Saturday, September 29, 2012

10 Ways To Have Meaning In Your Life


1. Accept the namelessness of life. This is perhaps the most difficult of all, so I start with it. There are many things in life for which you will never find a name. Which means that they will always remain mysterious to you. When you come to accept that, you can then find more and more meaning in that which you are able to name.
2. Give up worry. Worry, for many people is a way of life - it is how they deal with life's ongoing drama. What will happen? What if this happens? The problem is that worry camouflages meaning in life. Like putting peanut butter on bread. Perfectly good bread but the peanut butter sometimes masks the taste of the bread so thoroughly that you cannot savor the bread flavor.
3. Pardon yourself. I look at pardon as being beyond forgiveness. I think that technically when someone is pardoned, that individual's record is expunged. Yes, forgive yourself for whatever and all. But go beyond that and pardon yourself- expunge your records and move on. The burdens of the past can keep you from finding meaning now if those burdens are not released. Let them go, now.
4. Take aim frequently. This is beyond goal setting. This is dreaming of what will be - no question about it. A goal, in my mind, is like setting up a target at which to aim. Goals are good, make no mistake. But for meaning in life, your need to aim frequently - dream as if your life depended upon it. It does.
5. Understand that you live in abundance, as opposed to scarcity. It is a simple fact, in my book, that when you think you live in scarcity, you will see and have scarcity always. On the contrary, when you believe that you live in abundance, abundance is what you shall have. You will always have what you need. Therefore, you can seek meaning because you are not saddled with spiritual poverty.
6. Believe everyone operates from who they believe they are. In other words, when you are tempted to make a negative assessment of another person, remember that they are doing the best they know how. Yes, they may not be doing well at all, in your book, or, perhaps, in anyone else's book. But they are operating as best they know in that moment - just as you are doing. The deepest meanings come from non-judgment.
7. Strive to be what you would. Notice please, I said "to be." What you can do in the world is limited. Now don't see me as saying something negative in that. You cannot fly - ever - by the power of your own unaided arms. We are just not birds. But you can take your spirit flying and take the spirits of others flying with you. So strive to be what you would - there are no limits to being.
8. Divest yourself of the negatives. Drop greed, anger, hopelessness, etc. These are unworthy of you. None of the negatives will get you anywhere. They may seem powerful, but in the end they are not. Take anger, for example. No one was ever intimidated into doing anything willingly, and therefore appreciatively, when raged upon. You change very little and very few through anger. And when the anger is absent, as when you leave the room, those at first frightened, regain their courage and look for ways to resist or sabotage you.

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