Your Work is Everything – The Meaning Of Life Seen Through The Lens Of Projects

There are some people who simply never figure it out. You know, those people who just never find their thing. And that’s a sad and horrible existence. It makes me think of the old Pink Floyd line “No one told you when to run, you missed the starting gun.”

And you see these people all around you. Maybe you have a few of them in your life. Maybe you’re one of these people. It’s the 55 year old guy who still works the same old crappy job he had at 21 – and now he’s bitter, resentful and out of steam. It’s the middle aged woman who tries a new hobby every 6 months, endlessly searching for something that makes her feel alive.

The things we create are mirrors to our own consciousness, and if we fail to ever create anything of any meaningful significance throughout the course of our lifetimes, then we’ve completely missed the mark.

The goal of this piece is to answer the timeless question “what is the meaning of life?” And I’ll start my argument by making an overarching statement: the meaning of life is to constantly have a project on the go – something that you’re building. 

I didn’t know that I was capable of doing this when I was younger. I always attached success to financial compensation. And while that is definitely a big part of it, the other part of the equation that I always had figured out was the need to have a project on the go. It wasn’t until recently that I realized blending ongoing projects with financial compensation attached to those very projects was the secret sauce of a meaningful existence. 

When I was a kid, all my brother and I did was play outside. We rode our bikes, played in the mud – and worked on the projects that were a constant in our lives for years: our tree forts. I had mine in the back of the property, and he had his up beside the deck of the house. 

You would think that when a tree fort is “done” it’s done. And it’s kind of funny to think of now, but our tree forts were never really “done.” We were always adding additions off the side of them. I mean, you have the main space, but then you want a living room in your tree fort, right? We constantly changed and improved these tree forts for 8 years, until we started to grow up. Steve discovered gas powered small engines and trucks to play with, and I discovered music. 

For the next phase of my life, the active project was the band with my cousins and a couple of our buddies. That band was all I cared about from the ages of 15 to 18. We practiced in my aunt and uncle's basement, and played shows. We wrote tunes, learned our favourite songs and relentlessly pushed what we were creating. 

Then high school ended, and while the band was still happening, the intense focus it once received faded into the background as I went off to University. This was my new project. I went to school for Studio Art, so throughout those 4 years of my life it was entirely experiential. I wanted the full University experience. I painted, sculpted, photographed, researched, wrote and partied a little too hard. 

When University ended, I obviously wasn’t set up for any kind of traditional career, so I went back to obsessing over the band, which had now become a dystopic fragment of its former youthful innocence. We delved deeper and deeper into abstraction and alcohol and substance use before it inevitably imploded, ending the facade. This time in my life forced me to face the fact that I had become a man, one who had better get his shit together before it was too late. 

I then met a man named Barry, a man who took me under his wing and taught me everything he knew about building custom homes – he then encouraged me as I went off to architecture school. In this phase of my life, I was attempting to return to my first sizable project – building tree forts. 

But, this wasn’t like that. Something was off. It felt so serious and stuffy. There were building codes and rules and hierarchies. It wasn’t what I thought it would be. Building my tree forts was expressionism. Building real houses was bureaucracy. 

So I dropped out of college, picked up my old camera and drove out West to find myself. After spending a year out there – I came back, learned how to actually be a photographer from my mentor – and found my latest project: entrepreneurship. 

Since that time, I’ve built an organic photo/video marketing company. I’ve managed to successfully blend all of those projects I always obsessed over into one long term project: building, music, making art, researching, writing and socializing – and I get paid to do it. 

Everything that you do, every choice that you make – is viewed through the lens of the project that you’re building, or the very work that you’re doing every day. It’s how your life experience is framed. There’s a reason why at every social setting, you’re constantly asked “so, what do you do?” It matters – it’s a statement of who you are as a person. 

If you don’t have something that you’re working towards, something that’s occupying you – then you’re just floating through space, hoping to make it safely to death. 

Now, if you’re reading this – I’m sure you’re already focused on something that you’ve decided is important – and good on you. If you’ve stumbled upon this blog and you aren’t working on something important to you, then listen – just pick a project and start it. 

We’re learning, repetitive, silent observant machines. We take in a lot of information. Our conscious mind processes 50 bits of information per second – but our subconscious mind processes 11 million. Everything we see, hear, taste and touch is absorbed into the subconscious, and that part of the mind dictates our reactions, our approach to life and our outlook on the occurrences that move through us every day. 

If we have a very clear mission we’re consistently pursuing, the subconscious can do its job. It notices patterns, presents opportunities and seemingly solves our problems all on its own. But if we don’t have a meaningful project on the go? The subconscious spirals out of control – contorting our reality and catapulting our conscious minds into a state of constant anxiety and fear.  

With all of this information coming in, it needs an output, or an outlet. We cannot sit idle and let this information simply fester. There’s a lot of pain in the world. A lot – and we all experience difficult times. 

Without a meaningful outlet to inject our energy into, we just circle around the problem or the seemingly harmless thought in our heads – endlessly imagining a meaningful sense of existence, until inevitably we permeate into even further confusion and loss of control over the outcomes in our lives. 

If you ever find yourself asking why – why are we here? What is the point? Then here it is – we are here to create. That is it, that is all. Think about it. 

We were created. Our very existence stems from creation. And now, throughout our lifetimes, we are just an extension of that original creation. The universe created us because it wanted to, and that urge within you, that need to do something, to make something – that is simply the ever expanding universe. You are an extension of the very thing that created you in the first place. 

And if you ponder it really honestly, you’ll realize that everyone does in fact create. Some people trim hedges, some people build chairs, some cook – some people build houses, some people build healthy bodies, some people maintain healthy animals, some people rebuild broken things – everyone creates something. And everyone is really good at creating something. 

And just because you aren’t creating right now, doesn’t mean that you never have – it just means that you’ve forgotten about the importance of the act itself. But all of this also comes with its dangers. If you’re anything like me, maybe you're a bit of an obsessive. Earlier I touched on how the band experience morphed into a season of substance and alcohol use: it became something that had nothing to do with the music. 

But why did that happen? Well, we all missed the hints on when that project was over – and we used these substances as coping mechanisms. So with the notion of having a consistent project to be working on, we also need to remain mindful of when it’s time to move on – to find a new project. Something that speaks to you and that you can remain obsessed with in a healthy way.  

As you move through life, and through the seasons – really check in with yourself. Ask yourself what your current projects are. I mean, are you creating things? Do you have something that you’re building to view your experiences through? 

Make it a priority, if it isn’t already – and watch the changes within you flourish. The meaning of life is to create. This is true whether you’re 25 or 75. Retirees spend their whole lives working for something that doesn’t resonate with them – only to miss out on living their truth and die a few years into what was supposed to be their freedom.

Young people circle around what their peer groups find popular, forgetting to ask themselves what projects they really want to be working on deep down. Realizing this truth is an important right of passage – perhaps the most important one. So make a list. Go for a walk and think about it. Pick one thing you can do today that feels like it could become a meaningful project. And then do it again tomorrow.

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All The Best,

Jay Ashcroft