“The unexamined life is not worth living.” Plato said that, I heard it on Oprah one day, and I have thought about it a lot since, or should I say I have “examined” the thought a lot since hearing it. Here are my thoughts.
I feel this thought is really saying that “examining your life is important,” and I really agree with that. I don’t think any life is “not worth living.” I would suggest that those who examine their life are living differently than those who don’t, and I personally prefer the examining option. Having established that I am “pro-examining,” a couple of questions came to mind. When you examine life, you ask questions… who do you ask? Where do you turn for the answers?
I feel examining your life is an internal, intangible experience that can be shared with others, but ultimately we end up asking and answering the questions ourselves. My 25 years have taught me that the true answers cannot be found outside in the tangible components of our world. There are many short-term answers out there, people answer questions with “stuff” all the time, but until they have found the answer inside, they will never truly have the answer.
Asking questions is my way of examining my life. Often I find it difficult to do so completely by myself and at those times I usually seek the counseling of others. I’m sure I also source those tangible solutions from time to time, and it is a challenge to be aware of when I am doing that. But life is effort, and I don’t mind putting out, as my experience tells me that the rewards are worth every ounce of energy. Depending on my questions, and my ability to answer them myself, I usually seek the guidance of one of the many incredible mentors I have in my life. I am extremely fortunate to have many of them and they help me tremendously. The greatest thing my mentors do for me is they listen. They apply the “two ears, one mouth” rule, listening twice as much as they talk. That is the greatest gift I get from them, one I get by simply asking for it.
My experiences over the past two-plus years have sparked many questions regarding my life and life in general. My series has provided me with great opportunity to examine my life, and fortunately I have been prepared for those opportunities. So I have examined my life.
“The longest journey, is the one inside.”
I don’t really believe the journey inside will ever end for me, nor do I want it to. See if I can explain this effectively… I think of the journey inside, to find the answers to the questions I talked about, I think of that journey as just that, a journey down a road. This road is just one road of many, they go in all different directions and lead to many different places. Those roads are created by our experiences. I feel that each experience we have creates another road within us. More experiences, more roads. I haven’t thought about the influence of our experiences on the creation of roads, but I may very well get into that at a later time. It’s not my reason for writing which I’m getting to, please stay with me. That journey inside can be long, and is very difficult at times, tougher for some than others. In my experience it is worth the effort.
Understanding that I feel our experiences make these great roadways within us, and that I am committed to a journey along some combination of those roads I am lead to think about the actual experiences that are creating these roads.
“Are you in this life, or are you living this life?” (This thought was presented to me just a while ago.)
I think this thought relates to the original one I presented by Plato, and to me it is asking are you living unconsciously or consciously? Is life happening to you, or are you making life happen? It is my goal to live and love this life, to live consciously, and to make life happen. And a big part of that is continuing my inward journey. No matter how many roadblocks I hit, I continue the journey, and as with many journeys, the more you get in the car and drive the more natural it becomes.
Hope you have followed my train of thought, as it really did have a purpose, and that purpose was to explain my train of thought that I will share with you over the next three months as I countdown the months, weeks, and days to Victory Party. I will share with you some of the many lessons I have learned by examining my life, asking questions, and going inside myself for the answers. It has been an incredible journey, which I have shared with you all, and now I am going to share some more of it.
Have a great week, and you’ll hear from me again soon.
Always…
Live Life. Love Life.
Geoff
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