Avoid the pain and gain pleasure; is that all that is?
May 25th, 2009 by Ana Scherer
It has been said that our ultimate concern in life is to avoid pain and to gain pleasure. I respectfully disagree with this affirmation. My opinion is that our main concern is neither to gain pleasure nor to avoid pain but rather to discover a meaning to our lives. How do we find meaning to our lives? Great question…
First of all, our lives are so individualized that their meanings are also unique to each one of us. Second of all, the situations in our lives are constantly changing. What I mean by these two statements is that, to find the meaning of our lives, we need to first look inside ourselves and ask questions that are pertinent to our lives and not to that of others. The answers only fit us, our passions and our mission. The second statement has to do with finding a meaning to our lives by finding a meaning to the present moment we are living. It’s about asking questions then and there, finding out the why – an aim – for our lives. The meaning of life differs from person to person and from moment to moment.
Ultimately, it’s all about understanding the present moment as being your life’s meaning. Taking ownership of every second of our lives, constantly seeking to live a life that is aligned with our passions and with our desire to contribute, simply overflows our lives with meaning. Learning that even our suffering has a meaning, allows us to see that when we accept a challenge, we are presented with an opportunity to go deeper and perhaps discover the true meaning of our lives. A challenge forces us to live in the present, to worry about it, and to even forget about the future or the past in order to focus on its solution.
Explore, ask and look for your own answers! No one else can find them but you.
With energy,
Ana
“He who has a why to live for can bear almost any how” Nietzsche.
June 1st, 2009 at 6:38 pm
Hi Ana…
We don’t know each other but I tried connecting with you several months ago after reading a great article and I just came across your “avoid pain/gain pleasure” article, which I really enjoyed. I also reviewed your website and I sense that we have similar values and goals. I’m writing not as a prospective client but to see if you’re open-minded to discussing possible collaboration.
I represent Frame of Mind Coaching, a coaching company that focuses strictly on mindset. We teach our clients foremost how to develop a very high level of mental and emotional resilience, a process resulting from the study of literally thousands of elite performers during a 10 year time period.
In addition to being a coaching company, we also run a technology division and have built proprietary coaching software that offers a unique journaling experience that we use with all of our clients. The software is also a social network, allowing clients to collaborate if they choose, thus creating a powerful captive audience. We customize and license this software to other coaches, trainers, mental health professionals and corporations for their own use with their clients or internal team members.
The software has been instrumental in expediting coach-client intimacy as well as helping clients achieve goals quickly. The journaling process has proven to be an extraordinary coaching tool, by enhancing the client experience and in helping to build our business.
I’d love to learn more about your approach to coaching and share our journaling software with you, and see if you feel there could be an opportunity to pilot a collaborative effort using our unique software, or in any other capacity, cross promoting to our respective databases. We look for people of like mind and like values to collaborate with as opposed to seeing competition.
Please advise if you’re open to a brief chat. Thanks, and I look forward to connecting with you!
Best regards,