The question of;
how are we going to live our life? is the big one that all of us face at some stage, right?. And trying to answer this question right away it's often difficult but if we
shift different perspectives as we try to answer this question, it can give us some additional clarity that makes the question easier to answer.
I still remember when we were young at school, my teacher would ask all the children in a class, the question like; what do you want to be
when you grow up? and we would jump, some of us say: "I want to be a doctor, I want to be a teacher, I want to be a nurse, I want to be a soldier" not knowing exactly what it really meant to be a doctor, a teacher, or a soldier because we were just kids!
I said: "I want to be a policeman"👮 because I was inspired by two policemen on the
New York Undercover Series and I also liked the guns but few years later as I was starting to mature, I realized that's not what really
resonates with who I am. I'm not saying that it isn't good to be a policeman.
Getting back to that question, in 2006 February 12 my friend
Steve of
stevepavlina.com recorded a podcast about
raising awareness through multiple perspectives and I'll share the audio podcast with you to listen to in just a moment. Basically the podcast is more like a mind exercise and very helpful.
The goal of the podcast is to help you answer the question of;
how shall I live my life? and what you'll want to do is use your
imagination to explore possible answers to this question from different perspectives. And the two main factors you're going to alter/change to shift perspectives are
time and
space.
And
the ultimate goal here is to make this question easier to answer in a way that satisfies you. To answer the question, start with time/begin with the present moment; how do you feel about your life right now?, probably that's not the hard question to answer, right?
But now
let's shift this perspective and imagine; how do you think you'd feel about how you living right now, a year from now?, how about 5 years or 10 years from now?, or even 50 years from now?, how about at your death bed?, imagine going all the way to the end of your life and thinking from that perspective, how would you feel about your life right now/ today?
What would be
important to you and what wouldn't be important to you? Now let's shift it to the past; how would your childhood-self think of the person you've become today?, how would you as a teenager think about the person you've become today?, if you're much older than that, how would yourself from 5 years or 10 years ago think about who you are today?
You can also take this question
beyond your own lifetime, further into the past or forward into the future; where does your life fit into all of human history?, into the entire history of the universe? what type of legacy are you creating for the future? what does your life mean, when you pull back outside the context of time?, and again just use your imagination and answer the question as possible as you can!
Initially you may not like the answer that you hear or see but that's fine because
the whole purpose is to give you the greater clarity so you can make the changes that you want to make. Some things that seem important to you right now can become
virtually meaningless when you look at them from different time perspective!
One example is money.
Money looks good within your lifetime, as you go forward into the future it might look even more important but when you extend it beyond your own lifetime and even pull back further outside the context of time, it becomes virtually meaningless.
Now let's move on to the second factor that you can alter which is
space, this means moving to other perspectives
beyond your own ego. How does your life look from someone else perspective? how does it look from your spouse, girlfriend/boyfriend's perspective if you have one? how about your friends and peers? how would they look at your life?, you can even ask them if you want to know their answer.
How about your parents? your children if you have any? your worst enemy? people you respect? what about a group of people like your community? your country or the whole world?, does they way you living right now look good from all these different perspectives/from other people's angels?
The next thing you can do is to
combine both space and time. For example; what were your parent's
hopes and dreams for you when you're born? did they even have any for you? how will your own children feel about your life
after you've died?, you can step outside of your own life and look at it from the perspective of every thing that exists in both time and space, sort of a cosmic perspective!
How does your life fit into the universe? what does it mean that you exist at all? the goal here is to create a life for yourself consciously, that makes sense from all different perspectives not just your own. Think of it as creating a life that's ecologically sound. Does your life serve not only your own good but
the highest good of all/Almighty God? and what are you going to do with your life?
That's the tough question to answer when you're only focused on your
limited perspective of the present moment and your own ego, but when you pull outside and look at it from multiple perspectives, it becomes much easier to come up with the intelligent response.
Now you'll have to develop the
courage to accept the answer you get, at least this way you'll be able to get some answers. And usually in most cases the answers are simple ones. For example; Steve says his answer is that: "he's here to grow and to help others grow". He says; this answer looks good to him from every perspective he's considered, it looks good from within his own ego and within the present moment.
It tells him what he should be doing right now, like recording a podcast but it also looks good to him from the perspectives outside of time and it looks good to him from other people's perspectives. And he also says that; he's been living with it for quiet some time now and the results have been
absolutely wonderful.
Steve concludes by saying that; "
his ultimate wish is for you to be able to enjoy the similar sense of purpose, to wake up each day knowing why you exist and to pursue that purpose for so much passion that it infects every fiber of your being. And that's in fact what it means to live consciously or with a purpose".
If you go through this mind exercise as I call it from start to finish, you'll be amazed with the answers you get. There are a lot of answers that are hidden inside of your brain that you didn't
pay attention to but by going through this exercise you'll be able to
unlock them. These answers are waiting for you to find them, so go ahead seek/find these answers by doing this exercise yourself.
There you have it, (
A Guide To Finding Answers About Your Life?).
Like I promised to share an audio podcast with you, access it below👇 and Enjoy!!!
