Define Your Values (Not In Your Work & Affiliations)

Don't try to find "impactful" or "meaningful" work, initiatives and affiliations. We live in a complex system and above all, we are part of a complex system. 

Define your values first and live by it in your personal life. Everything else will follow it. 

I love animals but I will find meaning if my job was cleaning toilets. Worse, if I worked in a slaughterhouse for some time, I would learn the economics of the meat industry better and might learn a thing or two to eradicate meat and animal suffering. 

We are indeed astronomers on warships, we are biologists on an imperial voyage, and we can make marginal changes in the world if we work as part of the world we want to make an impact. 

Avoid living in an idealistic world where only signaling works. 

This is such a beautiful (and insightful for many) piece -  We're All Astronomers on Warships:

Stop holding yourself to an impossible standard of ethical associations, and do the most good you can in the organizations that will empower you to do it best — even if those organizations are imperfect. News flash: all organizations are imperfect. Of course they are. They’re run by people.

Our businesses, our employers, our communities, our churches — we can’t mold them all to our perfect moral standards. We can’t even mold ourselves to our standards most of the time. But neither can we sever ourselves from all of these associations.

Why? Because in all their imperfection, they can still help facilitate our best intentions.

My marketing work helps provide for my family, and provides a work life that lets me be extremely present in my two sons’ lives.

My teaching gives me the opportunity to (hopefully) positively touch the lives of young people on their path into adulthood and the lifelong pursuit of personal fulfillment.

My church affiliation provides me a mechanism for service and volunteer work, as well as the inspiration that comes from regularly sitting down in a room with a bunch of people who are actively trying to become better human beings.

Your affiliations don’t have to define your values. They just have to help you define your own values.

We’d all prefer not to be on the warship in the first place. We would love for it to be a Peaceful Vessel for the Advancement of Astronomy and Common Good. But don’t jump ship just yet. The world needs to know what you see through your telescope.