Many people drift through life without a clear sense of their life purposes. Without that clarity about what they want to achieve or what they want contribute to life, they may feel that their lives are empty. This loss of meaning seriously undermines the quality of their lives and their creativity. When we become clear about our purposes and take a definite path, we create what we were born to do. Having a clearer focus, we live with the intention to make our lives count.
An aimless life without clear life purposes can lead to excesses of all kinds, as we see in Federico Fellini's La Dolce Vita (1960), where the meaningless lives of upper class people are revealed in all their hedonistic excesses. Drinking and sex become ways they try to reduce the pain they feel from having no meaningful commitments in their lives. More recently, in About a Boy (2002), aimlessness appears as hours in front of the television by the lead character played by Hugh Grant. When people ask him what he does, he responds honestly by saying that he "doesn't do anything." The tragedy of this is that he knows his life is empty and, for a long time, does nothing about it. How he eventually generates a meaningful direction is part of the fascination we feel for the character. If you are drifting through life without a clear sense of meaning, "Empty," as a movie of the mind, is an opportunity to change.Your movie
In a moment, you will use your imagination to get a clearer picture of your inner movie about having no deep meaning in your life. The point of understanding this pattern of thoughts, feelings, and effects is to deepen your awareness of its dynamics and impact, so you can make conscious choices and create a new movie to live within.
Recall a time when you felt an absence of meaning. Close your eyes and replay the experience in your imagination. Then, write a brief description of that drama below, carefully including the thoughts that supported it, the feelings that arose from those thoughts, and how those feelings affected what you said and did. (Enter your response in the following box or in your word processor window.)
What effects did this drama have on you and others?
Consequences
Briefly describe what you get from having no clear life purposes. What are the payoffs?
Briefly describe the price you pay for it. What parts of yourself and your life do you sacrifice because you are not clear enough about the meaning of your life?
Is what you are getting in payoffs worth the sacrifices are you making? Explain.
New choices
Having become more aware of this movie, including what you get from it and what you sacrifice, what new choices in thinking and being are revealed to you? Note them.
Create a new movie
Relying on those choices and your creativity, sketch out ideas for a different movie which incorporates new ways of thinking and being. As you create your new movie, be aware that you are of two minds because you have a dual nature. Your duality gives you the capacity to shift from one thought to its opposite in a search for balance. For example, there is a side of you that can develop clear life purposes so your life has more meaning. How will cultivating that capacity alter how you live?
As you look back on your work, identify the first step you will take to make the changes you designed.
With your eyes closed, imagine living in the new movie you created.
There are people who live in the part of their minds that can see no clear purpose to their lives, so their lives become empty and without direction. They may drift for years, until they realize that they have to create their own life purposes, then there is a chance for them to make a shift within themselves. We are of two minds about this issue. When we feel our lives have no clear purpose, we can shift to the side of us that is able to create a new purpose. Once a meaningful purpose is established, our lives develop a direction and a unique character because we are consciously declaring why we born.