Editor in Chief: Moh. Reza Huwaida Thursday, March 28th, 2024

A Purposeful Life

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A Purposeful Life

Life is one of the supreme gifts of nature; as a matter of fact, it bears resemblance to a miracle. It can only be found on our planet earth within the recognized universe. The conditions that have made the life achievable on earth have been made possible through astonishing amalgamation of appropriate temperature, apt ratio of gases in the atmosphere and the existence of water.

Life has to be treasured as it merits so. Nevertheless, it can be experienced in our world that the admiration and the worth attached to life is not as much as it should be. People are neither valuing their own lives nor of their fellow human beings. There are many people in the world who do not really know what to do with their lives – all their lives they live without having any objective or purpose.

The world has been designed in such a way that a person rarely gets an opportunity to consider much about the purpose he would like to chase after his birth. His goal in life is basically set by the society around him. He then orbits a circle that he has not planned himself. While he performs activities and he seems eventful but he does not seem to be making any accomplishment. In point of fact, he is just living. As put by Thomas A. Edison, “Being busy does not always mean real work. The object of all work is production or accomplishment and to either of these ends there must be forethought, system, planning, intelligence, and honest purpose, as well as perspiration. Seeming to do is not doing”.

Every person who is born in the world has the right to choose what he is going to do with his life. Consequently, it is essential that a person, at some stage in life, should decide what he is going to do with and in his life, what his objective would be in the world and how his existence would make a difference to the world. And, it is necessary for the parents to make the children capable enough so that they can decide on their own about their lives. However, in our world in can be observed that in most of the cases the parents have already decided that what their children are going to do even before they are born.

It is also essential that while deciding their goals in life, a human being must not forget that the others who live in the world have their rights of pursuing their purposes as well. He is not alone and others are bound to be influenced by him and his actions. He may harm them by pursuing a purpose that is not reasonable and supportive for the social life and co-existence. Therefore, while pursuing a purpose in life he must be careful about others as well. For example, a person chooses the purpose of his life to be earning money. All he cares about is the worldly gains that he would acquire by accumulating more and more money. And, he would adopt all the possible ways, whether legal or illegal, ethical or non-ethical, but what he gains at the end is a disturbed social life. As Wayne Dyer has observed, “When I chased after money, I never had enough. When I got my life on purpose and focused on giving of myself and everything that arrived into my life, then I was prosperous”.

A person cannot do whatever he wants as he is in chains of social relations. Nonetheless, he can do many things in his life that will never harm others and will also gratify his interests and desires. He does not have to live for others; or else, he will lose his will to decide what is better for him, but he needs to realize this very fact that he has to live with others.

There is another imperative aspect that plays a dominating role in the life of human beings as they attempt to realize their purpose in life; and that is the hard work and willpower. Without willpower it is not possible to achieve what a person thinks. There is a large space between what a person thinks to become or do and what a person would ultimately become or do. In order to cover this space, it is necessary to have the support of resilience. There have been many people in the world who have had large thinking and they have wished to attain something noteworthy in their live, nevertheless, their wish have only been a part of their thinking and have never tasted the tang of expediency or reality because they have not strived much.

Thus, there are two important factors that have to be inculcated in the minds of the human beings; first, they have to have a purpose in life; second, they have to make certain it does not hurt others and then they have to follow it with persistent efforts.

Ilchi Lee in Human Technology: A Toolkit for Authentic Living says, “Who am I?" "What is the purpose of my life?" These questions arise spontaneously throughout our lives, either unbidden or through conscious intent. Anyone who wishes to live an authentic life must answer these questions, regardless of whether they believe in the existence of the soul or practice a religion. If these queries remain unanswered, life will, more than likely, remain superficial and empty, in spite of any material abundance. If you wish to make the soul's journey, then I suggest you ask yourself these questions relentlessly and ruthlessly, and listen carefully.” 

Hujjatullah Zia is the newly emerging writer of the Daily Outlook Afghanistan. He can be reached at outlookafghanistan@gmail.com

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