Days without Purpose…

5 minute read

How many days of our lives do we lose without purpose? I have debated this question with myself after living through many such days.

How many times have we postponed the things we said we would do, merely giving ourselves still more days without direction? We hoped our actions would make room in destiny for what we wanted from life, but eventually the cruel truth reveals itself. If your destiny has no purpose, your life will contain many purposeless things and many purposeless days.

Have you noticed that, when we reach a goal, we fail to see the puppeteer behind it or the events that aligned to make that goal possible?

I have often remained like a boat adrift because nothing moved me in any direction. Looking back now, perhaps in some way I anticipated what destiny would offer.

The people and friends around me rush from one day to the next, working towards the greatness of a destiny that does not exist. We are sold illusions and goals, yet very few people gain access to success. Everything unfolds so that those who succeed can fulfil the purpose they set themselves.

If you speak from experience after failing, people call you pessimistic. If success shaped your experience, you speak from experience then as well, but you appear optimistic. When you receive a measured share of both, your declarations become more moderate.

Before the crisis, everyone spoke about success. Afterwards, even the greatest optimists began to collapse psychologically. Some took their own lives because they were accustomed to a certain standard, having worked throughout their lives to attain goals most people did not possess even in dreams.

It is also true that many achieved those things by trampling people and principles underfoot, crushing the ideals of others and destroying many destinies.

When success stands beside you, everything changes you. Some call success money, others professional achievement, and still others luck.

Long ago, I spoke and offered advice under the influence of a successful destiny. Everything seemed possible. No one and nothing could destroy my ideals or the course of my life, because my language was money, even when disguised as fulfilment in business or the pursuit of a better life.

Yet even then, the divine was buried somewhere within my heart, and love was buried with it. I had received a great deal of love, more than I could carry. When the hour came to awaken from sleep, the fall did not mark me too deeply. On the contrary, I allowed myself to sink further into the void, knowing that it was everything or nothing. Perhaps I already sensed the abyss waiting around the corner.

Even when destiny struck where it had hurt, and still hurts, most fiercely, I continued fighting. I took one step forward, then several backwards, until the final collapse arrived.

I had expected it, but I did not believe it would defeat me so completely. My purpose in the world and in life was to make the person I loved happy. When that purpose lost its foundation, I fell like one of the walking dead and crawled through life, waiting in one way or another for the end.

During that time, I became the one receiving advice from friends who believed themselves experts in such events. They lived upon the ground, while I alone flew through the air, dreaming of divinity and of a love we all ignore, whether we admit it or not.

Destiny was crueller still because, soon afterwards, it struck my friends in succession, and that hurt me even more. What happened to me doubled and tripled. My ideal and purpose moved still farther away. Perhaps the world is not ready for the "dream" revealed to me when I still possessed the energy to fight sleep.

Destiny strikes when you least expect it, especially if you are an extraordinary soul. All of us possess extraordinary souls, but few awaken and realise this. The easiest awakening comes through suffering - a great deal of suffering.

When life no longer depends upon your choices but upon those of others, you are like a boat carried by the waves according to the powerful currents, or according to life itself.

Recently, I attended a meeting with people trying to introduce a new approach to business, an American way of doing it. Some had endured hardship and lost a lifetime's work. Others had never known failure because destiny placed within their minds the instruments that make success second nature.

It reminded me of an old friend who once told me that you cannot succeed - cannot obtain money or whatever else you desire - unless you move, struggle and try to recognise opportunities.

I replied that I knew he was right. Duh! I had spoken exactly as he did long before he did. Yet I also said that success is given by the unseen force behind us, whether we call it God or something else. We could achieve nothing if we were not capable of acting, healthy and protected from danger.

The divine also slaps us sometimes, either through those close to us or through our mentors. The essential idea at that meeting was that, if possible, you should turn your passion into a business, especially when it can help society or other people.

That is truly what animates life. Yet if an entire lifetime passes without achievement or satisfaction, we will lose many days without purpose.

Many obstacles can prevent success, but the greatest is destiny itself. In the final moment, destiny can be deceived only if you see beyond it and perceive, as I have said, the "puppeteer" pulling the strings.

Whatever you do in life, whether you succeed or not, give one moment to inner prayer. Remember "yourself". Stop dreaming and awaken now, because tomorrow may not exist.

Tomorrow may become the greatest nightmare of your existence, or of all humanity. At least then, in the final moment, you may have a chance not to "fall asleep" unconsciously, but to remain fully awake and in prayer.

First published in Romanian on 19 December 2010. This English translation preserves the perspective of that period.

Original Romanian article: Zile fără rost....