Last week, I had the opportunity to attend the Sutherland Institute’s Annual Awards Dinner. Brad serves on the Institute’s board, and its work to uphold faith, family, and freedom is an important part of his commitment to civic responsibility and the principles he believes are worth protecting.
The evening’s keynote speaker was Arthur Brooks, whose work explores what makes people happy and how to build a meaningful life.
The Deseret News published a helpful recap of Brooks’s remarks, including his thoughts on happiness, meaning, and the role technology plays in our lives.
Two questions he shared have stayed with me:
Why are you alive?
For what would you give your life?
Brooks has asked his students these questions for more than 30 years. He explained that when he first began asking them, the vast majority of his students could give thoughtful answers. Today, only about half can.
He connected that change to the way technology and constant distractions have affected our ability to think deeply about our lives, our relationships, and our purpose.
I found myself thinking about that long after the evening ended.
Knowing What Matters Isn’t the Same as Giving It Attention
I don’t have much difficulty answering those two questions. My faith gives me a foundation for understanding why I’m here and what matters most in my life. I know the people and purposes I would put ahead of everything else.
But knowing those things and giving them the attention they deserve are not always the same.
I’m almost always looking for something to fill the quiet. Social media to scroll. A movie to watch. Music to listen to. Work to accomplish. Sometimes more than one at a time. Even when I’m doing something enjoyable, I can find myself wanting another source of entertainment or stimulation in the background.
None of those things is necessarily bad. I enjoy reading, watching movies, listening to music, and working on projects. The problem isn’t any one of them. It’s how easily I fill nearly every available moment with something else.
I realized how rarely I simply let myself think, reflect, or pay attention to what is happening around me without also looking for something to occupy my mind.
And I felt a little guilty.
I almost always have some kind of screen on during the first or last hour of the day. Meals can become another opportunity to check something or watch something instead of simply being present with the people around me.
It’s not that I don’t know what matters. It’s that I don’t always make room for it.
That constant need to fill our attention doesn’t just affect how we think about our lives. It can also change how we experience them. We sometimes miss the opportunity to simply play, imagine, explore, or enjoy something without another source of entertainment competing for our attention.
I think that’s part of what made Toy Story 5 resonate with me this summer. My kids loved it, but I found myself appreciating its message, too. The movie explores what happens when screens begin to replace imaginative play, and how important it is for children to have room to create, explore, and engage with the world around them.
There’s something worth remembering in that message, even for adults. Imagination doesn’t stop being important when we grow up. Neither does play, curiosity, or the simple enjoyment of doing something without needing it to be productive or entertaining every second. Sometimes the best ideas come when our minds have room to wander. Sometimes the best conversations happen when we’re not looking at anything else.
If we’re always filling our time and attention with something, when do we give ourselves the opportunity to think about what matters? When do we let our imaginations grow, or simply enjoy being present with the people around us?
Making Room for What Matters
We’ve become remarkably good at eliminating boredom from our lives. The moment there is nothing to do, we reach for a phone, turn on a screen, or find something else to occupy our attention.
But those quiet moments are more valuable than we often realize.
Sometimes we need space to think about our lives, consider our priorities, or simply notice the people around us. Conversations can become more meaningful when we’re not distracted by something else. Time with family can feel different when we’re actually paying attention. Even a few minutes of quiet can give us room to remember what we’re working toward and why.
Perhaps the question isn’t whether we should use technology or enjoy entertainment. Those things have a place in our lives. The more important question is whether we’ve allowed them to take up so much space that there’s little room left for anything else.
We may not need to make dramatic changes. Sometimes it begins with noticing how often we reach for a distraction and choosing, occasionally, not to.
A Life Measured by What We Give
Thinking about purpose also brought me back to something we’ve reflected on quite a bit this year: why we do the work we do.
As Injury Smart Law approaches its 20th anniversary, we’ve had opportunities to reflect on why the firm exists and what the work has meant over the years.
Brad originally went into law because he wanted to help people. That purpose has remained central to the firm, even as the practice has grown and changed.
Over two decades, we’ve worked with people whose lives were unexpectedly disrupted by an accident. We’ve seen how an injury can affect far more than someone’s physical health or financial situation. It can interfere with the ordinary things that give life meaning: time with family, the ability to work, independence, familiar routines, and experiences people had been looking forward to.
Helping someone through that kind of disruption is meaningful work because those things matter.
It is a reminder that the purpose behind what we do isn’t simply resolving a legal problem. It’s helping people navigate a difficult chapter so they can move forward with their lives.
And perhaps that’s one of the things that becomes clearer with time: the importance of the people we care about, the work we give ourselves to, and the ways we can make a difference in someone else’s life.
Finding Meaning in the Life We’re Already Living
I don’t think finding meaning in life necessarily requires discovering some grand new purpose or making dramatic changes to the way we live.
Sometimes we already know what matters. We know the people we love, the beliefs that guide us, and the responsibilities we’ve chosen to take seriously. The challenge is making sure those things aren’t crowded out by everything else competing for our attention.
Arthur Brooks’s questions have stayed with me because they ask us to look beyond what fills our days and consider what gives those days meaning.
Why are we here? What matters enough that we would give our lives for it?
And perhaps just as importantly, are the things that matter most receiving our time, our attention, and our best efforts?
Those are questions worth returning to, not just once, but throughout the lives we’re building.