My Mission, My North Star
How loss and grief led me to discovering my true purpose and passion in life.
The meaning of life is to give life meaning. That is a unique proposition for every person, but I believe that Love is at the heart of every person’s perspective of a meaningful life (for them). Everything comes down to love; love, or the lack of it. (Fred Rogers)
For much of my life, I had what I now call small-m meanings that I aspired to, worked towards, and achieved. Some were about personal meaning and fulfillment, like manifesting Apple approaching me with a job offer to come work for them in Cupertino. Others were contributions, like making Modernizr to give back to (and modernize) the web industry and its 5+ billion users. And then there were meaningful relationships, from nesting partners to special friendships and chosen family and more.
But at the end of 2017, at the end of my Year of Loss, I found my capital-M Meaning: Love First, a vision to spread Love and Harmony across all of humanity for the next 1000 years. And during that Vision of Love First experience, I saw all my skills, expertise, passions, interests, and desires come together in one cohesive picture of the future, the rest of my life, my Mission. Capital M.
Love First was what I was going to devote the entire rest of my life to. Something I was choosing to devote myself to until my final breath because I saw the transformative power of it so clearly, and because I truly believe in a story of a more beautiful world that we can write when we do so together, consciously and intentionally.
So now this is my Mission in life, my North Star:
To invent social, cognitive, and technological tools and solutions that catalyze new approaches to governance, harmony, and social and environmental stewardship.
To offer cognitive reframes, mindset and paradigm shifts that help us understand ourselves and each other better, more empathetically, and more harmoniously.
To bring together people, communities, and movements in a uniting story of humanity in a Revolution of Love.
To spread Love and Harmony across all of humanity for the next 1000 years.
To get 9.94 million Americans and 224 million people worldwide to Go Love First.
To be One with Love.
Faruk Ateş is a Love Catalyst, writer/poet, public speaker and transformational coach. He writes on Medium, Substack, and canonically on GoingLoveFirst.com, where the latest iterations of all Love First teachings live.