Thought Provoking: 5/1/07

The great and glorious master-piece of man is how to live with a purpose. -Michel de Montaigne

Not long ago, a friend was in the final minutes of a flight into Chicago. Through the window, as the plane aligned with the runway, he saw thousands of commuters inching along, in bumper-to-bumper traffic. Each driver's goal was to just escape the city and return home from a hard day's work. No one, in that snarled mess of cars, could have been enjoying life at that moment in time.
It often amazes me the obstacles people are willing to overcome to accomplish a task. Why would anyone subject themselves to a lifestyle that requires so many hassles to get to and from work. The obvious answer is that they need their job to earn a living. I think the true motivation goes a lot deeper.

As a child, I used to spend hours watching ants working around an anthill. Each ant worked at its task with very definite purpose. If I put an obstacle into an ant's path, to disrupt its work, it would go into a complete frenzy until the obstacle had been removed. What is it about an ant that makes the completion of a task so important? What is it that drives nearly all living things to be task oriented? Why are most human activities, even our sports, based on the successful completion of a task? Could it be that life comes with an inborn need to have purpose, to have a reason to exist?

I believe the answer to this question is a definite "yes." The happiest people I know are the ones who have taken a task, worked hard to accomplish whatever it is the task required and then stood back to admire and appreciate the end result of their effort. There is a direct correlation between having purpose and being happy.

When we start our day tomorrow, what will our purpose be? Will we end the day having done nearly nothing and living with the resulting frenzy of negative emotions? Or, will we end the day feeling great because of all the things we've accomplished?

We are in control of our lives! We have the power to choose between being happy and just being. We can matter or just be matter. If we are uncomfortable with who we are, we have the power to change. By finding a purpose, finding a task and doing it well, we will experience happiness as we have never experienced it before. We are made to establish goals and to persist until they are reached. That is how we find out who we are. That is how we build a life.

We have a choice...we can't buy happiness but we do have the power to create it. If we find something we want to do and do it well, we will have improved self-esteem, self-acceptance, and happiness.

Have and oustanding week!