There are many questions relating to purpose, “how does it serve you?” is one that helps to focus on what it is in the activity that serves us. It is also a question that allows reflecting on how something we do regularly doesn’t need to be separate from the rest of our activities.

There are always connections between the things we do. It may not always be evident, but usually, it will emerge along the way.

Meditating, for example, is a practice I took up to gain peace of mind. Practicing meditation revealed, that peace of mind can only be a result of regularly applying the techniques I’m learning while meditating. But the practice isn’t the experience, thus the moments where the techniques I’m learning are most helpful are outside of meditation. For example, while playing golf.

Golf is a sport I took up to expand my network outside of my professional life, but I learned that it doesn’t work like this for me. However, as I learn who plays golf, it shifts my activities within my network. But the key learning, one I’m still struggling with, is humility. It builds on learning that the sense of failing over and over again as I’m hitting the ball toward the hole is only my reaction to my own expectations, not to the way I hit the ball.

Golf is at the same time generous and unforgiving. There rarely are days where nothing works out well, but it works better if I learn to forgive myself and give my full attention to the next stroke. What doesn’t help is to start analyzing and changing one’s swing while on the golf course, that’s reserved to practice.

These, in turn, are a good reminder for other activities and thus help me to shift how I address them.

There are always situations that don’t work out as expected. And whatever happens, that’s what we have to deal with. What we do builds on practice and preparation, but it is the doing that creates the experience.

By seeing how one activity serves us, we make it applicable to other activities and multiply its benefits.