There are many questions that can expand our consciousness and transform our lives. I would like to suggest the following for your consideration.
What is the most important thing a human being can do?
The power of this question lies in that it invites us to consider the big picture of our lives. It reveals the truth of what we value most and what we believe is the greatest good. It compels us to think freely about what is truly important in life, to own it, and to live with it. It offers the possibility of freeing us from our preconceived notions of life’s purpose and to think outside the box. It can liberate us from our subjective leanings and to entertain a vision that may not initially feel comfortable given our present ambitions, goals, and lifestyle. It offers the promise of a breakthrough about how we could live our lives based on what really matters to us and what is really true for us.
Take a few minutes to answer the question and then take a look at this list.
To win six super bowls
To win a Noble Prize
To win multiple gold medals in the Olympics
To be the founder and CEO of a multi-billion dollar corporation like Facebook
To look like thirty at sixty
To win an Oscar, Emmy, Grammy
To find a cure for cancer
To end world hunger
To build a family filled with love and peace and raise happy, productive children
To fight for world peace
To seek truth
To perfect one’s character traits
To become enlightened
To become president of the United States
To develop one’s full creative potential
To love all humans and all living creatures
To strive to emulate G-d
To be happy and enjoy the journey
To serve the Creator of the universe with love and joy
To raise the moral conscience of humanity
To transform your life you need to take these four steps:
- Answer the question
- Make a commitment to do it.
- Make a plan to achieve it
- Start today.
You will discover two amazing benefits of living this way:
- You will always feel like a winner! Someone who is striving toward what he or she believes is the most important thing to do will always feel like a winner regardless of how much he actually achieves. This is because one is focused on the process not on results. It frees one from what I call the “tyranny of success and failure.” The Rabbis put it this way, “It doesn’t matter one does a little or lot as long as he directs his heart towards the heavens.” Living a life and fighting for what you value most will give a feeling of being a winner no matter how much you fail, stumble, or fall short.
The credit belongs to the person who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes short again and again because there is no effort without error and shortcomings, who knows the great devotion, who spends himself in a worthy cause, who at best knows in the end the high achievement of triumph and who at worst, if he fails while daring greatly, knows his place shall never be with those timid and cold souls who know neither victory nor defeat. Theodore Roosevelt
- You will inoculate yourself against social pressure and self-doubt. When a person is living with a life goal based on what she believes is most important, she will be able to stand up against any and all challenges. Someone who lives with a sense of mission will stay the course against social pressure. We see this truth embodied in the lives of Ghandi, Abraham, Martin Luther King, Herzl, Rabbi Noach Weinberg, and others.
In closing, consider the words of George Bernard Shaw:
“This is the true joy in life, the being used for a purpose recognized by you self as a might one…I want to be thoroughly used up when I die, for the harder I work the more I live.”