciously choose what to care about and live for? If I'm talking about my own experience—which is all I have to go on, really—my mission chose me. It arose as a consequence of conscious decisions I had made. However, if you drill down to the base level, the deeper mission came from the bottom up. It was organic, a result of my experiences and failures with endurance competition, with working as a personal trainer and running coach, with my interest from childhood in science and biology, with the realization that a huge glaring omission in the market was staring me in the face. Some people find meaning by giving their art to the world, by practicing their faith in the world, by devoting themselves to a helping profession, by teaching the next generation, etc. In so many instances, the mission we end up giving our lives to so often descends on us from the outside, or at least appears to (whatever the objective truth). We may feel inexplicably led to our mission from early on, or we may spend decades navigating seemingly endless detours only to eventually find all those endeavors (and even failures) converging with sudden clarity. All that said, we do decide to make ourselves open to the possibility. I got that way because I took a shining to evolutionary and scientific literature, became an endurance athlete, trained hundreds of clients, and started a small blog. And if you look at the granular details, there are conscious decisions: Sitting down to write every single day even if my mind's drawing a blank. Sticking with the blog even when almost no one was reading. Making that first batch of mayo and going "You know, we could do this." I don't know that you can sit down at a table with a pen and paper and "iron out a purpose in life." I think it has to be a fusion of organic emergence, open-mindedness, regular diligence, and simply throwing yourself out there in life. Good luck is awarded to those who show up more often. Finding a purpose in life is probably much the same. Do you have a purpose or a mission? How did it come about? Did you choose it, or did it choose you? Let me know in the [comment section]( of this week's WLL. And enjoy your Sunday. Best,                                  [Facebook]( [Instagram]( [Custom]( [Custom]( [Pinterest]( #listentothesisson No longer want to receive these emails? [Unsubscribe](. Mark's Daily Apple 1641 S. Rose Ave. Oxnard, CA 93033