Most people don’t discover what life is all about until just before they
die. While we are young, we spend our days striving and keeping up with social
expectations. We are so busy chasing life’s big pleasures that we miss out on
the little ones, like dancing barefoot in a park on a rainy day with our kids
or planting a rose garden or watching the sun come up.We live in an age where
we have conquered the highest of mountains but have yet to master our selves.
We have taller buildings but shorter tempers, more possessions but less
happiness, fuller minds but emptier lives.
Do not wait until you are on your deathbed to realize the meaning of life
and the precious role you have to play within it. All too often, people attempt
to live their lives backwards: they spend their days striving to get the things
that will make them happy rather than having the wisdom to realize that
happiness is not a place you reach but a state you create. Happiness and a life
of deep fulfillment come when you commit yourself, from the very core of your
soul, to spending your highest human talents on a purpose that makes a
difference in others’ lives. When all the clutter is stripped away from your
life, its true meaning will become clear: to live for something more than
yourself. Stated simply, the purpose of life is a life of purpose.
As this is
the last of the life lessons it is my privilege to share with you in this book,
I wish you a great life filled with wisdom, happiness and fulfillment. May your
days be spent in work that is engaging, on pursuits that are inspiriting and
with people who are loving. I’d like to leave you with the following words of
George Bernard Shaw, which capture the essence of this final lesson far better
than I ever could:
This is the true joy in life, being used for a purpose
recognized by yourself as a mighty one, being a true
force of Nature instead of a feverish little clod of
ailments and grievances complaining that the world
will not devote itself to making you happy. I am of
the opinion that my life belongs to the whole
community, and, as long as I live, it is my privilege
to do for it whatever I can.
I want to be thoroughly used up when I die. For
the harder I work, the more I live. I rejoice in life for
its own sake. Life is no brief candle to me. It’s a sort
of splendid torch which I’ve got to hold up for the
moment and I want to make it burn as brightly as
possible before handing it on to future generations.
The Tragedy Of Life Is Not Death, But What
We Let Die Inside Of Us While We
Live.
- NORMAN
COUSINS
