As a joke, I asked Alexa to give me the Meaning of Life. To my surprise, she had an answer!
Here are the quotes to which I refer in my podcast:
This is the full quote from Eleanor Roosevelt: Roosevelt, Eleanor. You Learn By Living: Eleven Keys for a More Fulfilling Life. Harper & Brothers, 1960.
“The purpose of life is to live it, to taste experience to the utmost, to reach out eagerly and without fear for newer and richer experience.
Life is what you make it. Always has been, always will be. Your life is your own. You mold it. You make it. All anyone can do is to point out ways and means which have been helpful to others. Perhaps they will serve as suggestions to stimulate your own thinking until you know what it is that will fulfill you, will help you to find out what you want to do with your life. Life was meant to be lived, and curiosity must be kept alive. One must never, for whatever reason, turn his back on life. All of life is a constant education. [And] the giving of love is an education in itself.
It’s your life—but only if you make it so. The standards by which you live must be your own standards, your own values, your own convictions in regard to what is right and wrong, what is true and false, what is important and what is trivial. When you adopt the standards and the values of someone else or a community or a pressure group, you surrender your own integrity. You become, to the extent of your surrender, less of a human being.
You gain strength, courage and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You are able to say to yourself, “I have lived through this horror. I can take the next thing that comes along.” You must do the thing you think you cannot do. To be mature you have to realize what you value most. Not to arrive at a clear understanding of one’s own values is a tragic waste. You have missed the whole point of what life is for.
Do not stop thinking of life as an adventure. You have no security unless you can live bravely, excitingly, imaginatively; unless you can choose a challenge instead of competence. People grow through experience if they meet life honestly and courageously. This is how character is built. Character building begins in our infancy and continues until death.
If you can develop this ability to see what you look at, to understand its meaning, to readjust your knowledge to this new information, you can continue to learn and to grow as long as you live and you’ll have a wonderful time doing it.
In the long run, we shape our lives, and we shape ourselves. The process never ends until we die. And the choices we make are ultimately our own responsibility.”
Quotes from Napoleon Hill, Hill, Napoleon. Think and Grow Rich. The Ralston Society, 1937:
“Whatever the mind can conceive and believe, it can achieve.”
“Truly, Thoughts are things, and their scope of operation is the world, itself!”
“You are the master of your destiny. You can influence, direct and control your own environment. You can make your life what you want it to be.”
The Bible NKJV:
Ecclesiastes 1:2
Meaningless! Meaningless!”
says the Teacher.
“Utterly meaningless!
Everything is meaningless.”
The real meaning of life, both now and in eternity, is found in the restoration of our relationship with God. This restoration is only possible through God’s Son, Jesus Christ, who reconciles us to God (Romans 5:10; Acts 4:12; John 1:12; 14:6). Salvation and eternal life are the gift of God when we trust in Jesus Christ as Savior. Once salvation is received by grace through faith, Christ makes us new creations, and we begin the journey of growing closer to Him and learning to rely on Him.
(from https://www.gotquestions.org/meaning-of-life.html)
And, finally, this is the Mike Dooley book: Dooley, Mike. Infinite Possibilities: The Art of Living Your Dreams. Atria Books, 2009
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My podcasts are targeted towards left-brained types like me, whose rigid view of life restricted us from considering things outside of the tightly-organized spiritual paradigm we either grew up with or built for ourselves.
Follow my podcasts for discussions about some serious topics like grief, human suffering, prayer, religion, and spiritual practices. I also cover things that I used to consider craziness or “woo-woo” such as: meditation, manifestation, spiritualism, spiritual awakening, reincarnation, past-life regression, the channeling of spirits and aliens (seriously…), soul groups, astrology, and even Chinese fortune cookies!
Mike
https://mikenicholas.com
mike@mikenicholas.com
YouTube Channel: @mikenicholas-unleashed
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