Craig’s Life Purpose

I gotta say, if someone had said to me at the start of this week “hey Craig, what’s gonna generate more of a response on your site; a post on Life Purpose, or one about a Dickhead Running a Marathon while consuming beer in the name of science“, I probably would have gone with option ‘A’. But then again, what do I know? Clearly not much. Yep, the Beer-Fuelled Marathon concept has taken on a life of it’s own. If I really wanted to, I could probably assemble a team of beer-drinking marathoners to do the event – such is the level of interest. I’ve also had numerous emails suggesting all kinds of weird-ass future experiments that I could conduct using Mikey (see photo) as my crash-test dummy. All in the name of science of course. I’ve even had some volunteers who would be happy to join my… research team. Sometimes being silly, mildly irresponsible and laughing your guts out just for the sake of it, is completely liberating and therapeutic. That’s my story anyway. On with today’s post…

My Life Purpose

I’m not exactly sure why, but off the back of our Life Purpose theme this week I have received a bunch of comments and emails from people who want to know what my life purpose is. So if that doesn’t really interest you (and I’d understand if it didn’t), you may wanna pop back on Monday. I guess one of the interesting things about defining our life purpose is that some of us feel compelled to come up with some grand, world-changing, mind-blowing, hugely-philosophical mission statement. Relax; you don’t need to. I said. I’m sure people think that my (written) Life Purpose will be a twenty seven page document that will take a team of experts years to decipher. Don’t think so. Not that smart. Or complex.

My Life Purpose is… (drum roll)

To LIVE, LAUGH, LOVE and LEARN

Almost anti-climactic wasn’t it?

Four simple, beautiful, meaningful words that define what I’m about. No twenty seven page document required. No need for the linguistic analysis. No need for the philosophers or scholars to decode the hidden message. You will find these four words in most of the books I sign for people and in various places around this site. They represent what my life is about.

I know the words are essentially self-explanatory but I’ll expand a little:

1. LIVE: Since I was young I have always wanted to do more than survive my life. I always wanted more than an existence. Even as a teenager, I wanted to milk my life for everything I could; to live my life to the full – whatever that was going to mean. I never wanted to waste a day. For years I watched (some) people make their lives harder than they needed to be. Watched people major in minors and be problem-focused. I have learned that some people choose misery and some people choose joy (even through adversity). I choose joy. I choose to live not survive. To me the idea of spending my life in a holding pattern, being reactive not proactive, waiting not doing, copying not creating, being a victim not a victor, following not leading and conforming to ‘fit in’ is repulsive. I have always seen my life as a privilege and a gift, not a right. So I will do my best to live a life of humility, thankfulness, gratitude, hope, creativity, inspiration, meaning and productivity. Of course I’m flawed and I will continue to make mistakes and have my critics, but I won’t die wondering. I won’t die with my music still in me.

2. LAUGH: Laughing is one of my all-time fave things to do. Pity so many of us are too busy, too responsible, too mature, too spiritual (too proud, too stupid, too stubborn) to do it on a regular basis. I believe we should consciously gravitate towards that which makes us laugh. Often. I’m not a big fan of the long-face brigade. And what a massive membership they have. They annoy me. I have little time for them. I think that (as a rule) the older we get, the less we laugh (we the society). Shame. When we’re laughing, we’re happy. And when we’re happy our body is producing happy, healthy, healing hormones – so why wouldn’t we laugh? When we’re laughing we’re fun to be around. Physically, emotionally, mentally, socially and professionally, the benefits of laughing are numerous. When we were kids we laughed just because we could. It didn’t have to make sense. Sometimes we need less logic and maturity and more laughter.

3. LOVE: For me, the LOVE part of my Life Purpose comes in the form of giving to a range of people, in a range of different situations, circumstances and states of need. While different people express (and seek) love in different ways, for me it’s important to invest (time, energy, care, knowledge, money, encouragement, passion) into the lives of others with no agenda. Selfless and unconditional love. I don’t always nail it, but I do my best. One of the toughest challenges for all of us (okay, me) is to avoid being selfish; for many of us it’s our default setting. Especially us only children. We do it without even thinking. I think it’s fair to say that a life without giving or receiving love (however you do that) doesn’t really have much purpose.

4. LEARN: I have always been amazed at the capacity we humans have for learning, creating, adapting and let’s be blunt, doing some incredible shit. Gotta admit, that whole walking on the moon thing was kinda outstanding in the sixties. Sure, it comes a close second to the beer-fuelled marathon in terms of scientific value and shaping the history of mankind, but impressive nonetheless. Neil Armstrong…. Mikey…. yep, same breath. I am passionate about, and committed to life-long learning and I consider not using my brain as a waste of an amazing gift. The idea of not exploring my potential and developing my knowledge, skill and understanding isn’t even an option for me. I don’t consider myself to be particularly intelligent or gifted but I am determined to maximise what I’ve got. I can’t determine how much potential I have, but I can determine how much of that potential I use. It’s a choice. The world is my classroom, every person I meet is a potential teacher, every day provides me with numerous lessons and being a good student truly is a matter of attitude and application.

See you next week x

P.S. I look forward to meeting some of you South Aussies at our Adelaide Renovate Your Life Workshop tomorrow. Woohoo! Hugs all round. If you’re not booked in and you’re interested in coming along, you can learn more here.

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