The question for all times is this: What is the meaning of life?
Here's the answer: The meaning of life is that life has no meaning, and that it is meaningless that life has no meaning.
Satisfied? I don't blame you if you are about to ditch this post. But before you do, consider this:
Just because "life" has no meaning, does not mean that you cannot have a meaningful life. Meaning, it turns out, is in the eye of the beholder. That's right, you get to create meaning. Unfortunately, that means for us procrastinators (and I'm a big one), nobody is going to show up and hand you your life's meaning or purpose. What's great about that though is that you get to decide. What if instead of having the opportunity to make your own meaning, someone did actually hand it to you - and you did not like it? Then what? Not so terrific, right? So remember, YOU are the master of the meaning of your life!
What, you may ask, is the meaning of your life Mr Scott Hardy? Great question, but in order to fully answer it, I need to first tell you what my purpose in life is.
"My purpose in life is to act as a positive force for love and peace in this world - so that we all may experience joy. I do this by pursuing the possibility I've invented for myself and my life; that is the possibility of being present, generous and optimistic - while at the same time being self expressive, kind and free."
Out of my purpose comes meaning - to me.
Simply stated, "the meaning of my life is to add more love and peace to our world." It is to try to execute on my purpose every day.
Notice that I don't universalize my meaning by applying it to everyone else. In other words, I am careful not to say (and think) "The meaning of life is to add more love and peace to our world." In that definition, the word "my" is missing before "life". If I forget to put the "my" in there, then nobody else gets to create their own meaning. And that can lead to all kinds of headaches for you and others.
Once you have your purpose and/or meaning in life defined, then the fun really starts. That's when you get to take purpose driven action. You get to define your goals (relationship goals, financial goals, career goals, adventure goals, etc). You get to live every day in service of your purpose, and with that, you will surely live a most meaningful life.
Peace - Scott
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Great post! I look forward to reading your future insights on life, because I think we are all in search of the meaning of life, in one way or another.
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ReplyDeleteI’m beginning to understand, though it still confuses me at times! I don’t yet know my goal-but the purpose and meaning of my life is clear, simple but clear. I know I will learn more and definitely add to my purpose and meaning, but as of now I know what I’m reaching for-to help others and be open minded, to be patient and forgiving, to judge a person for who they are, not they’re appearance. Thanks to my dad, I have learned a lot, and I have a lot more to learn!!!
ReplyDeleteWell put Mr.hardy - I remember the weekend that the context of this was put in place!
ReplyDeleteI have something new I've added to my rambling:
* Nothing lasts
* Nothing is perfect
* Nothing is finished
I like the "E" in Scott's signature. That stands for EDMUND, his Dad's first name.
ReplyDeleteI would like to add a couple of "my" rules of the road:
(1) Be responsible, but make each day an adventure.
(2) Only make your impression of a person, not a group.
(3) Never criticize a person because of the way they were created, mentally or physically, for none of us had any control over our form of creation and therefore, do not deserve to be criticized for that which we could not control.
(4) Your gift of a smile or a hello to those less fortunate for any reason, takes so little effort on your part, but means so much to them.
(5) Every new day is the "first day of the rest of our lives.". It doesn't matter what we have done in the past. The only thing that matters is what we are going to do today and into the future.
(6) Failure is one of the best backgrounds for future success, because by studying our mistakes, we can maximize our future success.
A good example of that was a gentleman that started a flower shop in Florida and it failed. The next one he started failed. The third one he started failed. Today he owns the largest successful chain of flower shops in Florida. Anything is possible if you want it bad enough.
Ed Hardy