In the spirit of full disclosure I’ve got to warn you - you probably shouldn’t read this post.
It's safer that way.
Because if you actually think about what I’m about to say, you might have to, you know… change something. And that’s messy.
No, seriously - many people are perfectly comfortable cruising along in their life and prefer not to think too deeply about the direction they’re headed.
I don’t blame them - it’s risky to think.
Because let’s face it, if we actually take an honest look at where we’re headed, we might realize we need to hit ‘recalculate.’
And changing course? That’s hard work.
Still here? Fine. Just don’t say I didn’t warn you.
Here’s the all important question no one likes asking: Why are we here?
There are various answers given but they generally fall into two categories: For ourselves (enjoy life, achieve something) or to serve a higher purpose (society, G-d).
But the truth is that neither answer alone is entirely correct, both are true to a degree.
This is where it gets difficult, because these two values seemingly contradict each other. Nonetheless we need to live our life with a balance that reflects this dichotomous reality.
Think about it this way - if you are a healthy individual, most likely you take care of yourself; you eat and sleep and generally take care of your physical self.
You probably take care of yourself in more refined ways too; developing your character, advancing your career, learning new things.
But all the accomplishment of self development is within a limited self-centered existence.
And no matter how successful you are in that realm, you’re starving yourself of the deeper, more profound - and in many ways, more important for survival - purpose-centered part of existence.
Our role as human beings - and especially as Jews - is to do more than take care of ourselves.
We need to think about the greater reason that we’re here, to serve a higher purpose: To make this world into a G-dly place.
Every altruistic mitzvah that we do, every time we put on tefillin or light Shabbat candles, help another person or study Torah, we take another step toward achieving this goal.
There’s a counterintuitive dimension to all this; the more we invest on the purpose centric side of our life, the more complete we become in the self-centered element as well.
So if you feel your life has become a dreary jumble of divergent responsibilities, take some time to invest in your purpose.
Infuse your life with more value and significance and see the positive effects in every part of your life.