My Search For Meaning (THE MOST IMPORTANT SPEECH YOU’LL LISTEN TO THIS YEAR)
“MY SEARCH FOR MEANING” (Motivational Video) – Watch On Youtube:
Speakers: Tyrone Stokes, Josiah Ruff, Leonard Sicilian, Libo Mngomezulu | Music by Patrick Rundblad | © Fearless Soul
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Transcript – “MY SEARCH FOR MEANING”
Whenever we feel lost… whenever we feel down… depressed… worthless… or just a little off… often it is, in part because we have lost touch with our purpose… because we are out of touch with the MEANING of our existence.
Often when we are not at our best… our life has become more FOCUSED ON what is wrong with the world… and LESS FOCUSED ON what is good in the world… and what there IS TO LOOK FORWARD TO.
It’s impossible to feel dread when you have a compelling future… a powerful mission or vision in front of you. It’s hard to drudge through life when there is MEANING attached to your future…
You can’t live in darkness when you believe your future is bright. Perhaps the problem then, is that many of us believe the FUTURE will not be better than the PAST.
Without meaning life is useless and worthless. Without meaning we give up on life. We can NOT GIVE UP on life and we can not give up on our best life.
If you have no FUTURE vision, you are not living your fullest life. If you believe “MY BEST IS YET TO COME”… chances are you are living close to your happiest, most fulfilled life.
Everyone needs a compelling future.
Think about it…
If you don’t believe your future CAN BE better than your past – you won’t even want to get up out of bed each morning – and most people don’t.
But if you KNOW, which you should, that your FUTURE can be much better than your PAST, and not only that, it can and SHOULD be a life full of magic, miracles and GROWTH, then – then my friend, you will jump out of bed every day ready to attack the day, ready to attack your goals, ready TO LIVE this day fully.
“Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms… to choose one’s attitude in ANY given set of circumstances… to CHOOSE one’s own way.”
Viktor Frankl said this.
Viktor Frankl… a survivor of 4 Nazi concentration camps. It goes without saying Frankl was witness to many horrible, unbearable things during his time in the concentration camps… yet he never lost his greatest power… the power to choose what MEANING to give each situation… the power to control his own mind.
It is impossible to fathom what life was like for a prisoner in a Nazi concentration camp. It’s impossible to understand how anyone could find meaning during such a time. But Viktor Frankl did find meaning.
In his book “Man’s Search For Meaning”… Frankl observed that the prisoners who were more likely to survive the concentration camps had very specific psychological strengths:
– They had a compelling future… or future goals… in other words they believed they HAD a future.
– They believed they had things to LOOK FORWARD TO.
– They had inner strength and the ability to go inside.
– They were able to find meaning despite the suffering…
Those who were less likely to survive had no meaning. They felt they had no future and so they didn’t have REASON to survive. They gave up physically but perhaps more importantly they gave up mentally.
Why is this important? None of us are suffering through concentration camps… but many of us are suffering from a LACK OF MEANING… And when ANYONE lacks meaning and purpose in their life… we can feel dead inside.
Often we are dying inside simply because we LACK MEANING and a compelling future. It’s IMPOSSIBLE to live an unhappy life when you are bursting with purpose and meaning. A compelling future… Something to LIVE FOR.
A purpose that drives you. Someone you’re doing it for. Something to LOOK FORWARD TO.
That is when we are ALIVE. When we have something to look forward to. When we are living purposefully. When we are excited to get up in the morning because we KNOW there is something meaningful to take part in today.
We do not have to SUFFER like Viktor Frankl did before we realise this. We can and should start now, before it is too late, to build a MEANINGFUL, PURPOSEFUL life…
NOT a life where the primary purpose is ‘getting ahead’ or making money or paying the bills… A LIFE, where the PRIMARY purpose IS our purpose. Where the most important things ARE the most important things.
That means we put the most important things first.
The greatest power we possess is the ability to choose our own thoughts and to choose them in a POSITIVE LIGHT.
You see, it’s never the event… it’s never the CHALLENGES of life that cause our pain. It is the MEANING we give each challenge that determines how we feel.
We all suffer. We are all challenged by life in DIFFERENT ways… Whatever meaning we give these challenges shapes who we ARE. It shapes who we are today and who we will become. It can define us in a positive or negative way.
The meaning we give everything can cause us to GIVE UP… or cause us to RISE UP. When can use it as fuel or kryptonite.
One of the worst beliefs you can have in life, is to believe that the FUTURE will not be better than the past. You CAN NOT be living anywhere near the life you deserve, if you believe your BEST is behind you.
What MEANING can you create in your own life?
What can you change or create in your life that will ensure you have something to LOOK FORWARD TO every day?
How can you change your life, starting today, even in a small way, to make it more meaningful and purposeful?
What IS your purpose?
What is the reason you want a better quality life? Who are you doing it for?
Let me leave you with Joseph Campbell who said:
“Life is without meaning. You bring the meaning to it. The meaning of life is whatever
you ascribe it to be…. Being ALIVE IS the meaning.”
