Ideas for better living
Purpose
Ways + Meaning exists to collect and share wisdom about better living.
I send out ideas via email when inspiration strikes and occasionally even post a full article from time to time.
This is a side project and one that doesn’t get a lot of attention these days so if things are a bit weird or broken, just let me know.
Values
Curiosity
in pursuit of wisdom, an unrelenting drive to learn, to create, to explore, to seek out what’s different and uncover new truths that need to be shared
Calm
bringing a sense of peace and tranquility to all
Connection
to spirit, between people, ideas, thoughts and feelings
Progress
a focus on continuous improvement everyday, no matter how small or how slow
Hi, I'm Kim Soko Schaefer
I’m a mother or two, a partner to my best friend, a lover and failure of entrepreneurship, a curious human who loves to learn through reading, writing and sharing.
I’m also a control-freak in recovery and natural born pessimist who tries very hard every day to be an optimist.
Things I’ve done
- Travelled the world for 2.5 years with my husband in lieu of a wedding and honeymoon
- Earned my MBA at the Melbourne Business School in Australia
- Worked as strategy consultant focused on impact-driven organizations
- Launched and shut down 3 companies with very little success
- Gave birth to and raised the 2 most beautiful (inside and out) humans on the planet (in my honest opinion, as their mom)
- Curiously explored the science of being a human, living, and how to live better
- Wrote a series on Medium.com called Experiemnting on Purpose
Things I want to do
- Successfully manage a small, simple, and joyously challenging, business of my own
- Take my family on an international sabbatical for 2-4 years before they reach middle school
- Design and build my own modern beach house with unobstructed epic views of the ocean; to be overwhelmed by awe on a daily basis and have a gathering place to spend to spend quality time with family and friends
- Continue to expand my mind and never stop learning
- Travel deeply, regularly
What I’m doing right now
- Preparing for or taking a software engineer bootcamp (i.e. learning to code)
- Writing when inspiration strikes to help people live better. Collecting, curating and sharing bits of wisdom. You can subscribe to it here.
- Reading, a lot.
- Raising my children and enjoying life as family in Denver, CO
me in the 1980s
my OG family in the 1990s
my family now
A bit about the name
Ways & Meaning came about in my pursuit to find a name that highlighted the core theme of ‘purpose’ while staying firmly rooted in the rational world.
‘Ways and means’ is defined (by Google) as ‘the methods and resources available at someones disposal to achieve something.’
It’s is all about the resources or tools. That’s the heart of this business.
So the name is all about the purpose behind the way we discover, allocate and use the resources we have available. And that is exactly what Ways & Meaning hopes to achieve for each and every one of you.