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Episode 447 – A reason for getting up

• For most of my life, I woke up every morning
• That’s it
• I just woke up
• Like groundhog day
• The same thing every morning
• I woke up and I started the day
• No, let me rephrase it
  • I didn’t start the day
  • The day started me
  • I merely fell into the day
  • I fell into the rhythm of life like into a running train
• If it was a working day – I stepped into my routine like into a well-oiled machine
• If it was a non-working day and I didn’t have a plan, I coasted
• I floated around
• I quickly noticed that floating around wasn’t just unproductive
• It was also unsettling
• I would often fall into some form of self-pity, bordering on depression
  • I felt lonely
  • I squandered my time
  • I never did what I wanted to do
  • I distracted myself – shopping, media, useless chatter
  • And somehow I made it through the day and when someone asked about my weekend – I never knew what to answer
• What should I be doing on my weekends, in my free time?
• Everyone always said – Relax
• Well I did that
• But somehow that didn’t make me feel fulfilled
• So
• I started loading up my weekends with activities
  • Errands
  • Cleaning
  • Working out
  • Volunteering
  • Meetup groups
• I did good stuff
  • Valuable things
  • Necessary things
  • Important tasks
•  
• But it still avoided the inevitable
• I didn’t have a reason for getting up
• Instead of floundering, I kept busy
• Keeping busy is a great strategy if you are not into relaxing
  • Alcohol, drugs, television – these things never kept me happy for long
  • They work for many people – they didn’t work for me
• But loading up my days with tasks actually felt good
• Its rewarding to look down on your achievements, even if its just a clean pantry
• Being busy feels good
  • Look at everything I did today
  • Look at everything I have on my plate – I am an important person
• Being busy validates us
• When nobody else recognizes us, at least we can pad ourselves on the back when we look at all of our accomplishments
• But keeping busy is just another form of distraction if it isn’t done with purpose
•  
• Striving to build a business is being busy with purpose
• But loading up the day with tasks so we don’t have to face our unhappiness – that’s distraction
• We may not realize we are unhappy
  • Of course not, we are to busy
  • To busy doing and making and managing and controlling
• But as soon as our plans fall through, things don’t work out, someone cancels on us – boom
  • We feel the emptiness again
• Have you felt that emptiness?
  • When the world leaves you hanging?
  • When you wake up after a long night of partying
  • Or when you finally turn the TV off at 2am?
• Have you wondered, silently, secretly, if this is it?
•  
• I was busy,
• I got up
• I did my thing
• I lived a life
• But I had many moments where I asked myself:
  • Where is the joy?
  • And whats the point in all this?
• Because I didn’t have a reason for getting up
•  
• And when I looked around me – I was always left with the sour feeling in my stomach that I am missing out
• Everyone seemed to be living happy and perfect lives
• They seemed to have gotten all the ingredients right
  • A nice house
  • With an expensive car in the driveway
  • A happy marriage
• Of course – I only speculated about other peoples happiness
  • But why did I even look to them
  • Why did I have to compare myself?
• When I walked by these homes – I always thought to myself
  • What is it about life that I am missing?

• I was missing my purpose
• I didn’t have anything to get up to
• I simply rolled with the flow
  • Just Another day
• Maybe a highlight here and there
  • A special event
  • A vacation
  • A long trip
  • Some special people
• But otherwise – just another day
• I lived, as Thoreau called it in his work Walden:
• “A life of quiet desperation”
• And guess what
  • Most people live that way
  • Even those people I admired in their expensive homes and their fancy cars
• We need a purpose
• We need a reason for getting up
• Otherwise we roll with life
• We are not in control
• Your purpose, your mission, your desire for this life gives you control
• Because when you decide what you want to do with your life, you wont let outside events determine your mood, your direction, your actions
• You are in charge
• When you have a purpose – its like having a goal
• And when we have a goal – we change how we behave
• People without a purpose make decision based on the current moment
• People with a purpose make decision based on where they want to be
•  
• We need a purpose for getting up
• We need to eb able to express – in a few words – why we are waking up
• And it my actually help to say it every morning out loud when you wake up
  • Instead of looking at your phone
  • Which is again – a falling into the day
  • Into events that already took place – without our doing
• My purpose is to help people with their quest to reclaim their lives
• What is your purpose?
• If you don’t know it – think about it
• Explore and experiment
• But find it
• Because it will change not just how you get up in the morning, but it will change your life
  • From a passive participation in the flow of events
  • To an active engagement with the world around you

• Its critical – we need to know our reason for getting up
• Every day

Much love