The Ultimate Purpose of Life

The Purpose of Life is very simple, and it is the same for all people. The Purpose of Life is simply to experience it.

Our lives are perfect and complete exactly as they are. Even the things we perceive as imperfect and incomplete, are actually part of our perfect and complete lives. 

Each of us is born into this earth as a unique human being with a unique set of challenges and circumstances. These are the exact challenges and circumstances that we need in order to have the precise experience we desire to have on this earth. 

Many of us have a tendency to compare our lives to those of our friends, peers, neighbors, celebrities on TV, and so forth. Often it seems as though the lives of others are more interesting or in some way better than our own. 

However, this is a mistaken view that can distract us from being attentive to our own lives. When we waste our energy being dissatisfied with our own life or envious of the lives of others, this significantly depletes our Personal Power. 

In fact, our Personal Power comes not from wishing that we were living someone else's life, but from fully embracing the challenges of our own. Personal Power, and therefore happiness, is simply not possible until we learn to fully appreciate our own lives, exactly as they are Here and Now. 

Now, for many of us, this is a difficult proposition to accept. Our lives can often seem very mundane and insignificant. We see other people doing amazing, creative things and 

living lives of greater affluence and variety than us, driving better cars and living in nicer houses. We may hate our jobs and wish we could be an athlete, or an actor, or a CEO of a cool technology company, or an adventurer, or whatever. 

Well, there is good news and bad news. The good news is that fully embracing, accepting and appreciating every aspect of our lives does not mean that we cannot change some aspect of it. In fact, we are free to do whatever we want with our lives. 

The bad news, although it is not really bad, is that we cannot actually become anybody else or assume someone else's role in life. We must change those aspects of our lives we wish to change in the context of our own lives. For instance, if we want to be an athlete, we are free to try. We may or may not have the innate talent required to be a professional athlete competing on the highest level. But no one can stop us from trying. 

The point is that we are free to do what we please with our lives. If we don't like our job, we can simply stop doing it. If we don't like a relationship we are in, we can simply get out of it. What we have done up until now does not have to dictate what we do in the future.

Even while we accept and appreciate our lives exactly as they are, this means accepting and appreciating the challenges inherent within our lives, embracing those challenges, and overcoming them. 

Ultimately though, it doesn't matter whether we are an accountant, a carpenter, an actress, a housewife, a factory worker, or a CEO. Our Purpose in Life is simply to experience the life we have been given. Now within the life we have been given, we are free to experience it however we please. This means that we are free to live our lives passively and just take life as it comes. We are likewise free to set goals and intentionally change any aspect of our lives. 

Our lives are like a day at the beach. Some people on the beach play a spirited game of volleyball. Others run for miles on the sand. Still others simply spread a blanket, lie down, and drink a beer. Our lives are our own giant sandbox, and we are free to play in it however we choose. We can painstakingly build an elegant sand castle, fight with others in the sandbox, or simply sit in it and enjoy the sensation of the sand on our feet. 

When we find ourselves feeling lost and confused and overwhelmed, wondering what we should do with our lives, the answer is simple. We can do whatever we want. Or do nothing at all. There is no wrong answer. There is simply the experience of life, in This Present Moment. This is the ultimate purpose for which we were born. 

The opportunity to live our lives is a great gift. We were given the gift of life precisely for the opportunity to simply experience it. And the highest expression of appreciation for that gift is to simply embrace it and experience every aspect of it in all of its glory and uncertainty and pain and hardship and joy and sorrow and fun and sadness and triumph and tragedy. 

These emotions are part and parcel to EVERY person's experience. And none of us who live for any length of time can avoid experiencing ALL of these emotions. In fact, far from avoiding these emotions, the precise reason we are here is to experience them. 

To simply experience it. That is the Ultimate Purpose of Life. 

The Moment of Power

This Present Moment is the One Moment of Experience. 

It is also the One Moment of Power. 

What is the Moment of Power? The Moment of Power is the One Moment in which we have the power to influence the quality of our lives in any way, shape or form. 

All too often, we tend to project the point at which we will be happy and fulfilled at some vague, undefined point in the future. We tend to set up the game so that once we have fulfilled a certain set of conditions in our lives, only then we may be happy. 

In fact, the future that we project never arrives. And while we may fulfill the conditions we have established for happiness, it is worth keeping in mind that the conditions of life are ever changing. 

Rather than jump through a thousand hoops on a 20-year journey to reach the Holy Grail of well-being, we have the option of utilizing our One Moment of Power to achieve a perfect state of well-being right here and right now. 

This Present Moment is the One Moment of Experience. There is no other time or place that we can experience our lives other than right now. It is true that time seems to flow by. We do in fact transition from a baby to a child to a teenager to a young adult to middle-aged, into old age, and then, at some point, we do in fact die as an end to our lives on this earth in our present form. 

It is true that we can reflect back on experiences that we have had, and we can plan for future experiences. But such reflection, and such planning, can only ever occur in This Present Moment. 

However we slice and dice it, This Present Moment is the One Moment of Experience. And since Here and Now is our One Moment of Experience, it must also therefore be our One Moment of Power. 

Right Here and Right Now, This Present Moment, is the One Moment of Power. It is the one point at which we can access our Personal Power. It is the One Moment in which we can influence our lives in any way, shape, or form. 

This Present Moment is the One Moment in which we can change our thoughts, and begin to think of our lives in postive terms instead of negative terms. It is the One Moment in which we can take an action that will enhance our state of well-being. 

This Present Moment is the One Moment of Power. 

When you feel like you need to change your life, when you feel depressed, or powerless, do not long for a set of conditions that existed in the past that no longer exist today. The conditions of life are in a constant state of change!

Do not merely hope that things will get better "in the future." That "future" will never arrive! 

Instead, recognize that This Present Moment is the One Moment of Experience. And then utilize this One Moment of Experience to exercise your Personal Power to enhance your experience of well-being. The experience of well-being, or happiness, or fulfillment, like ALL experiences, can also only ever occur in This Present Moment. 

So recognize and embrace the truth that Here and Now is the One Moment of Experience. And then also recognize and embrace the idea that this One Moment of Experience is also the One Moment of Power, the one and only moment in which you may exercise your Personal Power and positively affect the quality of your life experience. 

The Moment of Experience

This present moment, here and now, is the One Moment of Experience. There is no moment in which we can possibly ever experience our lives other than right here and right now in This Moment. 

If you doubt this statement, go ahead and try to disprove it. Try to go back and re-live an experience you had last week, or yesterday, or even five minutes ago. 

Or jump ahead and try to fast forward yourself into tomorrow, today. However we slice it and dice it, there is no other time or place in which we can experience our lives other than in This Present Moment. 

Think about the truth of this statement for a moment. We may spent much of our time mulling or obsessing over past events or worrying or daydreaming about what the future may bring. But both the obsessing and mulling about the "past" and the worrying and daydreaming about the "future" are simply thoughts that we express right here and right now in This Present Moment. There is no way to access the "past" or the "future" other than through the act of thinking about the past or future in This Present Moment. 

Once we recognize and embrace the fact that This Present Moment is our One Moment of Experience, we gain immediate access to the one and only moment in which we may positively influence the outcome of our lives, whether by adopting a better attitude about our lives, forming constructive, goal-oriented thoughts about a specific outcome we would like to realize, or taking a specific action that will enhance the condition of our lives in some way. We can only ever engage in all such attitudes, thoughts, and actions in This Present Moment. 

Another way of expressing this truth is to say that This Present Moment is the one and only point in time at which we can tap into our Personal Power and influence our lives in some way. Whether we influence our lives for the better or for the worse depends upon how adept we are at exercising our Personal Power in this One Moment of Experience. Therefore, once we realize that This Present Moment is the One Moment of Experience, and therefore, our one Moment of Power, the question we need to ask ourselves is: How effectively are we, in This One Moment of Experience, utilizing our Moment of Power? 

Personal Power is simply the Power we have at our disposal as human beings to affect the condition of our lives. The two basic "power tools" we have at our disposal to do so are the capacity to express thought and the capacity to take action. 

This access to our Personal Power is not "out there somewhere" for us to search endlessly for until we find it. It can only ever be found within us right here and right now. Its location is so obvious that we can and often do look right past it, thinking it must be "somewhere else." 

We do this because we allow our attention to be distracted away from This Present Moment and into the noisy thought realm of the mind. When this happens, we exit the Realm of Clarity (which we enjoy when our attention is focused precisely on This Present Moment) and enter into the Realm of Confusion (which we fall into whenever our attention is seduced into the realm of randomly arising chaotic snippets of thoughts about the "past" and "future" that swim 

constantly within our minds).

We are also conditioned to believe that Personal Power is something that must be difficult to obtain, when in fact it is something we always have instant access to right here and right now. This is because we overlook the fact that This Present Moment is the One Moment of Experience, and instead buy into the notion that the "real us" and the solution to our lives' challenges lay "out there" somewhere.

When we ignore the Personal Power that is available for our benefit right here and right now in this One Moment of Experience in order to search for it "out there somewhere," this is akin to taking our Personal Power, sealing it in a box, burying it in the yard, and then pretending that we have no idea where it is and proceeding to search the ends of the earth for it. Or perhaps it is 

simply akin to searching all over the house for a pair of glasses that are right on our nose. 

Even if we learn to recognize our Personal Power, if we do not use it effectively we end up dissipating it by using it in ways that do not support our experience of well being. 

Therefore, we need to not only recognize that the only time and place in which we can access our Personal Power is This One Moment of Experience, and therefore, the One Moment of Power, but we also need to learn to utilize our Personal Power effectively.

Let's summarize what we have talked about so far. Since This Present Moment Here and Now is the One Moment of Experience, there is no other time and place, including the "past" and the "future" (which again really only exist as thoughts we create about something called the "past" or "future") during which we can possibily experience, and thus impact, our lives. Therefore, any experience we can possibly have, can only ever occur in This Present Moment. 

If we can only ever experience our lives in This Present Moment, it stands to reason that the only Power we have to positively influence our lives in any way, shape, or form is also in This Present Moment. Thus, our One Moment of Experience is also our One Moment of Power. 

So we can now see that this Present Moment is our One Moment of Power. Why is it essential to know and embrace this fact? Because if it is true that This Present Moment is the One Moment of Power, the one and only moment during which we can ever positively influence our lives, then it stands to reason that the key to gaining mastery over our lives is to learn to utilize our One Moment of Power to access our Personal Power and apply it in order to enhance the quality of our lives.

In other words, since here and now is our One Moment of Experience, if we can simply gain mastery over nothing other than This Moment, we effectively gain mastery of our lives.