Have you ever asked yourself the question, is this it? The question that often pops up in the middle of the night as you lie contemplating your life. It’s a very powerful question. It’s a question that encourages you to press pause. A question that encourages you to dig beneath the surface. A question that shifts you out of doing and into being. Afterall we are human beings and not human doings.
With the vast majority of us being confined to our homes it can all start to feel like Groundhog Day. The hours, the days, the weeks even, start to roll into one. The world becoming a blur. Our ‘normality’ rotating around either our zoom schedule or our food menu. And for those with kids at home, the immense challenge of juggling their needs, wants and schooling. Being confined to the same space day in and day out can cause havoc with our mental well-being. The TV draws us like a magnet. The news is flicked on and our fear deepens.
It is no surprise that we are awakened in the night. And that pesky question ‘Is this it?’ rolls around and around in our minds eye. ‘What is my life really about?’ you may ask yourself or ‘When does it get to feel alive once more?’ or ‘Am I truly happy?’.
These questions are incredibly powerful. They can often feel too amorphous, too deep, too hard. It is a lot easier to ask ourselves what we are having for lunch today, than to sit with a question that has no clear answer to it.
A LIFE ON PURPOSE
Creating a life on purpose is, perhaps, the greatest gift you can give yourself. Tapping deep into the reservoirs of your heart to find your ‘true north’. There can be no greater challenge or opportunity than this.
Part of the issue can be human impatience. Our minds love to solve a problem. Our typical problem-solving approach is to research, to analyse, to seek opinion, to apply creativity. There is a comforting mental process we go through in finding a solution.
But questions to uncover your purpose and meaning in life do not use the same mind processing tools. And that can be why it all feels so hard. We want the answer. We want to ask ourselves: ‘What am I here for?’. And for the answer to appear. Ah right, got it, I’m on it. To be able to say to others clearly, yep this is what I do, and this is my why. If only it were that simple. If only we could answer Simon Sinek in a few words.
The problem is that living a life on purpose is a discovery, a journey, a continual unfolding. And that is not how we have been trained to show up in the world.
HUMAN ENDEAVOUR
There are challenges and problems galore in the world today, as there have been for hundreds of years. Our human instinct is for constant improvement and for survival. Our instinctive nature is to continually make the world a better place. We are also innately driven to make our personal lives ever more enriched.
Human endeavour has always been about two key things.
- Growth and learning.
- Being and bringing love to the world.
Each day brings a powerful opportunity to reflect on your learnings. There is so much richness in every moment. You can turn every challenge into a chance to grow. Be grateful for the stickiness. Learn about yourself and learn how to alleviate this for others. Human suffering is very real and immensely challenging both for those going through it and for loved ones standing by. And yet, in every moment of darkness, there is a moment of truth, of uncovering, of light that helps us to shift and evolve evermore.
Our desire to experience love in its many facets is a second key driver in life. The constant need to find our happy place. To balance our lives in such a way that we can truly feel good in every moment. The happier we feel, the greater our capacity to serve others. To alleviate human suffering of those we love and care about. By deeply loving ourselves, we can bring more of our whole selves to life.
NOW IS THE TIME
There has never been a more perfect time than now to ask yourself about your life, your purpose, your achievements, your raison d’etre. Now is the time to challenge yourself. To open up your heart. To start searching in your soul. To ask yourself these deep and powerful questions. To listen intently to the whispers, you will receive. For when we truly open up, the answers are always within.
And when they do start to show, don’t dismiss them. Don’t let fear get in your way. Don’t allow the naysayers to tell you you can’t. Own it. Be aligned with who you are. Put your big girl pants and start shaping a life that you are truly inspired by. A life that is making a difference. A life that you feel alive in every moment. It is possible.
Next time you lie tossing and turning at night, be grateful you have been given this simple question ‘Is this it’ as it might just be your life saviour.
