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Transcript

What You Wanna Do With Your Life? – Find Your Purpose and Go After It · Motivational Podcast

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Life is so difficult and challenging that unless you give
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: it everything you have, the chances are very high that
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  Speaker 1: it will embitter you, and then you'll be a force
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: for darkness and not good. And so you know, the
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  Speaker 1: fact that life is short and can be brutal can
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  Speaker 1: terrify you into hiding and avoiding, but it can also
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  Speaker 1: you can flip that on its head and understand that
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  Speaker 1: since you're all in anyways, you might as well take
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  Speaker 1: the risks that are adventurous. And that's a very good
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  Speaker 1: thing to understand. And what is also useful to understand
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  Speaker 1: in that manner is that there isn't anything more adventurous
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  Speaker 1: than the truth. This is something that took me a
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  Speaker 1: long time to figure out. Well, you can craft your
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  Speaker 1: words to get what you want. You know, when people
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  Speaker 1: do that all the time, they craft the words so
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  Speaker 1: they can avoid taking responsibility for things they should take
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  Speaker 1: responsibility for. They can craft the words to gain an
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  Speaker 1: advantage that they really don't deserve. That's what you do
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  Speaker 1: when you manipulate. And the problem with that you might say, well,
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  Speaker 1: why not do that if I can get what I want?
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  Speaker 1: And the answer that is, you aren't necessarily the best
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  Speaker 1: judge of what you need, and it's easy to be
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  Speaker 1: diluted in what you want. And that's the sort of
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  Speaker 1: delusions that people chase if they chase power. If you
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  Speaker 1: decide instead that you're going to just say what you
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  Speaker 1: believe to be true, you have to let go of
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  Speaker 1: the consequences. And you might think, well, I don't want
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  Speaker 1: to let go of the consequences because I want to
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  Speaker 1: control what's going on. But what you miss then is adventure,
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  Speaker 1: because if you don't control what's going on, you don't
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  Speaker 1: know what the hell's going to happen. And maybe that's
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  Speaker 1: exciting and actually there's no doubt about it. And then
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  Speaker 1: you have the additional advantage if you're attempting to say
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  Speaker 1: what you believe to be true and attempting to act
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  Speaker 1: in the manner that you think is most appropriate. That's
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  Speaker 1: genuinely you, and you have the force of reality behind you. Obviously,
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  Speaker 1: that's what you have. If you're trying to say live
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  Speaker 1: in the truth. Is you have the force of reality
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  Speaker 1: behind you. That seems like a good deal. Then you
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  Speaker 1: have the reality and the adventure. So why is that
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  Speaker 1: a moral obligation? Well, if you hide and you don't
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  Speaker 1: let what's inside of you out and you don't bring
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  Speaker 1: into the world what you could bring, and you become
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  Speaker 1: cynical and bitter. You will start doing very dark things.
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  Speaker 1: So you'll start not only will you not add to
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  Speaker 1: the world what you could add, but you'll start being
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  Speaker 1: jealous of people who are competent and doing well and
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  Speaker 1: work to destroy them. So that's the pathway to hell. Really,
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  Speaker 1: how do you know who you are? After all? You
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  Speaker 1: are complex beyond your own understanding, more complex than anything
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  Speaker 1: else that exists excepting other people, complex beyond belief, and
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  Speaker 1: your ignorance is further complicated by the intermingling of who
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  Speaker 1: you are with who you could be. You are not
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  Speaker 1: only something that is, You are something that is becoming,
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  Speaker 1: and the potential extent of that becoming also transcends your understanding.
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  Speaker 1: Everyone has the sense, I believe that there is more
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  Speaker 1: to them than they have yet allowed to be realized.
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  Speaker 1: That potential is often obscured by poor health, misfortune, and
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  Speaker 1: the general tragedies and mishaps of life. But it can
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  Speaker 1: also be hidden by an unwillingness to take full advantage
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  Speaker 1: of the opportunities that life offers, abetted by regrettable errors
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  Speaker 1: of all sorts, including failures of discipline, faith, imagination, and commitment.
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  Speaker 1: Who are you? And more importantly, who could you be?
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  Speaker 1: If you were everything you could conceive? Are such questions
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  Speaker 1: impossible to answer? Or are their sources available to us
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  Speaker 1: from which guidance might be derived? After all, we have
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  Speaker 1: been observing ourselves behave in our successes and failures for tens,
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  Speaker 1: perhaps hundreds of thousands of years. During that time, our shamans, prophets, mystics, artists, poets,
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  Speaker 1: and bards have distilled something vital from such observations, some
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  Speaker 1: concentrated essence of what makes us human in actuality and possibility.
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  Speaker 1: In doing so, they have provided us with representations of
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  Speaker 1: that vital essence, presenting itself to us as that which
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  Speaker 1: can be neither ignored nor forgotten. Those creative people write
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  Speaker 1: and act out the dramas and tell us the stories
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  Speaker 1: that capture our imagination, and they fill our dreams with
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  Speaker 1: visions of what might be the deepest and most profound
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  Speaker 1: of these are remembered, discussed, and otherwise honed collectively, and
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  Speaker 1: made the focus of rituals that unite us across the centuries,
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  Speaker 1: forming the very basis of our cultures. These are the
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  Speaker 1: stories upon which the ritual, religious, and philosophical edifices characterizing sophisticated, populous,
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  Speaker 1: successful societies are built. The stories we can neither ignore
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  Speaker 1: nor forget are unforgettable. For this reason, among others, they
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  Speaker 1: speak to something we know, but do not know that
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  Speaker 1: we know. The ancient Greek philosopher Socrates believe that all
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  Speaker 1: learning was a form of remembering. Socrates posited that the
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  Speaker 1: soul immortal, in its essence, knew everything before it was
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  Speaker 1: born anew as an infant. However, at the point of birth,
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  Speaker 1: all previous knowledge was forgotten and had to be recalled
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  Speaker 1: through the experiences of life. There is much to be
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  Speaker 1: said for this hypothesis, strange as it might now appear,
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  Speaker 1: There is much that we could do, much that our
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  Speaker 1: bodies and minds are capable of doing that remains dormant
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  Speaker 1: right down to the genetic level. Exposure to new experience
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  Speaker 1: activates this dormant potential, releasing abilities built into us over
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  Speaker 1: the vast span of our evolutionary history. This is perhaps
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  Speaker 1: the most basic manner in which our bodies retain past
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  Speaker 1: wisdom and draw upon it when necessary. It is in
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  Speaker 1: this way, although not only in this way, that human
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  Speaker 1: possibility exists. Thus, there is something profound to be said
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  Speaker 1: for the concept of learning as remembering obviously as well
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  Speaker 1: as remembering as in the turning on of innate but
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  Speaker 1: hidden possibilities, We can learn much that is new. This
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  Speaker 1: is one of the primary factors differentiating us from animals.
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  Speaker 1: Plex and intelligent mammals, such as chimpanzees and dolphins, tend
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  Speaker 1: to repeat their species typical behavior's generation after generation with
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  Speaker 1: very little change. Humans, by contrast, can and continually do
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  Speaker 1: seek out and encounter what is new, investigate and adapt
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  Speaker 1: to it, and make it part of themselves. We can
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  Speaker 1: as well translate something we already know at one level
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  Speaker 1: of representation into knowledge at another. We can watch the
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  Speaker 1: actions of a living creature, animal or human and then
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  Speaker 1: imitate them, translating our perceptions of their movement into new
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  Speaker 1: movements of our own. We can even generalize such imitative acts,
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  Speaker 1: catching the spirit of what or whom we are observing,
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  Speaker 1: and producing new ways of seeing and acting that are,
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  Speaker 1: in some manner similar to that spirit. This is part
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  Speaker 1: of what makes up the basis of the deeply embodied
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  Speaker 1: implicit knowledge that forms so much of the basis of
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  Speaker 1: our true understanding. We can also observe someone act or
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  Speaker 1: something occur and write down what we see, translating action
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  Speaker 1: into language that outlasts its utterance, and then communicate it
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  Speaker 1: later in the absence of what or whom is being described. Finally,
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  Speaker 1: and most mysteriously, we can imagine and then act out
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  Speaker 1: something that has simply not been seen before, something that
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  Speaker 1: is truly original, and we can code and represent all
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  Speaker 1: that ability, adaptive action, and its transformation in the stories
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  Speaker 1: we tell about those we admire as well as those
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  Speaker 1: we hate, and that is how we determine who we
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  Speaker 1: are and who we could perhaps become. Stories become unforgettable
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  Speaker 1: when they communicate sophisticated modes of being, complex problems and
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  Speaker 1: equally complex solutions that we perceive con in pieces but
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  Speaker 1: cannot fully articulate. Aim at something. Pick the best target
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  Speaker 1: you can currently conceptualize, Stumble toward it. Notice your errors
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  Speaker 1: and misconceptions along the way, face them and correct them.
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  Speaker 1: Get your story straight, past, present, future. They all matter.
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  Speaker 1: You need to map your path. You need to know
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  Speaker 1: where you were so that you do not repeat the
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  Speaker 1: mistakes of the past. You need to know where you
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  Speaker 1: are or you will not be able to draw a
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  Speaker 1: line from your starting point to your destination. You need
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  Speaker 1: to know where you are going, or you will drown
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  Speaker 1: in uncertainty, unpredictability, and chaos and starve for hope and inspiration.
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  Speaker 1: For better or worse, you are on a journey. You
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  Speaker 1: are having an adventure, and your map better be accurate.
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  Speaker 1: Voluntarily confront what stands in your way. The way that
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  Speaker 1: is the path of life, the meaningful path of life,
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  Speaker 1: the straight and narrow path that constitutes the very border
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  Speaker 1: between order and chaos, and the traversing of which brings
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  Speaker 1: them into balance. Aim at something profound and noble and lofty.
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  Speaker 1: If you can find a better path along the way
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  Speaker 1: once you have started moving forward, then switch course. Be careful,
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  Speaker 1: though it is not easy to discriminate between changing paths
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  Speaker 1: and simply giving up. One hint, if the new path
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  Speaker 1: you see forward after learning what you needed to learn
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  Speaker 1: along your current way, appears more challenging, then you can
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  Speaker 1: be reasonably sure that you are not deluding or betraying yourself.
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  Speaker 1: When you change your mind in this manner, you will
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  Speaker 1: zigzag forward. It is not the most efficient way to travel,
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  Speaker 1: but there is no real alternative given that your goals
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  Speaker 1: will inevitably change while you pursue them, as you learn
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  Speaker 1: what you need to learn. While you are disciplining yourself,
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  Speaker 1: you will then find yourself turning across time incrementally and
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  Speaker 1: gracefully to aim ever more accurately at that tiny pinpoint,
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  Speaker 1: the X that marks the spot, the bullseye, and the
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  Speaker 1: center of the cross. To aim at the highest value
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  Speaker 1: of which you can conceive. You will pursue a target
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  Speaker 1: that is both moving and receding, moving because you do
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  Speaker 1: not have the wisdom to aim in the proper direction
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  Speaker 1: when you first take aim. Receding because no matter how
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  Speaker 1: close you come to perfecting what you are currently practicing,
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  Speaker 1: new vistas of possible perfection will open up in front
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  Speaker 1: of you. Discipline and transformation will nonetheless lead you inexorably forward.
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  Speaker 1: With will and luck, you will find a story that
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  Speaker 1: is meaningful and productive, improves itself with day time, and
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  Speaker 1: perhaps even provides you with more than a few moments
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  Speaker 1: of satisfaction and joy. With will and luck, you will
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  Speaker 1: be the hero of that story, the discipline sojourner, the
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  Speaker 1: creative transformer, and the benefactor of your family and broader society.
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  Speaker 1: Imagine who you could be, and then aim single mindedly
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  Speaker 1: at that