My Take on the Question: What is the Meaning of Life?
What is the meaning of life? A visceral question with an open ended answer. Answers that have been dressed up to be a range of things, but when you strip all those philosophically savvy enlightenments down to their core, you are left with a very fundamental idea. The meaning in life we strive for is to give our life meaning.
Examine the pattern a bit more closely and you will see a commonality in the ‘how’ of this cause. In order to create meaning in the life of one, we make it about others. I do not think that is coincidence that just as we strive to discover our purpose here, our purposes revolves around helping the lives of others.
Even if our purpose feels buried under our jobs, our chores, our responsibilities – it’s still there, it still exists. And we can use everything we do on a daily basis to help leverage our purpose.
Instead of looking those things as obstacles to fulfillment, what if you saw them as tools to become more fulfilled.
Life is the filter we use to look at it.
Close your eyes and think of the color red. Really think about it. Its tone, its vibrance. Now open your eyes and look around. Chances are, any of the red things in the room stood out.
What if we substituted the color red with a belief, say, there is great opportunity in everything you do, and instead of looking around the room you are in you look at the life you are living. What would you see then?
Take a look at this.
The first time people see this video (myself included) they cannot believe what they had missed. ”How could something like that go unnoticed,” we wonder. Had we actually been looking for moonwalking bears we would have very well seen it immediately. But, instead we were told to focus on the other stuff.
The reality of your world is largely what you focus on. And so why not focus on bringing the meaning of your purpose to life. It does not have to wait till your an adult, or till you land your dream job, or till your retired. It is a process, a constant evolution, that wants to happen every single day of your life.
Instead of holding off on fulfillment until the conditions are just right, why not entertain the thought of holding your purpose right up to your eyes and using it to see any little opportunity at any single moment?
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About the author
I believe in challenging the status quo and thinking differently, constantly. My past has been living in the limits of a societal context, my future lies in following what I believe in, and that middle ground known as present day consists of the surreal purpose of living in the now.
That video is amazing! Wow! I can’t believe I didn’t see it. Thank you for this great message today
You got it Wendy! That video is one of my favorites. I love showing it to people!
Glad you got something out of it.
I wonder if your kids would see the bear the first time around!?
Wow. Thanks for sharing that powerful video, Chris! When we focus on voices of “NO” we get stuck in what I call NO-Delusion. A symptom of a NO-Delusion is the inability to see opportunities as anything other than obstacles. Can you recall an opportunity that you missed because you couldn’t see the possibility of succeeding because you were focusing on the probability of failing? I sure can. A mind deluded by NO is a fearful, hampered mind. It has forgotten its power; it must be reminded. There are dancing bears all around just waiting for us to join in the dance of life!
What a great addition to this post Rob! It’s like you were speaking right to me with the idea of “NO-Delisions”. I try and continually focus on the mindset that there is great opportunity everywhere you look. It goes well up until I hit that obstacle. For me I have looked at these obstacles as something to be done with, something to get around, or something to simply avoid.
Why? Because of the possibility of failing. It’s times like this, that the blinders go up and my mind is only seeing the passes of the team in white…forgetting and not fulfilling its power. Oh man, I just got goosebumps. Every single obstacle holds great opportunity, and the mind is no less powerful than it was before the obstacle. If anything it is MORE powerful rising to the challenge.
Thanks for this Rob! Just had a mini breakthrough in my thought process at 10:51 on a Tuesday night!
Okay… I noticed that something happened, but because I was paying attention to the team in white, I didn’t really see what it was. In fact, it wasn’t until the second time I was watching for the “hidden” object that I actually saw it, and then it made sense. I couldn’t quite place what was unusual, but I at least noticed something.
Great lesson, Chris!
Rob, I agree with Chris! Great add to the post!
I have this one coworker at my “day” job that I always think of when I start seeing posts like this. All she sees are the problems around her. Just last week I heard her complain about 3 different things about her shift that day within the space of about an hour. Meanwhile, I was seeing opportunity all around me, and kept focused on what opportunities I was getting. (I bet you can guess who had the better day
Thanks for sharing!
Ha! It’s so great hearing people’s stories of the first time they watch the video.
And it really is such a great analogy for life. Our reality is created by the filter we put on it. Your real life example makes that statement come to life. Your co-worker was looking for things to complain about so what she find….things to complain about. Just like counting the passes in white – we can do an awesome job at focusing on something, but it’s completely up to us what we focus on.
Thanks for bringing some real examples into the conversation Grady!
It’s not yet weekend time, but I’m going to say it anyway..have a great weekend!
I’ve seen that video several times before so I knew what to look out for. But I think your point still remains valid. If you’re looking in one area and focus too much attention on it, you might miss out on something even if it is right in your face.
That video really does highlight how you might miss your meaning in life. Maybe taking some time to stop focusing too hard and looking around could do some good. I know that we all have filters on, but sometimes it is good to just turn them off for awhile.
Wouldn’t it be cool if we had no filter?! Sometimes when I am spaced out in thought I wonder what they may look like – if our thoughts had no prejudice.
But, something that absolute just isn’t possible, nor do I think we want it to be. But we can use our filters to weed out all the negative shit and focus in on what we really want. That lens that we see the world with stems from our beliefs so it begs the question, what do you believe in?
I love entertaining this inquiry..even when it can be frustrating.
Thanks for adding value to this post Steve – talk to you later brother!