The purpose of your life at any given moment is whatever you
are doing at that particular moment.
How? Think about it. Whatever you are doing right now, the
way you are doing it and even where you are right now did not just happen in a
vacuum. A chain of events has led up to it. It may be something as simple as drinking
a cup of tea or something as big as creating a work of art, everything is
happening at the time and place that it is happening and the way it is
happening because of something that happened in the past and the way it
happened then. That something in turn happened at a particular time and place
and in a particular way because of something else that happened before that.
And the chain goes on till your birth and even before that. (If you look at it
that way, every event and even your entire life appears in a different
perspective.)
So, the point is that whatever you are doing or is happening
to you, life has led up to that event. You may not always be the cause in the
previous events in the chain of events but your life has always prepared you
for the event. If you feel that you are not prepared for the event, then life
wants to test you, warn you or the event itself may be a preparation for
something to come. In either case, life wants you to be at the place and doing
that thing at the moment. In other words, at the moment, that thing is the
purpose of your life.
So, what should you do?
Since your present activity is the purpose of your life, you
should pay your undivided attention to it. Whether it is eating a slice of
pizza or taking a business decision worth billions of dollars, be fully
involved in the act, no diversions and no distractions. (We might look at
drinking tea or eating pizza as small things and creating art or a billion-dollar
business decision as big things. For life, these events are the same.)
Each act at each moment is a step in your life journey. Take
the step fully and with complete involvement. Because at the moment, that is
what life wants you to do.
Journey and destination
Look at it like a journey and destination. We know that the
journey is as important as the destination. We should enjoy the journey and not
be fixated on the destination. It will come sooner or later. Similarly, each
moment and what you are doing is a step in your journey. But there is a slight
difference here. Each moment, in addition to being a step in the journey is
also a destination in itself!!
So, what is the ultimate destination of life? Who knows?
The real question is, is there an ultimate destination in
life?
It is better to treat each moment as the destination and
purpose of life.
How does this play out in life?
Let me give an example. If you are planning for a future
event, the planning is happening in the NOW. The event is yet to come but you
are planning for it now. The purpose of your life is to prepare by being fully
present in the NOW, physically and mentally. There is a difference between
planning for the future and being lost in the thoughts of the future event.
The same thing applies when taking stock of a past event or learning lessons from the past. Whether planning for the future or taking stock of the past, your life wants you to do the thing NOW and not be in the past or the future mentally. And when you treat each act and each moment as the purpose of your life, the quality of your output in everything that you do goes up manifold.
Do everything as if it is the only thing you will ever do and live each moment as if it is the only moment you will ever have. In other words, each moment is the purpose of your life.
Better still, each moment is your
whole life.
