[Editor’s Note: This is the second installment in a new series focused on described what The New Pursuit is all about. This post explores my personal journey on the path of deep living. The final installment will offer resources and encouragement about pursuing this path yourself.  Read Part 1: Defining What it Means to Live Deeply in a Shallow World.]

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Four years ago I thought I knew what I wanted to do with my life.

Eyeball deep in corporate America with the proverbial ladder staring me in the face, I came up with “The Decade Plan”. In short, by the time I was 42 I would reach VP level at a company. By 52 I would be sitting in the C-Suite. With the target on the wall, I started ticking off my to-do list.

Now, how many of you have your own version of “The Decade Plan”? How is it working?

For me, I’ve thrown it to the curb. Let it go by the wayside. Deliberately.

Why? It’s just not worth it any more. Over the past four years, while I was toiling away diligently, Life came calling.

These Moments of Epiphany (M.O.E.s as I like to call them) are overwhelming. Perhaps you’ve felt them too, tugging softly at first, then like a ton of bricks they hit you upside your head.

But let me rewind just a bit more…

My personal journey on the path of deep living started about 10 years ago. It’s when I first realized that this little planet we call home was up the creek without a paddle. This was all before The Great Green Wave crashed onto the shore, so getting your ‘green’ on was still looked at as a bit crunchy and hippie-ish. My wife and I (no kids yet), living in the outskirts of Boston, started taking those steps to step a bit more lightly: recycling, planting a small garden, using the cars less, etc. Urban living made that easy.

Fast forward five years and two kids later, and we found ourselves back in the suburbs raising a family. The Great Green Wave had washed over the U.S. with the likes of Al Gore and others. Sustainable living was on the radar. But in my neck of suburbia—a rural setting flanked with farmland and other quintessential New England fare—I didn’t feel it was taking hold. So I decided to become a blogger and launched a site called Sustainable Sakonnet in an attempt to share what our family was doing to step ever lighter and galvanize discussion at the community level. (I still post there, albeit infrequently.)

We were eyeball deep in our to-do lists: Recycling and composting – check; buying local – check; eating organic and growing some of our own food – check; getting our energy through a renewable energy program – check; changing lightbulbs – check; check, check, check, check, check…

But with bills looming, I thought Corporate America and I had to stay BFFs (best friends forever). Our family of four kept trucking along – even as I started my MBA (Masters of Business Administration) and continued to tick away at my Decade Plan.

About two years ago, as I started back at graduate school part-time, the second epiphany happened: I discovered mindfulness and the many great teachers who espouse it. Almost simultaneously, I stumbled upon the philosophy of deep ecology and many of the other earth-centric ideologies out there. It was then that I started realizing that checking off more and more things on my Green To-Do List, while good and necessary, just wasn’t getting it done anymore. There was something deeper to be had. I felt my sense of Being changing.

These yearnings were fueled by not only my ongoing role as a dad, but my growing interest in other spiritual traditions, namely Buddhism. Up to that point, I had been in and out of the Revolving Door of Christianity. Even now, while I shy away from labels, I might consider myself a healthy agnostic with a strong leaning towards Eastern, earth-based and contemplative spiritual traditions. But that’s not important. How each of us connects with whatever we consider as being divine is all that matters. The way I see it, most of us are striving for the same end; the means for how we get there don’t matter – just as long as we all respect that and support each other in our respective pursuits.

Fast forward one more time. The final epiphany happened nine months ago when minimalism entered my life. In hindsight, it was a natural extension of what our family was doing to step ever lighter in this world. The mantra of less is more resonated like a bell struck in the still darkness of night. Now with three kids, I eliminated even more from my life that was not bearing fruit – commitments, material things (books, clothes, house stuff of all kinds, etc.), thoughts and time-wasters. We had already given up TV, so there wasn’t much to do there.

Throw all these things together and what you get – as I call it – is Deep Living: Living each day deliberately and with intent; pursuing new ways to connect Life, Nature and Being as a means for both personal growth and the collective growth of Humanity; taking a journey to reconnect with the life-bearing awesomeness of this planet and enable its perpetual prosperity for all beings.

I knew there were others out there that probably felt the same way — those that felt the same tugging of spirit; those wanting to leave this world a better place for all children. That’s why I started The New Pursuit: To share, to connect, to discover, to create community. Not only for me, but others as well.

Four months later, here I am writing this for you. I am wholeheartedly humbled by the response to this blog; to the people from all over the world who I have met and connected with; to the passions and visions of those fellow Life-Livers who are following their own pursuits with such resolve, inspiring so many others in the process.

I believe with all my heart that there is an enlightenment happening in the world. Even with so much turmoil and suffering, there is a growing wave of momentous change for the better. Such focused intention is amazing. We are all doing our part to make our visions a reality. And it is beautiful.

Be well,
Bill

If you enjoyed this post and think others might too, please consider sharing it with your circle. You might also enjoy these posts:

• Deep Living 101: Defining What it Means to Live Deeply in a Shallow World
• Technology, Minimalism and the Great Digital Detox
• The Harsh Reality of Life Transformation (Or Remaining Resilient While Your Days Rage On)