In order to figure out significance for myself, I'll need to take a look at what other people are saying about it, at least in a round-about kind of way. As far as I can tell, significance is a concept that has not been well explored. People say lots of things about other stuff that is probably related to significance in some way, so I'll start there and try to piece the clues together. At the outset of my project, here are the topics I think I'll likely
take a look at:
Happiness / gratitude
Purpose and meaning
Resilience
Planning
Vulnerability
Goal setting
Mindfulness / meditation
Attention
Self help
Change management
Balance (work/life)
Chronic pain
Yoga
Self-care
Self compassion
Some of the things on this list might seem weird - but I can't forget that this is about me. In my world, for example, chronic pain plays a big role in my decisions and actions, and there are things that I want to do that likely aren't reasonable given the way that pain influences my body and brain.
I'll read widely, because that's what researchers do. I'll read books, journal articles, websites, blogs, and anything else I can get my hands on. But I also plan to listen (to music, podcasts, radio) and watch (for images, video, Ted Talks). Feel free to direct me if you like! This is an example of snowball sampling in research, where one resource leads to another, and so-on (Parker, Scott, & Geddes, 2019). Although the term usually refers to finding participants for a research study, the literature and other resources are, in a way, my participants.
I'll report on the resources I come across in the blog, under the "literature" category. You can expect that for each review, I will use a "what, so-what, now-what" format (Rolfe, Freshwater, & Jasper, 2001), which is a strategy for reflective writing that I've used with reasonable success over the years. So, I'll summarize the resource (what). Then, I'll describe my responses--thoughts, feelings, opinions--to the resource (so-what). Finally, I'll record some of my thoughts about how I might use the resource moving forward (now-what).
Near the conclusion of The Significance Project I'll review my blog posts and start to identify some things that might be helpful for me to distill in order to decide how I'll move forward with significance. I'll report on that analysis too, and you can keep me accountable as I go.
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