Doug Cartwright

First off, thank you so much for your love and engagement on this podcast! The response so far has been amazing and I appreciate your messages and DM’s.

Let’s tackle a big question today: What is the purpose of life?

I have spent so much time in my life trying to “figure it all out” and solve all the problems in my life. But is that really our purpose?

Elon Musk did a Clubhouse last night and he said something really cool:

“Life cannot just be about solving one miserable problem after another. That can't be the only thing. There needs to be things that inspire you that make you glad to wake up in the morning and be a part of humanity.”

Even the most “successful” people I have met feel like there is always a thing — there’s always something to solve, some problem that needs fixing…

What if there is no finish line?

What if the purpose of life ISN’T to figure it all out?

For a long time in my life, I didn’t have this perspective. I needed to figure it out, get the success, and receive the recognition. I had this burning desire to achieve more and more and more.

Where did this land me?

I call it the “Success Void.” I was chasing solutions, chasing success, and chasing happiness and it just felt like I would never find it.

This all changed for me one night during an ayahuasca ceremony. I remember writing this note in my journal:

“I'm always trying to solve the problem from dating to finances and everything in between. I'm always looking for the solution, in reality, there is no solution and there is so much beauty in the present moment. The present moment is where we learn the most. This has given me an entirely new outlook on life. I see the world completely different. Now I can notice the small details and a sense of awe and everything. It's like, I have a new set of eyes. There is so much freedom and actually letting go and realizing there is no formula or no solution to life. This is so liberating and free. It's the equivalent of discovering an entirely new world. Just let it happen. The universe is in charge.”

The purpose of life is to better ourselves and experience what it feels like to be human.

I think we don’t live like this because we are trained to live in a problem/solution mindset and we think, “I’ll be happy when _____.” The problem is that feeling never comes.

What’s the solution? Surrender to the flow of life!

This doesn’t mean we give up. This means that we let go of our desires and preferences.

When we get SO riled up about what we want — which team we want to win, how we want the meeting to go, what we expect out of circumstances… we end up with an expectation for our life that we are always comparing the ACTUAL events against.

And if anything is different, we are unhappy!

The reason you suffer is because there is something you want and you're afraid it's not going to happen. Or there's something you don't want and you’re afraid it's going to happen. That's it. That's why we suffer.

Just remember this: You have no control over the price of gas. You have no control over how fast the person in front of you drives. You have no control over the weather.

If we can just accept these things for what they are, we won’t feel so much emotion and anger inside.

The purpose of life is life.
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Questions, Comments?

Email me at doug@thedailyshifts.com or hit me up in my DM’s on Instagram @doug_cartwright.