You wake up each morning and start your day, not knowing what the day will hold. You grab some breakfast, perhaps a coffee, and you are on your way toward the rest of your life.
Sorry - is it too early in the morning to consider something that deep?
Your subconscious has been contemplating it since the moment before you opened your eyes.
The second your feet hit the ground, you started moving toward a goal. What was that goal? It was whatever you have decided is your purpose in life.
Is your purpose to make money?
Is your purpose to lose weight?
Maybe it’s to clear up your email inbox? Or your living room?
Whatever choice you make will determine the rest of your life.
Too dramatic? Consider this.
If your goal in life is to make money, your bank statement will set the tone of your day. The number on your screen representing virtual funds in your electronic bank account will decide whether you’re allowed to be happy that morning--or if you’ll live in a funk for the next 12 hours.
If your life’s goal is to be thinner, the scale decides your mood.
Clearing up your email inbox is a perpetual process, so each notification of your electronic device will send you running to the computer or phone or address and delete, meeting your goal, but perhaps fueling your anxiety.
After being careful to meet basic needs and provide for those in your care, it’s all up to you. Whatever you choose will take over your moments and determine the course of your day and ultimately your life.
There is a difference between meaning and purpose. Purpose is a goal--a direct object. An empty checkbox to be marked off and filed away. Purpose is a specific figure in the bank account, a number on the scale, or an empty inbox.
Meaning, on the other hand, is the symbolic value attributed to the purpose. Does that full bank account make you important? Does decreasing your size increase your worth? Does the empty inbox make you accomplished?
Take a moment, or ten moments, and consider what you would like your life’s goal to be. What is it that you would like the world to remember about you? Alright, I’ll take it down a notch. Your children will tell stories to their children - what do you want those stories to be?
Taking it a step smaller, if your child, real or imagined, were to draw a picture of you, what would you be doing in that picture? What would you be saying? Would you be angry or impatient? Would you be warm? Would you be loving?
Asking “What is the meaning of life?”
is asking
“What is the value of my life?”
Each move you make will be directed toward a goal and corresponding value of your determination.
Choose wisely.
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