The other day I was reading an article on having a ‘whole’ life. The author of the article mentioned that to live a ‘whole’ life we must do the things we love and avoid doing the things we just aren’t passionate about.
“Yeah, easier said than done”, i heard someone say from my grey matter. I soon closed the article I was reading being only half way through deciding that chess was more worthy of my time.
Well I lost again, and now am on a 14 match loosing streak. A shame if you ask me, especially since I refer to my self as the ‘Indie Kasparov’ (However, I’ll let all you fans of the Indie Kasparov know that retirement isn’t on my mind).
This post though, is not about my chess exploits, or more fittingly how I’ve been exploited. It instead is about me giving thought to the article I had read about having a ‘whole’ life.
I, after a couple of weeks, and by total chance, came across the same article about how to live a ‘whole’ life. This time though I read it completely. According to the author, fulfillment of one’s life can be only achieved if one understands his/her purpose of life. If a person lives in ignorance of his/her purpose in life, he/she will never experience fulfillment. Naturally, this made sense to me.
One of the exercises suggested by the author that would help me on the path to finding my ‘purpose’ in life was to write down the things I love. The author suggested me to make a list of my likes and dislikes. He in fact suggested making many lists of likes and dislikes. For example, make a list of careers your interested in, make a list of the characteristics you desire in a woman, make a list on food you like, make a list on the characteristics you’d like your friends to have, etc.
Well by the end of the exercise I had to myself many lists, each containing things or characteristics ranked from 1 to 10 (most favorable to least favorable).
This exercise has helped me distinguish between what I like and what I dislike. And that I realized was the first step towards my path to reaching my destination, my purpose.
Do the things I like, be with the people I like, eat the food I like, etc. If I do whatever I like and avoid everything I dislike, it would definitely lead to a very happy and fulfilling life. I mean it’s like 2 + 2 = 4.
Getting a little sidetracked for a whole, i'd like to say that i feel. the purpose of life is to be successful. Being successful has a different meaning to different people. Some think of success as in monetary terms, some think of success in terms of how many children they’ve had, some think of it in terms of how much they’ve helped others, etc. But more importantly, the purpose of life at the end of the day is to, simply, be successful.
We all want ourselves to pass in the test of life and not fail. This passing would lead us to a fulfilled life, at the end of which we can proudly say, “Yes, I’ve lived the best life possible, I’ve completed my purpose here, and I’ve lived a whole life”.
However, the odds are not in our favor to achieve such fulfillment.
You could ask me, “How many people have a fulfilled life? How many people can proudly say that they battled the odds and conquered life?”
“Very few” I’d tell you.
But shouldn’t this bunch of very few people inspire all of us to follow the path to self-fulfillment? Shouldn’t we all be inspired to pursue our purpose in life?
Most of us don’t really know our purpose in life. Even if we do, we do not pursue it to the fullest extent. Why? I feel it’s because we are afraid to fall. We’re afraid to fail. We choose rather to walk on a path that we don’t often like but one we feel safe on rather than walk a path we’re supposed to, the path we’d like to take.
A simple example would be of someone doing a job he/she doesn’t like. For example, I know of many people (friends of mine) doing a doctor’s course not because they actually want to be doctors but instead because they feel they would get a good pay in the future. Doing something you don’t actually like, just because you’ll be earning a good paycheck in the future, wouldn’t be very fulfilling now, would it?
Such a person I figure would never really be happy in life, how much ever money he/she earns because they just aren’t passionate about their profession.
You could ask me, “Floyd, does the path matter or does the destination?”
I can’t say clearly, for I’ve just started on my path and my destination is way way off. In my opinion, life is all about walking on the right path and not about just reaching a certain destination.
Coming back to doing that exercise for likes and dislikes. I do hope people actually start doing more of what they like, and avoid stuff they dislike. Enjoy life, don’t complain living it. We’re here only once so why not just be happy, do what we like and live it ‘whole’?
Thank you, if you’ve read this post… please do comment and let me know what you feel. Cheers!
“Yeah, easier said than done”, i heard someone say from my grey matter. I soon closed the article I was reading being only half way through deciding that chess was more worthy of my time.
Well I lost again, and now am on a 14 match loosing streak. A shame if you ask me, especially since I refer to my self as the ‘Indie Kasparov’ (However, I’ll let all you fans of the Indie Kasparov know that retirement isn’t on my mind).
This post though, is not about my chess exploits, or more fittingly how I’ve been exploited. It instead is about me giving thought to the article I had read about having a ‘whole’ life.
I, after a couple of weeks, and by total chance, came across the same article about how to live a ‘whole’ life. This time though I read it completely. According to the author, fulfillment of one’s life can be only achieved if one understands his/her purpose of life. If a person lives in ignorance of his/her purpose in life, he/she will never experience fulfillment. Naturally, this made sense to me.
One of the exercises suggested by the author that would help me on the path to finding my ‘purpose’ in life was to write down the things I love. The author suggested me to make a list of my likes and dislikes. He in fact suggested making many lists of likes and dislikes. For example, make a list of careers your interested in, make a list of the characteristics you desire in a woman, make a list on food you like, make a list on the characteristics you’d like your friends to have, etc.
Well by the end of the exercise I had to myself many lists, each containing things or characteristics ranked from 1 to 10 (most favorable to least favorable).
This exercise has helped me distinguish between what I like and what I dislike. And that I realized was the first step towards my path to reaching my destination, my purpose.
Do the things I like, be with the people I like, eat the food I like, etc. If I do whatever I like and avoid everything I dislike, it would definitely lead to a very happy and fulfilling life. I mean it’s like 2 + 2 = 4.
Getting a little sidetracked for a whole, i'd like to say that i feel. the purpose of life is to be successful. Being successful has a different meaning to different people. Some think of success as in monetary terms, some think of success in terms of how many children they’ve had, some think of it in terms of how much they’ve helped others, etc. But more importantly, the purpose of life at the end of the day is to, simply, be successful.
We all want ourselves to pass in the test of life and not fail. This passing would lead us to a fulfilled life, at the end of which we can proudly say, “Yes, I’ve lived the best life possible, I’ve completed my purpose here, and I’ve lived a whole life”.
However, the odds are not in our favor to achieve such fulfillment.
You could ask me, “How many people have a fulfilled life? How many people can proudly say that they battled the odds and conquered life?”
“Very few” I’d tell you.
But shouldn’t this bunch of very few people inspire all of us to follow the path to self-fulfillment? Shouldn’t we all be inspired to pursue our purpose in life?
Most of us don’t really know our purpose in life. Even if we do, we do not pursue it to the fullest extent. Why? I feel it’s because we are afraid to fall. We’re afraid to fail. We choose rather to walk on a path that we don’t often like but one we feel safe on rather than walk a path we’re supposed to, the path we’d like to take.
A simple example would be of someone doing a job he/she doesn’t like. For example, I know of many people (friends of mine) doing a doctor’s course not because they actually want to be doctors but instead because they feel they would get a good pay in the future. Doing something you don’t actually like, just because you’ll be earning a good paycheck in the future, wouldn’t be very fulfilling now, would it?
Such a person I figure would never really be happy in life, how much ever money he/she earns because they just aren’t passionate about their profession.
You could ask me, “Floyd, does the path matter or does the destination?”
I can’t say clearly, for I’ve just started on my path and my destination is way way off. In my opinion, life is all about walking on the right path and not about just reaching a certain destination.
Coming back to doing that exercise for likes and dislikes. I do hope people actually start doing more of what they like, and avoid stuff they dislike. Enjoy life, don’t complain living it. We’re here only once so why not just be happy, do what we like and live it ‘whole’?
Thank you, if you’ve read this post… please do comment and let me know what you feel. Cheers!
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