When all you see is gray in front of you, you can turn around or keep advancing. You might be stopped by a concrete wall, but sometimes you will walk right through the fog.
As I said, it was my goal to determine my true life purpose by the end of last year. By that very measurable metric, I have failed. What is interesting is that I was much more public about my goal than nearly all previous occasions, but having failed publicly, I am not ashamed or deterred. I do not feel guilty like I have in the past.
I am not discouraged because I am continuing my efforts. When you experience a setback, you can truthfully say "I failed to meet goal X", but it is not a true failure unless you give up on a goal you still desire. In shorthand: you don't fail when you get knocked down - you fail when you don't stand up again.
I consistently explored my purpose through writing. I did not track it as I should have, but I think I wrote every single day. My self-discipline did slip in that I allowed myself to get sidetracked in writing about such things as my camera and transportation technology. I will expand in the future on my experience with mental and physiological effects that occur to distract me from topics I have resistance to.
While I did not achieve my goal, I have made progress toward it. I have had to define (sometimes for the first time) my assumptions about reality, belief, potential, the law of attraction, and other fundamentals. This exploration has been enlightening, and is already changing some of my beliefs - making me a more positive person.
Additionally, I have engaged other people in discussion about core beliefs. The most common response when I inquired about people's true purpose was "I don't have one". This is reinforced by the purpose poll results. At least one person was very content with their purpose, even though she did not have some sweeping, earth-changing goal. As with writing I wandered into adjacent topics while conversing with people, such as religion - which was illuminating, even while less focused on my goal. I will continue to increase conversations with others to get their take on the meaning of life.
I feel very close to my purpose. I will definitely have it described in clear verbiage by March 14th (Einstein's birthday) - also the deadline for my goal of losing another 11 pounds (the latter goal in light of multiple ideal-weight references).
3 comments:
there is no success or failure in the question your trying to answer. the meaning of life to one person is not the same as to another, so don sweat it I'd say. i think maybe the purpose of life is just asking yourself "what is my own purpose". not to sound cliché, but there is no wrong answer if your true to yourself and you just don't stop asking yourself that question as your life goes on. you say your sidetracked on writing about your interests like your camera..well there ya go, thats what your life could be about perhaps, nothing more, nothing less. maybe life is simpler then we all make it out to be sometimes..or maybe i had one to many drinks tonight...who knows...
With regard to she who is content with her purpose...how do you know there is no earth changing goal? Furthermore, whose to say that just because one knows what one's purpose is, does not necessarily mean one has fullfilled it. As you may well know, often times outside forces can distract from what one should do, especially if what one SHOULD do is in conflict with those in one's immediate environment.
And I would tend to agree with anonymous. Allowing oneself to get excited by something that may enhance one's life, even from a superficial standpoint, should not necessarily be viewed as a fault, rather, just another pebble under foot as you continue your journey. Whether a pebble adds a bump or smooths out the path, is there really anything wrong with its presence?
It has been said that if you aren't failing often enough, you aren't adequetly challenging yourself.
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