The Un-Purpose Driven Life: Key to Youthfulness and Vitality

The culture applauds effectiveness.  The culture praises those that can "get things done". We look up to winners and the successful. We as a species are now wired to always keep score. We are required to get results.  I understand the importance of one having to be effective and the importance of "getting results" in order to be responsible and successful. I also understand the importance of "purpose" and "drive". Aside from that, it is important to also realize that the things that feed us and give energy to us spiritually and physiologically speaking are the things that are done without a "why" or "purpose"; the things done with no desired "result" or need to "keep score".

When I was in seventh grade, one day after school, me and two of my friends snuck to a pond that had a big rope swing hanging from a limb of a beautiful Live Oak tree. We did not have swim trunks with us so we just took off our shirts and shoes and jumped in wearing our blue jeans. We would climb the bank, swing out into the pond dropping into the cool water, over and over again. Three boys laughing, swimming, diving, climbing, and splashing. We were alive, energized, happy - all was perfect. We had no "purpose" or "goal"; there was no desired "result" we needed to achieve - we were playing and we played for quite a while. All of a sudden one of my friends realized he had lost something in the water and he was very worried about having to tell his parents about it. So we started to look for it.  Now we were inserting a "why" into our afternoon. We now had a "purpose". We were doing the exact same things; swinging, diving, swimming, splashing. However, now that we had a "why" we started to get tired and just a few minutes into the search we were exhausted. The exact same activities went from giving energy to taking energy just by inserting a "why". I'm sure we can all think of stories where someone tried to turn a hobby into a business. Most of the time it does not become profitable and usually the person loses the joy of the hobby in the process.

Meister Eckhart said, "This I know, that the only way to live is like the rose which lives without a why". Eckhart believed the activities we do without a "why" are the ones that keep us youthful and that give us vitality. I'm fully aware that we all have to be effective and get things done. But a key to staying energized and alive is to make sure you carve out some time to live like the rose and live without a "why".