Living purposefully

Each day you do have an opportunity to resolve the contradictions in your experience. But the question is this: will you rise to the occasion?

Here are some questions that can set you up on the path of resolution:
1. Do I constantly act according to my thoughts?
2. Do I prefer to perish inside to feel accepted outside?
3. Do I hold myself up to other people\’s standards or my own?
4. Do I have a clear concept of me?
5. Do I derive my sense of meaning from things, others, actions, institutions etc?

Take question 5 for instance, if we all could be brutally honest, we will probably admit that our sense of meaning is in these domains of performance i.e. things (resources), others (relatedness), actions (responsibilities), institutions (religions). And we take pride in labelling ourselves after them. NOTE: And if you happen to be out of this category, then you are among the \”zero point zero zero something\” percent that have transcended this universal challenge.

Indeed, sometimes we find some of these things meaningful especially our connections to others (i.e. being a son, husband, father, friend etc) and our responsibilities (through which we display various work competencies). However, they are not designed to be inherently valuable. Let me give you a quick analogy: an electric bulb is a luminous material and as long as it is connected to an electrical source and turned on, it will glow.

Electricity – Light – Illumination
Inspiration – Purpose – Purposeful

Just like electricity is a secondary energy source produced through primary sources such as coal, natural gas etc, inspiration is a secondary energy source of life produced through primary sources such as reflection or observation, crisis or challenge, and epiphany or enlightenment. These primary sources are sovereignly measured out to us from eternity to give us an aha moment about ourselves.

In such a discovery, you have potential (your ideal self) and purpose (your ideal sense), which makes you centered (like the center of a cross), out of which your performance is authentically generated in those domains of performance. This is what it means to live purposefully.