Monthly Archives: September 2013

A VALUED LIFE, INSPIRATIONS, OUR UNIQUE PURPOSE, UNIFYING PRINCIPLES

SEEING YOUR PURPOSE

Purpose Image 3

  • If we see hunger, our Purpose must be to find one family to feed.

  • If we see hatred, our Purpose must be to offer kindness. 

  • If we see greed, our Purpose must be to counsel. 

  • If we see ignorance, our Purpose must be to teach. 

  • If we see pain, our Purpose must be to comfort. 

  • If we see pollution, our Purpose must be to cleanse.

  • If we see sadness, our Purpose must be to cheer.

  • If we see loss of hope, our Purpose must be to encourage.

  • If we see helplessness, our Purpose must be to support.

  • If we see chaos, our Purpose must be to calm.

  • If we see deceit, our Purpose must be to inform.

  • If we see war, our Purpose must be to make peace.

     

A VALUED LIFE, INSPIRATIONS, OUR UNIQUE PURPOSE, UNIFYING PRINCIPLES

SHARE YOUR PURPOSE

Sharing Your Purpose JPGIt is important to understand that our Purpose, while uniquely ours, is not fully manifested until we find cause to share it with others. We cannot find true meaning in life without connecting ourselves with something larger and more pervasive than we are.  Existing in isolation of the larger world will only turn us inward, while our Purpose needs outward expression to find its fulfillment. It is said that no man is an island because no one of us can find lasting peace and happiness through any other channel than participation in the greater world in which we live.

Our Purpose can find expression along two major pathways: First, giving of ourselves to others; and second, having a cause to live for. Our greatest opportunity to feel totally alive and significant is to share ourselves to the larger community, to have something meaningful to believe in and stand for. We celebrate our Purpose by discovering the many ways in which our life can significantly impact and improve the lives of others.  We will not have to look far for these opportunities. Likewise, if we possess a deep commitment to a cause, a crusade or a conviction that we hold fundamental to our Purpose, we will possess the most exciting, rewarding reasons to exist while ensuring great meaning for our life going forward.

We do not have to live in a world characterized by empty values, unabated greed, hatred and unintelligent gratification at the expense of our collective well being. Not unless that is our Purpose, and we must believe that should not be our Purpose. Our Purpose should center upon our caring for the world that our children will inherit. We can find great Purpose in giving of ourselves with selfless love. Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote, Love is everything. It is the key to life, and its influences are those that move the world. If we cannot accept the world as it is becoming, we can make it our Purpose to change it.

Through giving of ourselves to others and to a cause that we deeply believe in, we will find our Purpose. There are infinite opportunities to make our lives more Purposeful as we extend ourselves out to the world community. All anyone needs to do is just look around . . .

INNER STRENGTH, MASTERING THE DIFFICULT, PATHS TO HAPPINESS, RATIONAL THINKING

OVERCOMING LIFE’S UNFAIRNESS

Who said life has to be fair, kind and nice to us? Life can be difficult, and the sooner we recognize and accept this fact, the easier our life will become. In fact, just acknowledging this statement somehow makes life’s burdens easier for us to bear. As humans we crave perfection of ourselves, of others and of the world in which we live. We wish not to see death, famine or disease. We even wish that we would never run out of gas, get fat or have our children talk back to us. But this is not the way life works. The entire universe is very much out of our control. Living with these constant imperfections frustrates us. However, once we accept the premise that life is difficult, that life’s events are not always going to be in our control, then we can relax, learn to accept instead of resist and get on with the creative, intelligent management of our lives. To overcome the burden of having to constantly deal with the unfairness of life, we must first, accept this unfairness and second, rationalize how we are going to deal with it. We cannot let life’s unfairness defeat us. Rather, we need to conquer these unfair situations by designing our own set of responses to them. Life’s events may largely be out of our control, but we do have control over ourselves.