the meaning of life
In this task-oriented culture, one of the real dangers is to slip into an episodic mode of living. What I mean is, the happenings of our day-to-day lives can become episodic, one after another, like the episodes of a soap opera. In a soap opera, there is always something happening, but nothing ever really happens. In every episode there is drama--activity takes place, words are muttered, but nothing really happens. People abusing one another, people using one another, people talking about one another, people plotting and scheming, but nothing meaningful ever happens. Their lives are filled with superficialities, and they are constantly restless and miserable. There is no theme, no thread---just another entertaining episode.
When the days and weeks of our lives become like this, we grow depressed, disillusioned, and miserably unhappy. The reason is that without a clear sense of the purpose and meaning of our lives, the emptiness is overwhelming. We try to fill the void with pleasure and possessions, but the emptiness is unaffected by such trivialities. There are moments of pleasure, but they are brief in a long succession of twenty-four-hour days.
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The individual experiences of our lives cannot be separated from the whole. Life is not a series of separate episodes. All of life's experiences thus far have played a part in the person you are right now. The common reaction to this statement is to recall some negative or abusive event in our past and use it as an excuse for the person we are today. Such adoptions of victimhood is one of the most destructive spirits at work in the human psyche in these modern times.
Victimhood denies the great truth that life is choices.
The point I am really trying to make here is that we are not a composite of everything that has ever happened to us, but rather what happens in our lives is almost always a result of those things we habitually think and those things we habitually do. Life is the fruit of discipline, or lack of it. We are our habits.
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Life is the gathering of truth. Any truth we discover must not be allowed to remain isolated in one area of our lives, and certainly must not be allowed to remain merely in our minds. Rather, any truth life reveals to us must filter into every aspect of our lives, like blood to the cells of the body. Life is one. Truth should be lived.
What we do in the span of our lives may bring us financial rewards, status, fame, power, and unimaginable possessions, but lasting happiness and fulfillment are not the by-products of doing and having.
The truth is a startling contrast to the present culture's credo.
Who you become is infinitely more important than what you do or what you have.
The meaning and purpose of life is for you to become the-best-version-of-yourself.
...
It is the quest to improve ourselves, to be all we are capable of being, to test our limits, and to grow steadily toward the-best-version-of-ourselves that bring meaning to our lives. Embrace this one solitary truth, and it will change you life more than anything you have ever learned.
~Matthew Kelly, The Rhythm of Life
When the days and weeks of our lives become like this, we grow depressed, disillusioned, and miserably unhappy. The reason is that without a clear sense of the purpose and meaning of our lives, the emptiness is overwhelming. We try to fill the void with pleasure and possessions, but the emptiness is unaffected by such trivialities. There are moments of pleasure, but they are brief in a long succession of twenty-four-hour days.
...
The individual experiences of our lives cannot be separated from the whole. Life is not a series of separate episodes. All of life's experiences thus far have played a part in the person you are right now. The common reaction to this statement is to recall some negative or abusive event in our past and use it as an excuse for the person we are today. Such adoptions of victimhood is one of the most destructive spirits at work in the human psyche in these modern times.
Victimhood denies the great truth that life is choices.
The point I am really trying to make here is that we are not a composite of everything that has ever happened to us, but rather what happens in our lives is almost always a result of those things we habitually think and those things we habitually do. Life is the fruit of discipline, or lack of it. We are our habits.
...
Life is the gathering of truth. Any truth we discover must not be allowed to remain isolated in one area of our lives, and certainly must not be allowed to remain merely in our minds. Rather, any truth life reveals to us must filter into every aspect of our lives, like blood to the cells of the body. Life is one. Truth should be lived.
What we do in the span of our lives may bring us financial rewards, status, fame, power, and unimaginable possessions, but lasting happiness and fulfillment are not the by-products of doing and having.
The truth is a startling contrast to the present culture's credo.
Who you become is infinitely more important than what you do or what you have.
The meaning and purpose of life is for you to become the-best-version-of-yourself.
...
It is the quest to improve ourselves, to be all we are capable of being, to test our limits, and to grow steadily toward the-best-version-of-ourselves that bring meaning to our lives. Embrace this one solitary truth, and it will change you life more than anything you have ever learned.
~Matthew Kelly, The Rhythm of Life