Search: it is an extremely big deal in almost every world you can name.
Science? Yep, searching for other worlds (SETI Institute, etc.), reasons for black holes, and far more.
Medicine? Of course. There are searches for cures for dozens and dozens of illnesses. Big Pharma is with them.
Athletics? Right up there with the others. What’s the best workout routine? Is talent a real thing, or is it just about practice? Can I raise my children to be superstars, like Richard Williams did?
Religion? Not everyone, but some search the Bible to figure out when the world will end. (They will not find it.)
Tech? Major league. I mean the very term “search” is practically synonymous with Google.
Education? Hmmm…. Someone out there please tell me what education is searching for. It seems to me that many in higher education might be searching for ways to be more political and less philosophical. I know that sounds cynical, and there are universities I love. So I’ll leave it to you. Please comment below and make us all better.
The reality is that we all search for a lot of things every day. And it is much more than searching the house for the car keys, your memory for someone’s name, or online for the best doughnut in your state.
Something (or someone) is missing
A year or so ago, my wife and I were searching for a TV show to replace one that had been canceled. Our search led us to a show called Tracker about a man who searches for missing people. Search is everywhere.
I have a couple of friends who are searching for what to do next in their life. I met one of those today, and when I told him I had two jobs he said he’d be happy to take one of them off my hands.
Just as there are people searching for just the right job, there are employers searching for just the right employee. How do both of their searches end happily in one fell swoop?
In the same way, how do you find your one true love, and how do they find you? Maybe Tracker could help.
On a more thoughtful level, how do you find yourself?
I believe in (and wrote about it) everyone being who they were created to be. Over the years I’ve been asked, “How do I do that if I don’t know who I was created to be?” Great question! And a wonderful way to begin the search.
Much of our searching is important like that. A wallet, a pet, a person (!) is missing. We will go to extreme lengths to find those things that are important to us. To find what and who we love. Those searches are good and worthy of the effort.
Trending
A few days ago I was searching for “#34 Los Angeles Dodgers” online when a screen popped up titled “Trending searches.” It was October 26, 2024, at 9:40 a.m. I know, because I took a screen shot of it. Here were the top five:
- spiderman noir nicolas cage
- walking pneumonia cases
- sarah danser car crash
- russian soldiers north korean
- frozen waffles recalled listeria
My first thought was that people had been exposed to bad news and wanted to know more about it. In fact that was the case, because none of those are trending searches today.
It would be wrong to say that the majority of trending searches on Google are even mostly bad. What “trending searches” does do is tell us what people are looking for in the moment.
Finding that information is simple. Just go to this website and then click on Trending Now.
As I write on a Thursday night, the top two searches are: “Texans vs Jets,” and “Jets vs Texans.” People care about football.
Here is who that information helps the most: people who want people to find them. Podcasters, journalists, marketers, and not a few bloggers rely heavily on trending searches, riding the wave for a day or so until the wave crashes on the shore.
Then, like a surfer, they paddle back out and ride the next wave, hoping they’ll be found in some of those searches.
I find the entire cycle interesting, knowing there are people out there whose primary marketing practice is trying to be found through trending searches. But if you are good at it, it works.
Not trending, but never waning, searches
For most of us, our searches vary from day to day. Except this: we are all continually searching — sometimes actively — for meaning and purpose.
Meaning, purpose, fulfillment, self-improvement. Those are searches that rarely trend but never diminish.
Just to address the first, one of the most popular books of the 20th century was Man’s Search for Meaning, by Victor Frankl. If you haven’t read it, I’d recommend it highly. If you have read it, I’d recommend you read it again.
Frankl was a prisoner in the Nazi system during World War II. His book reveals much about that. He notes that even there — or perhaps especially there — having meaning was a survival tool. Perhaps the world sometimes feels to you like a prison camp. Meaning — a sense of significance in our lives, no matter the circumstances — will help you as it helped Frankl.
Purpose is more about direction, about goals and aspirations, and it is also very important. In fact purpose can actually help you find meaning, and together they can be amazingly powerful.
But the most popular of the list above is self-improvement. In fact self-help books are number one on the best seller list for non-fiction. (They are only number 4 overall, trailing Romance, Mystery, and Science Fiction.)
I don’t know the answer to our title question: What are you searching for? But you should.
Throughout the day, I’ll search for this and that — temporary and easily forgotten. But I believe we should all be engaged in searching intentionally, and sometimes intently, for meaning and purpose and self-improvement.
Thankfully there is one simple formula that helps with meaning, purpose, and self-improvement:
Do good. It’s in you.
What are you searching for?
Search: it is an extremely big deal in almost every world you can name.
Science? Yep, searching for other worlds (SETI Institute, etc.), reasons for black holes, and far more.
Medicine? Of course. There are searches for cures for dozens and dozens of illnesses. Big Pharma is with them.
Athletics? Right up there with the others. What’s the best workout routine? Is talent a real thing, or is it just about practice? Can I raise my children to be superstars, like Richard Williams did?
Religion? Not everyone, but some search the Bible to figure out when the world will end. (They will not find it.)
Tech? Major league. I mean the very term “search” is practically synonymous with Google.
Education? Hmmm…. Someone out there please tell me what education is searching for. It seems to me that many in higher education might be searching for ways to be more political and less philosophical. I know that sounds cynical, and there are universities I love. So I’ll leave it to you. Please comment below and make us all better.
The reality is that we all search for a lot of things every day. And it is much more than searching the house for the car keys, your memory for someone’s name, or online for the best doughnut in your state.
Something (or someone) is missing
A year or so ago, my wife and I were searching for a TV show to replace one that had been canceled. Our search led us to a show called Tracker about a man who searches for missing people. Search is everywhere.
I have a couple of friends who are searching for what to do next in their life. I met one of those today, and when I told him I had two jobs he said he’d be happy to take one of them off my hands.
Just as there are people searching for just the right job, there are employers searching for just the right employee. How do both of their searches end happily in one fell swoop?
In the same way, how do you find your one true love, and how do they find you? Maybe Tracker could help.
On a more thoughtful level, how do you find yourself?
I believe in (and wrote about it) everyone being who they were created to be. Over the years I’ve been asked, “How do I do that if I don’t know who I was created to be?” Great question! And a wonderful way to begin the search.
Much of our searching is important like that. A wallet, a pet, a person (!) is missing. We will go to extreme lengths to find those things that are important to us. To find what and who we love. Those searches are good and worthy of the effort.
Trending
A few days ago I was searching for “#34 Los Angeles Dodgers” online when a screen popped up titled “Trending searches.” It was October 26, 2024, at 9:40 a.m. I know, because I took a screen shot of it. Here were the top five:
My first thought was that people had been exposed to bad news and wanted to know more about it. In fact that was the case, because none of those are trending searches today.
It would be wrong to say that the majority of trending searches on Google are even mostly bad. What “trending searches” does do is tell us what people are looking for in the moment.
Finding that information is simple. Just go to this website and then click on Trending Now.
As I write on a Thursday night, the top two searches are: “Texans vs Jets,” and “Jets vs Texans.” People care about football.
Here is who that information helps the most: people who want people to find them. Podcasters, journalists, marketers, and not a few bloggers rely heavily on trending searches, riding the wave for a day or so until the wave crashes on the shore.
Then, like a surfer, they paddle back out and ride the next wave, hoping they’ll be found in some of those searches.
I find the entire cycle interesting, knowing there are people out there whose primary marketing practice is trying to be found through trending searches. But if you are good at it, it works.
Not trending, but never waning, searches
For most of us, our searches vary from day to day. Except this: we are all continually searching — sometimes actively — for meaning and purpose.
Meaning, purpose, fulfillment, self-improvement. Those are searches that rarely trend but never diminish.
Just to address the first, one of the most popular books of the 20th century was Man’s Search for Meaning, by Victor Frankl. If you haven’t read it, I’d recommend it highly. If you have read it, I’d recommend you read it again.
Frankl was a prisoner in the Nazi system during World War II. His book reveals much about that. He notes that even there — or perhaps especially there — having meaning was a survival tool. Perhaps the world sometimes feels to you like a prison camp. Meaning — a sense of significance in our lives, no matter the circumstances — will help you as it helped Frankl.
Purpose is more about direction, about goals and aspirations, and it is also very important. In fact purpose can actually help you find meaning, and together they can be amazingly powerful.
But the most popular of the list above is self-improvement. In fact self-help books are number one on the best seller list for non-fiction. (They are only number 4 overall, trailing Romance, Mystery, and Science Fiction.)
I don’t know the answer to our title question: What are you searching for? But you should.
Throughout the day, I’ll search for this and that — temporary and easily forgotten. But I believe we should all be engaged in searching intentionally, and sometimes intently, for meaning and purpose and self-improvement.
Thankfully there is one simple formula that helps with meaning, purpose, and self-improvement:
Do good. It’s in you.
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