“Ultimately, man should not ask what the meaning of his life is, but rather must recognize that he is asked. In a word, each man is questioned by life; and he can only answer to life by answering for his own life; to life, he can only respond by being responsible.” ～Viktor E. Frankl
How do you find yourself? You don’t. You create yourself.
This is one of the “rules of life” I’ve taught my children.
As with all the rules, I stand to learn just as much from them as they do. One of life’s biggest tragedies is when we’re caught waiting instead of creating.
I love the quote above because it speaks directly to the divine mandate we’ve all been tasked with:
It’s up to us to decide who we will be.
We’ve been gifted with certain skills and resources, and maybe we’ve even been saddled with certain limitations (if that’s how we choose to see them).
The Universe (God, providence, the Creator, whatever) wants us to take what we’ve been given and decide how to use it to create ourselves.
Free will is a foundational tenant of every major religious tradition. It’s at the root of our theological doctrines.
For me, the concept of creating myself is far more terrifying than the idea of finding myself. Finding feels like a waiting game. If I poke around long enough, I’ll stumble across a grand and divine truth hidden away for me like a transcendental treasure hunt—easy and fun. However…
Creating myself requires a level of responsibility and work that exhausts me to even think about.
That sounds exactly right. If there were a universal architect whose goal was to help us achieve some sort of self-actualization, wouldn’t s/he want us to work for it?
This doesn’t mean you can’t be divinely inspired. But you have to drive.
It’s up to you to step into the role of conductor and create using these beautiful gifts we’re given: courage, strength, autonomy, free will, power to do, creativity, imagination, patience, resilience, and love.
This is doubly true for those who don’t believe in anything metaphysical. If there were no God, there could be no “finding yourself” because no one would have hidden it from you in the first place. Without a creator, your only option is to create yourself.
The building blocks are there. We have to make something out of them.
That’s the beautiful challenge of existence—the most important challenge we’ve been given.
What do we do with this cosmic clay called life?
What a wonderful opportunity we’ve been given: to decide.
I want to create someone who uses his gifts to help as many people as possible. Someone who drinks in life and knows how to live in the moment. Someone whose default modes are love, gratitude, and forgiveness and who experiences joy and fulfillment daily.
Who do you want to create?