One of those pondering moments open for discussion. Yes this will take a few moments, so if you are in a rush, you might be better to scroll past. But if you are interested, I’d love your opinion…
Those who know me well, know that I’m constantly reading books (average about 1 a week). All non fiction, all business or self improvement related, and many are biographies. My current book is “Principles” by Ray Dalio. You may or may not know who Ray Dalio is, but if for one moment you will accept my endorsement of his intellect and business success, we can move on to this section in his book. I just read the following excerpt and lets for a moment give him the validity of information he presents. If all is true, then how exactly do you feel about it and what makes YOU tick…
“However, when we look down
on ourselves through the eyes of nature we are of absolutely no significance.
It is a reality that each one of us is only one of about seven billion of our
species alive today and that our species is only one of about ten million
species on our planet. Earth is just one of about 100 billion planets in our
galaxy, which is just one of about two trillion galaxies in the universe. And
our lifetimes are only about 1/3,000 of humanity’s existence, which itself is
only 1/20,000 of the Earth’s existence. In other words, we are unbelievably
tiny and short-lived and no matter what we accomplish, our impact will be
insignificant. At the same time, we instinctually want to matter and to evolve,
and we CAN matter a tiny bit — and it’s all those tiny bits that add up to
drive the evolution of the universe.
The question is HOW we matter and evolve. Do we matter to others (who also
don’t matter in the grand scope of things) or in some greater sense that we
will never actually achieve. Or does it not matter if we matter so we should forget
about the question and just enjoy our lives while they last?”
That’s it, this got me really thinking. EVERYTHING in our lives seems so important but really why? How do you feel about our insignificance and what makes you move forward.