"Ultimately, man should not ask what the meaning of his life is, but rather must recognize that it is he who is asked. In a word, each man is questioned by life; and he can only answer to life by answering for his own life; to life he can only respond by being responsible." ~ Viktor Frankl from Man's Search for Meaning
Frankl's Logotherapy "... considers man as a being whose main concern consists in fulfilling a meaning and in actualizing values, rather than in the mere gratification and satisfaction of drives and instincts."
Powerful stuff.
How about you? Are you spending a little too much time wondering what the meaning of life is? Well, get up. Look at your world. Look at your gifts. Ask yourself, "How can I serve? How can I give my highest self, my greatest strengths, in the greatest service to the world?!"
My hunch is you'll have an idea or two. It might be something as simple as "I can volunteer in the soup kitchen this weekend." OK. PERFECT. Google the soup kitchen. Call. Book yourself as a volunteer for THIS weekend. RIGHT NOW. You have other instincts?
FOLLOW THEM.
As Byron Katie says in her brilliant book Loving What Is: "What I call "doing the dishes" is the practice of loving the task in front of you. Your inner voice guides you all day long to do simple things such as brush your teeth, drive to work, call your friend, or do the dishes. Even though it's just another story, it's a very short story, and when you follow the direction of the voice, the story ends. We are really alive when we live as simply as that—open, waiting, trusting, and loving to do what appears in front of us now...What we need to do unfolds before us, always—doing the dishes, paying the bills, picking up the children's socks, brushing our teeth. We never receive more than we can handle, and there is always just one thing to do. Whether you have ten dollars or ten million dollars, life never gets more difficult than that."
Did you have a "bigger" answer to your question of how you can serve? Maybe start that conscious business you've been talking about or going back to school to become a teacher or finally signing up for the Peace Corps or to be a Big Brother/Big Sister? Awesome. Whatever it is, pay attention to what your intuition is telling you is the NEXT STEP.
Don't get bogged down with all the details of how it's going to come together. Just do the dishes.
And watch the momentum build!!
"The meaning of our existence is not invented by ourselves, but rather detected." ~ Viktor Frankl from Man's Search for Meaning
"Be not afraid of going slowly but only afraid of standing still." ~ Chinese Proverb
More Mojo from Man's Search for Meaning
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PhilosophersNotes on Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl | |||||
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