Latest / The You Project / #1748 The Meaning Of Life - Harps

Transcript

#1748 The Meaning Of Life - Harps · The You Project

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Go, I tell you it's Harps. Happy day, Happy day
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: to you. I hope you're bloody terrific. Today we're talking
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: about the meaning of life, the meaning of life. What
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: a weird thing that is, What a weird idea? The meaning.
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: Let's start with the the like, oh there's only one,
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: there's a meaning. It's not like the meanings. No one
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: ever says what are the meanings of life? Like it?
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: There might be more than one meaning. And so I
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: want to unpack this a little bit with you. Clearly,
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: I'm not going to give you a definitive answer, because
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: you know why. And this is only my thinking. I
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: don't personally think there's a definitive answer, and I don't
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: think and this is just my thinking. And you have
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: to see if you're thinking kind of aligns or if
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: what I say sounds right or reasonable. But I'm going
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: to suggest a few things and you'll consider them, and
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: you'll discard them, or you'll maybe do something with them.
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: But I think that a lot of us believe that
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: there is a single meaning to life, especially when we
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: talk in a theological in a religious context, many people
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: believe there's a meaning to life. And it's pretty much
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: the same for all of us, and we all just
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: need to live that meaning. I don't know about that.
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: I don't agree with that. I don't think that the
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: meaning of my life is necessarily the same as the
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: meaning of your life. I also don't think not better,
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: not worse, but just individual. I also don't think there's
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: a single meaning. I think that the meaning of my
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: life when I'm twenty might not be identical to when
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: I'm thirty or forty, or fifty or sixty or seventy
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: or ten. Maybe it's something that evolves, Maybe it's something
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: that's fluid. Also, maybe it's not a single thing. Why
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: do is then need to be a single meaning? Maybe
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: part of the meaning of my life? This is what
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: I think. I think the meaning of my life in
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: part is to serve and to teach and to coach
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: and to help other people explore and fulfill and optimize
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: their potential. I feel like that's part of the meaning
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: of life. I feel like part of the meaning of
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: my life. Perhaps we could interchange meaning with purpose. Who
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: knows is to is to be loving and compassionate and kind,
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: And I think part of that for me is a
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: real exercise in personal growth. For me, because I can
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: be not those things. I can be selfish and self centered.
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: And so I think part of the meaning of my
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: life in hopefully sharing love and kindness and support and
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: good stuff for the world and the people in my
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: immediate world, is one that so I am of value
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: and benefit to them, but also that I am being
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: tested and I am I am on my own journey
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: of discovery and growth and learning. So you know, I
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: personally don't align to the idea that there is a
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: meaning of life. I think the meaning of our life
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: can evolve over time. I don't even know why we
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: need to give we need to come up with this
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: single kind of explanation or banner that we drape over
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: the top of our life. I'm not sure that it's
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: even a good idea. Perhaps better than that is to
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: get clear about, which I've spoken about before, what are
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: the values of my life? In other words, what are
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: the values of me? What are my values? What are
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: the things that I believe in? What are the things
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: that are important to me? Because then that will probably
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: shape the meaning or slash purpose or slash direction of
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: my life. Like it's almost like this mystical, magical, mythical
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: thing that we need to go on some spiritual journey
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: and look under some spiritual rock or behind some spiritual
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: burning bush to discover the meaning of our life, and
• 4:12
  Speaker 1: then we will be enlightened, and then we will go
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: on to live that enlightened life. Yeah, I don't know.
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: I don't know. Maybe what do I know? What do
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: you know? What do any of us know? What do
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: I do know? Is there's fucking zero agreement on any
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: of this. You ask different religious groups, you'll get different
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: answers to the same question. Different spiritual groups. Ask philosophers,
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: are psychologists, Ask the stoics, Ask different teachers. You'll get
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: nobody knows, you know and so. And why nobody knows
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: is because there's no single universal answer. I don't think.
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: I think that you and I get dealt certain cards.
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: We get Okay, here are your genetics, here's the environment
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: you're born, and here's the culture. Maybe here's the religion
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: that you're born into. This is the circumstance and situation.
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: That's your mum, that's your dad, that's your brothers and sisters.
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: And then on top of that, you get to make
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: a whole lot of decisions and hopefully figure out for
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: you who you are, who you are at your core,
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: what your beliefs, what matters to you, what your values,
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: who and how you want to be, And then maybe
• 5:17
  Speaker 1: once you get clarity around that, then you can choose
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: the meaning of your life. There's an idea. Maybe the
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: meaning of your life is not predetermined. Maybe it's you determined.
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: What if you get to choose, Like you've got a brain.
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: Even if we believe in God, which you may or
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: may not, but if God gave us free will, or
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: if we just happen to have free will or whatever,
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: surely you have the capacity to think and choose and
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: make decisions. You have this incredible thing called your brain
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: which allows you to navigate life and to all the
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: complexities and variables of life. Why would you not get
• 5:59
  Speaker 1: to choose the meaning of your life? Oh no, No,
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: You've got this incredible brain. You can do all this
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: incredible shit. You can think for yourself, but you can't
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: choose the meaning of your life. That's done and dusted.
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: You just need to stumble into it, and let's hope
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: you do, because otherwise you're going to die one day
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: and you will have been just doing all this shit
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: that wasn't what you were meant to do because you
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: didn't discover the meaning of your life. Kind of fucking ridiculous, right,
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: and very limiting. And let's just say also, if you
• 6:25
  Speaker 1: want to be a little bit scientific, akat there's zero
• 6:28
  Speaker 1: evidence that there is a set meaning of life. Show
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: me the evidence there. It doesn't exist. So until we
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: get that evidence, why don't we go. You are in
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: charge of the meaning of your life. You get to
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: choose what your life will be about. You get to
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: choose your path and your purpose. You get to choose
• 6:49
  Speaker 1: whether or not there is a meaning or multiple meanings
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: to your life. If you are struggling, then as I
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: said two a minute ago, two what matters to me?
• 7:03
  Speaker 1: And I mean dig deep. I don't mean money, car house, Yes,
• 7:07
  Speaker 1: of course we need money, car house, We need stuff,
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: we need assets, we need to we need to live
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: and navigate the very commercial world that we live in.
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: Nothing wrong with making lots of money, nothing wrong with
• 7:19
  Speaker 1: all the fancy shit that we've spoken about before, of course,
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: But I don't think money is at the core of
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: your value system. When we think about the totality of
• 7:30
  Speaker 1: your life, of my life, of our lives, what are
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: the things that at the most fundamental core of me
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: being a human, me being a conscious creature, me being
• 7:42
  Speaker 1: a loving, kind, hopefully person that wants to build connection
• 7:47
  Speaker 1: and love and to belong and to love and be loved,
• 7:54
  Speaker 1: and all of those things what really matters. And so
• 7:59
  Speaker 1: when we get clear about those values, when we get
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: clear about what are my beliefs, what really matters to me,
• 8:04
  Speaker 1: then the challenge of finding the meaning of our life,
• 8:10
  Speaker 1: or perhaps choosing it becomes much easier. Take a break,
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: because that's what we do it about this time. We'll
• 8:16
  Speaker 1: be back in a mini with a question. And we're back,
• 8:23
  Speaker 1: of course we would be. So my question for you
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: today is what are you choosing for your life? What
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: are you choosing for your life? And see you tomorrow