? BookCrossing.com | Main | Everyone has value ?
October 21, 2004
Purpose
I posted this in response to GOALS, CHOICES AND OTHER TRIVIAL ISSUES. Since It took me so long to write, haha, I'm out of time for tonight, so I'm goign to post it here also. If we can find and understand our unique purpose in life, then everything else we choose to do falls into place.
I am 41 and coming back to the University for my Batchelor's degree. Many people however won't share my view on Degrees. Although it can mean something, It means more to me to be learning than it does to achieve a degree. Who says it has to end when we get a Batchelors, Masters or Doctors degree? Those are arbitrary limits set down to measure rank in education. However it doesn't mean a limit to what we will learn in life. It also doesn't mean that is the right choice of what to learn. It seems the higher the degree, the more focused on one area one has to become. For me, I just have a purpose in life, and everything I am learning is a tool to use toward that purpose. My purpose doesn't involve achieving a specific rank, title or level of education. Those things are only tools in the process of carrying out my purpose. Other than their usefulness in serving my purpose in life, these things have no meaning in themselves. They are not the purpose of life. They are things we do while living; Occupations of our time. We should never be made to feel bad about our careers, our degrees, education level or status in life. That's rankism. We often do this to ourselves and others when we lose sight of our purpose in life. I've done it many times before and that's why it took me about 15 years to come back to the University. But now the difference is I'm not really here to earn a BA, I'm here to learn, which is no different than what I've been doing for the last 15 years through other sources. I'm not saying don't set goals to achieve, I'm saying it's good to keep things in perspective and remember that life is a process and how we live our lives is much more important than what status we achieve. And if setting and achieving a goal of a specific degree can help us have a greater impact in this life, according to our purpose for being here, then it doesn't matter what age we are, we will do it anyway.
Posted by carl1236 at October 21, 2004 11:55 PM