5 Powerful Ways of Finding Meaning in your Existence.
Looking at the big picture and keeping things simple
Sisyphus is an interesting character in Greek mythology. He disregarded the Gods by trying to cheat death. Enraged by his act of defiance, Zeus, the King of the Gods, condemned him to a life of futile existence. He would go on to live forever. But his punishment was to push a large boulder uphill and every time he reached the top, the boulder would come crashing down, into the valley below. He would work tirelessly, only to see his efforts getting wasted, as the boulder tumbled down from the top.
Sisyphus’s tale in some way seems to raise the existential question that all humans face. We are like Sisyphus, condemned to repeat a seemingly pointless existence from one generation to another. Like our ancestors, we are born and transition quickly into exuberant adolescents, then fall in love, get married and raise a family. Eventually, work takes us over and we lose ourselves in the race to accumulate wealth and social status. We do this so that we can have a better tomorrow, only to realise that tomorrow brings us closer to death. This cycle of life and death continues from one generation to another.
At times, it all appears like a useless game controlled from somewhere else. So what do we do, when existential questions, like these, cloud our mind.
There are five powerful ways that can help us :
1. Don't take yourself so seriously
Modern life is full of anxiety and we keep fretting over every small thing.
“We need to chill and look at the bigger picture”.
And the bigger picture is, that we are just a speck, in this vast cosmos. The universe is so large, that it takes 93 billion years for a ray of light, to cross it. There are trillions of galaxies and an infinite number of stars and planets. Even on this planet, that we call Earth, we are one among the seven billion individuals. No one will miss us, forever, when we are gone. So when you lose a big deal or your boss flogs you for a presentation that has gone wrong, think about the billions of other fellow humans who are facing problems and issues at their own level.
At the same time, when you have made it big, stay grounded and remember that it won’t stay with you forever. Emperors came before you and they thought that they were invincible. But look at where they are now, buried deep, within this Earth.
So don’t take yourself seriously for you are just a speck. Contribute to this World in whatever small way you can and don’t beat yourself too much.
2. Time is the real money
Bill Gates or Jeff Bezos or any other mega-rich person could pay billions of dollars if they could buy another 10 years of life.
“But they can’t !”
The truth is that our time, on this planet, is finite and no amount of money can replace it. So make money, but not at the expense of time.
Research suggests that happiness is positively correlated to the amount of money we have. However, as your wealth increases, the incremental contribution of money to happiness becomes smaller and smaller. In this mad rush to accumulate more, we end up burning up our time and energy, in trivial pursuits.
The ideal solution is to find something that you are good at and enjoy doing. You find it early in your life and passionately follow it. By doing this you will find pleasure in your work and live a more meaningful life.
However, in the real world that doesn’t always happen and many of us are caught in the dull and drab world of 9 to 5 existence. It is therefore important that we find time for the pursuits that make us happy. We try and get to a level where we can make some money from those pursuits. This, while working on our regular jobs. And when that income becomes big enough to meet our basic needs, we could take the plunge.
Your passion could be starting a business, writing a book or being a wildlife photographer. It is important that you keep working at your passion so that you can spend your time on something you love.
3. Developing a compounding mindset
Albert Einstein, reportedly called compounding, the eighth wonder of the world and he was right. Compounding over a period of time has the powerful ability to turn small amounts into massive sums. Warren Buffett started investing very early in life with a paltry sum of five thousand dollars. He kept diligently making the right investments and honing his market skills. By the age of 52, he had multiplied those 5000 dollars into 365 million dollars, a whopping 73000 times.
But hold on! That is where the snowball effect of compounding set in. Over the next 37 years, Buffet’s wealth grew from a mere 365 million dollars to 89 billion dollars. This, in spite of, donating 35 billion dollars to charity.
Like investing the compounding effect works in life too. Make small improvements every day, in all the important aspects of your life, namely your money, your health, your relationships and even your passions and pursuits. There will be a day when you will make those giant leaps.
If running is your goal and you think you can never run a marathon, try starting with a 1 km jog and keep increasing 100 meters every day. You will be running the seemingly impossible marathon in roughly 14 months.
Have the bigger picture in mind, start with smaller goals, make incremental advances every day and you will do wonders. The key is to do this is consistently and systematically, learning all the way. It may not be as easy as it sounds and there will be times when you will stray from the path. Be conscious about that and keep returning back to your goals.
4. Meditate and Evolve
Our mind is like a muddled pond that is cluttered with thoughts from far and wide. It is a complex animal, that makes us stray from the present, which is the only thing that matters. Hence it needs to be tamed. For it is, clarity of mind, that brings us clarity of purpose.
Meditation is a great habit to reign in your mind. And you don’t need to travel to the Himalayas to learn the art of meditation.
You just need to keep things simple. You could concentrate on your breath, watching it go in and out fuelling your life forces. You could watch your thoughts, just observing them and not judging them, as they come and go. These are simple exercises and can be performed anywhere, while you travelling on a train or when you are waiting outside the client’s office or in the seclusion of your home. Modern society sometimes places a high value on multitasking, but it does us good by just taking some moments off from our hectic existence and focusing on what lies within.
Meditation helps us in evolving. It helps us in introspecting. As your practice sharpens, you evolve into a better version of yourself. After all, what is the purpose of life? It is evolution. Evolve and become a better human being in the hope that there is some next life where we will be at an elevated stage.
5. Balance it Out
One day the frail Buddha walked down to the nearby stream to quench his thirst. Days of starvation had sapped all his energy and he fainted on the banks of the river. He regained consciousness, only to find a young milkmaid pouring some water into his mouth. The milkmaid also gave him a cup of milk pudding, which made him, regain his vitality. From that day onwards, the Buddha decided that he would seek a balance in his life. He would not live a life of deprivation nor would he go back to his abundant princely ways. He would be like a perfectly tuned musical instrument whose strings were neither too tight nor too loose.
So don’t be a hedonist who parties every day. But don’t shy away from the small pleasures of life either.
Life can be challenging, and at times, it is hard for us to find its true purpose and that is when we try to make it simple by finding meaning in the above principles. As Mark Twain says, “ The two most important days in your life, are the day when you are born and the day you find out Why?”