Speaker 1: I got to tell them it's Harps. Happy day, Happy
Speaker 1: day to you. I hope you're bloody terrific. Today we're
Speaker 1: talking about the meaning of life, the meaning of life.
Speaker 1: What a weird thing that is, What a weird idea?
Speaker 1: The meaning. Let's start with the the like, oh there's
Speaker 1: only one, there's a meaning. It's not like the meanings.
Speaker 1: No one ever says what are the meanings of life?
Speaker 1: Like it? There might be more than one meaning. And
Speaker 1: so I want to unpack this a little bit with you. Clearly,
Speaker 1: I'm not going to give you a definitive answer, because
Speaker 1: you know why. And this is only my thinking. I
Speaker 1: don't personally think there's a definitive answer, and I don't
Speaker 1: think and this is just my thinking. And you have
Speaker 1: to see if you're thinking kind of aligns or if
Speaker 1: what I say sounds right or reasonable. But I'm going
Speaker 1: to suggest a few things and you'll consider them, and
Speaker 1: you'll discard them, or you'll maybe do something with them.
Speaker 1: But I think that a lot of us believe that
Speaker 1: there is a single meaning to life, especially when we
Speaker 1: talk in a theological in a religious context, many people
Speaker 1: believe there's a meaning to life. And it's pretty much
Speaker 1: the same for all of us, and we all just
Speaker 1: need to live that meaning. I don't know about that.
Speaker 1: I don't agree with that. I don't think that the
Speaker 1: meaning of my life is necessarily the same as the
Speaker 1: meaning of your life. I also don't think not better,
Speaker 1: not worse, but just individual. I also don't think there's
Speaker 1: a single meaning. I think that the meaning of my
Speaker 1: life when I'm twenty might not be identical to when
Speaker 1: I'm thirty or forty, or fifty or sixty or seventy
Speaker 1: or ten. Maybe it's something that evolves, Maybe it's something
Speaker 1: that's fluid. Also, maybe it's not a single thing. Why
Speaker 1: do then need to be a single meaning? Maybe part
Speaker 1: of the meaning of my life, This is what I think.
Speaker 1: I think the meaning of my life in part is
Speaker 1: to serve and to teach and to coach and to
Speaker 1: help other people explore and fulfill and optimize their potential.
Speaker 1: I feel like that's part of the meaning of life.
Speaker 1: I feel like part of the meaning of my life.
Speaker 1: Perhaps we could interchange meaning with purpose. Who knows is
Speaker 1: to is to be loving and compassionate and kind, And
Speaker 1: I think part of that for me is a real
Speaker 1: exercise in personal growth. For me, because I can be
Speaker 1: not those things. I can be selfish and self centered.
Speaker 1: And so I think part of the meaning of my
Speaker 1: life in hopefully sharing love and kindness and support and
Speaker 1: good stuff for the world and the people in my
Speaker 1: immediate world, is one that so I am of value
Speaker 1: and benefit to them, but also that I am being
Speaker 1: tested and I am I am on my own journey
Speaker 1: of discovery and growth and learning. So you know, I
Speaker 1: personally don't align to the idea that there is a
Speaker 1: meaning of life. I think the meaning of our life
Speaker 1: can evolve over time. I don't even know why we
Speaker 1: need to give we need to come up with this
Speaker 1: single kind of explanation or banner that we drape over
Speaker 1: the top of our life. I'm not sure that it's
Speaker 1: even a good idea. Perhaps better than that is to
Speaker 1: get clear about, which I've spoken about before, what are
Speaker 1: the values of my life? In other words, what are
Speaker 1: the values of me? What are my values? What are
Speaker 1: the things that I believe in? What are the things
Speaker 1: that are important to me? Because then that will probably
Speaker 1: shape the meaning or slash purpose or slash direction of
Speaker 1: my life. Like it's almost like this mystical, magical, mythical
Speaker 1: thing that we need to go on some spiritual journey
Speaker 1: and look under some spiritual rock or behind some spiritual
Speaker 1: burning bush to discover the meaning of our life, and
Speaker 1: then we will be enlightened, and then we will go
Speaker 1: on to live that enlightened life. Yeah, I don't know.
Speaker 1: I don't know. Maybe what do I know? What do
Speaker 1: you know? What do any of us know? What I
Speaker 1: do know is there's fucking zero agreement on any of this.
Speaker 1: You ask different religious groups, you'll get different answers to
Speaker 1: the same question. Different spiritual groups. Ask philosophers, are psychologists,
Speaker 1: Ask the stoics, Ask different teachers. You'll get nobody knows,
Speaker 1: you know and so. And why nobody knows is because
Speaker 1: there's no single universal answer. I don't think. I think
Speaker 1: that you and I get dealt certain cards. We get. Okay,
Speaker 1: here are your genetics, here's the environment you're born, and
Speaker 1: here's the culture. Maybe here's the religion that you're born into.
Speaker 1: This is the circumstance and situation. That's your mum, that's
Speaker 1: your dad, that's your brothers and sisters. And then on
Speaker 1: top of that you get to make a whole lot
Speaker 1: of decisions and hopefully figure out for you who you are,
Speaker 1: who you are at your core, what your beliefs, what
Speaker 1: matters to you, what your values, who and how you
Speaker 1: want to be. And then maybe once you get clarity
Speaker 1: around that, then you can choose the meaning of your life.
Speaker 1: There's an idea. Maybe the meaning of your life is
Speaker 1: not predetermined. Maybe it's you determined. What if you get
Speaker 1: to choose, Like you've got a brain. Even if we
Speaker 1: believe in God, which you may or may not, but
Speaker 1: if God gave us free will, or if we just
Speaker 1: happen to have free will or whatever, surely you have
Speaker 1: the capacity to think and choose and make decisions. You
Speaker 1: have this incredible thing called your brain which allows you
Speaker 1: to navigate life and to all the complexities and variables
Speaker 1: of life. Why would you not get to choose the
Speaker 1: meaning of your life? Oh no, No, you've got this
Speaker 1: incredible brain. You can do all this incredible shit. You
Speaker 1: can think for yourself, but you can't choose the meaning
Speaker 1: of your life. That's done and dusted. You just need
Speaker 1: to stumble into it, and let's hope you do, because
Speaker 1: otherwise you're going to die one day and you will
Speaker 1: have been just doing all this shit that wasn't what
Speaker 1: you were meant to do because you didn't discover the
Speaker 1: meaning of your life. Kind of fucking ridiculous, right, and
Speaker 1: very limiting. And let's just say also, if you want
Speaker 1: to be a little bit scientific, akat there's zero evidence
Speaker 1: that there is a set meaning of life. Show me
Speaker 1: the evidence there. It doesn't exist. So until we get
Speaker 1: that evidence, why don't we go. You are in charge
Speaker 1: of the meaning of your life. You get to choose
Speaker 1: what your life will be about. You get to choose
Speaker 1: your path and your purpose. You get to choose whether
Speaker 1: or not there is a meaning or multiple meanings to
Speaker 1: your life. If you are struggling, then, as I said
Speaker 1: two a minute ago, too, what matters to me? And
Speaker 1: I mean dig deep. I don't mean money, car house, Yes,
Speaker 1: of course we need money, car house, We need stuff,
Speaker 1: we need assets, we need to we need to live
Speaker 1: and navigate the very commercial world that we live in.
Speaker 1: Nothing wrong with making lots of money, nothing wrong with
Speaker 1: all the fancy shit that we've spoken about before, of course,
Speaker 1: But I don't think money is at the core of
Speaker 1: your value system. When we think about the totality of
Speaker 1: your life, of my life, of our lives, what are
Speaker 1: the things that at the most fundamental core of me
Speaker 1: being a human, me being a conscious creature, me being
Speaker 1: a loving, kind, hopefully person that wants to build connection
Speaker 1: and love and to belong and to love and be loved,
Speaker 1: and all of those things what really matters. And so
Speaker 1: when we get clear about those values, when we get
Speaker 1: clear about what are my beliefs, what really matters to me,
Speaker 1: then the challenge of finding the meaning of our life,
Speaker 1: or perhaps choosing it becomes much easier. Take a break,
Speaker 1: because that's what we do it about this time. We'll
Speaker 1: be back in a mini with a question. And we're back,
Speaker 1: of course we would be. So my question for you
Speaker 1: today is what are you choosing for your life? What
Speaker 1: are you choosing for your life? And see you tomorrow