Being Purposeful

I spent over 14 years in management. One of the lessons taught in my leadership training was to "be purposeful." The basis of the idea is that you should be making deliberate decisions instead of being passive and letting decisions happen around you. Indecision ends up being a decision, but it was not purposeful. At best, it is a random outcome and you should not allow your management to be random.

Also, allowing others to make decisions for you is not decisive nor purposeful. This is different from gathering input from others and then making decisions based on that input- that is a purposeful, well-informed decision.

However you can't control every aspect of life. So if what you want to be your decision is not possible, then you need to make a purposeful decision in another direction.You shouldn't quit or try to opt-out of the decision. Because again, not making a decision is still a decision. Even if it makes you feel better to just blame the outcome on your circumstances instead of your decision.

This notion is valuable in many areas in life. Even in art, as when you can't secure the materials you need for the specific art project you want to do. So be purposeful, but be ready to pivot to make a decision based on new information.

I was stuck in bed, in too much pain to be useful. I didn't want to use anything that would cause a mess, but I was adamant that I create something... and digital art does not scratch that itch. So while I wanted to make a beautiful mess with acrylics, I also didn't want to just piss around with crayons (or markers, or pencils, etc.). So I experiemented with crayons and watercolor, and created one of the cooler pieces I did all year.

Thought process:

"I want to paint in bed! Oh I can't use paint right now." Passive decision would have been to blame it on my circumstances and tell myself that I'd paint when I felt better, full well knowning that I wouldn't. But my purposeful decision was to use what I could manage. I could have made the purposeful decision to just not make any art. But then I wouldn't be able to blame it on anything but myself.

That's part of the point of being purposeful. All decisions are yours, and you need to take responsibility for them.