Don’t ask What’s-In-It-For-Me. Ask How-Can-I-Create-Value

If you begin to understand what Life is all about chances are you will question its very idea. Because you will be appalled at its meaninglessness. For sure Life is a journey between birth and death. You come with nothing and will go with nothing. So, isn’t it meaningless? Then what’s the point in being born? What’s the point in living, in working harder and harder, struggling to earn a living, raise a family and deal with all the ups and downs of Life? 

This is a pure human conundrum. No other aspect of creation has this ability to think and question. Only humans have this ability – which is also why only humans suffer. If you watch other species they are ‘content’ eating, growing, procreating and dying. They don’t resist Life. They don’t question. But because the human being has a mind, the mind raises these ‘pertinent, relevant’ questions. Which truly are unanswerable. And since they cannot be answered, the seeker is disillusioned and, often, depressed, restless or confounded.

But there’s a different way to look at Life. Which is not to look at it from a What’s-In-It-For-Me point of view but to see it from a How-Can-I-Create-Value point of view. Which is to live and work in such a manner that you leave the world, after you are gone, much better than when you found it. Surely, you know that you will not be around forever. You will not be able to even take any of what you created in your lifetime with you. But you do have the opportunity to leave behind a lot – your thinking, your legacy and your imprint on the world. When trying to understand Life, understand this opportunity too. Then, and only then, will you “wake up” and stop trying to find meaning in Life. Instead you will, despite Life’s evident meaninglessness, work towards making your Life meaningful!