How to Find your Purpose in Life | Abraham Twerski
Adam Twerski speaks on the topic of finding your life's purpose.
Transcript -
I think it's important for a person in order to have a feeling of self-worth and a feeling of self-esteem to have a purpose in life. Living a purposeless life - so - what kind of significance is that?
And you tell the story of two vagrants that were arrested for loitering: the judge asks "what were you doing when you were arrested?" He says "nothing." And he asks the other one "what were you doing when you were arrested?" He says "helping him."
If you are helping somebody that's doing nothing you're doing nothing.
We have this kind of domino thing where everyone is helping everybody else but nobody has an idea of what it's for. So I think we have a sense of purpose, and this may be where religion comes in, that religion says "well the world wasn't a big accident - it was created with a purpose," and if you don't like that purpose, investigate! Look for a purpose!
My example is this: what kind of things have value to us? I tell people to go home and look at the things you own. There are some things that are aesthetic, ornamental. They have no function, but they are ornamental. And there are some things that have a function, and their value is in their function.
Well what is my function? Is my function coming home from work, kicking off the shoes, putting on the slippers, and sitting in front of the TV with a 6-can of beer? That’s not a function that can make anyone proud of one’s self.
So I think that, in order to get a good sense of self-worth (and by the way to give it to our children also) we have purpose. What is purpose in life?
You look for a purpose. There was a great Rabbi that once said “the looking is the finding.” Search. It’s not a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. As you search, you develop your traits, you develop your skills, you develop your philosophy, when you begin to search. Too many people don’t search. Everything are taken for granted = this is the way the world is.
So I think that we need to search for purpose. Many people will find a humanistic purpose: my purpose is trying to make life better for others; my purpose in life is trying to do something about the environment, to avoid acid rain; my purpose in life is to do something about famine in Ethiopia.
You can find a purpose, but you must look for a purpose.
Too often, people just go along, traveling along from day to day without giving any thought into purpose.
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