The purpose of life is to be a nobody

The purpose of life is to be a nobodyThe purpose of life is to be a nobodyWe all experience the world like we are at thecenterof reality.We think and we feel in relation to how our senses absorb information and how thisinformationmingleswith our personal memories.The subjective perception created by theseinteractions providestheillusion of importance.We forget thatthisperceptiononly exists in our mindsand thateveryone near us is walking around underexactly the saatkorn psychologicalmindset.Follow Ladders on FlipboardFollow Ladders magazines on Flipboard covering Happiness, Productivity, Job Satisfaction, Neuroscience, and moraIn truth,were just one of the billions, andover the course of history,everything about us is insignificant.Even people like Newton and Einstein, who we reverefor their contributions to humanity, are only slightly lessinsignificant.Our universe containsoneseptillionstars(a one followed by 24 zeroes)and a lot of these stars contain many, many more motes ofdustthat we call planets.If any of usceasedto exist tomorrow,littlewould change beyond the subjective emotional states of the people in our immediate circles.Earth would continue its orbit, and the laws of physics would remain intact.Were elendhing more thana fraction of aripplein aninfinitesea ofentropy.Many of us dont like hearing this.Itconflictswith the story our mind tells.Werebrought upto think thatwere special, and we like believing it.But I dont say any of this as acynicor to depress you.In fact, quite the opposite.I say itbecausedistinguishing between our subjectiveperceptionand the objective reality is the key to living a meaningful and important life.Acknowledging unimportance liberates us from thegripsof the self-centered voice in our head thats chieflyresponsiblefor many of lifes difficulties.Its the voice that compares us to people that dont matter,its the same voice that convinces us that wereentitledto a comfortable and easy life,and its indeed this voice that has us chasing arbitrarymeasures of success.And the result?We spend our timeacquiringthings we dont want or need, wefalterat the first sign ofhardshipand inconvenience,and one day, wewake up to a ticking clock realizing that,all this time,weve lived somebody elses life.Thesurest way to be unfilled is towalkaround like you hold some sort of a privileged position in the universe.Its not only a completely false and harmfulillusion, but it alsooverlooksthe fringe benefits of being anobody.Id like to walk youthroughthem.1.Being a nobody allows us to truly experience and appreciate theprofoundnessof thesublimeIn 1757,Edmund Burkepublished one of the most influentialworksinaesthetics.Its a branch of philosophy that deals with the nature of beauty.In it, he separated sensory experiences intoThe BeautifulandTheSublime.Were all familiar withThe Beautiful. It can be summarized by the standard definition.We see it every day in the things we findstunningand pleasant.The Sublime, however, is different.Its more than just visuallyenticing. Itsoverwhelming.It makes us feel small, and it has the power toengulfus.Its found when we are inaweat the might of nature, itsexperienced in the emotion of love, and its discovered when we are compelled by a great work of art.Itsaheightened sense of existencebeyond comfort andnormalcy.To fullyindulgeinTheSublime, we have to give up a part of ourselves.We are forced to accept a degree ofinferiorityfor a connection to something greater.The risk ofvulnerabilityisbalancedby the reward ofecstasy.No one is immune fromexperiencingthis wonder,but ego and a deep sense of personal importance get in the way.They seek ecstasy without accepting vulnerability, and they then find themselves cornered with fear.There is nothing desirable about it. It leads to a kind ofparalysisthat steals the befhigung of experiencing some of the great joys in life.Itmay be masked with humor orrationality, but in truth, its nothing more than insecurity.Being a nobody, you donthavethis pro blem.You accept that youre already naked,so you may as well put it on display to try and gain something.More often than not, you do.2.Being a nobody frees us from theirrationalpressures and expectations of an uncertain worldWe live our lives guided by labels andhierarchies.Its how we make sense of a complex reality.That said, these labels and hierarchies arent absolute.A tree isnt a tree because a law of nature has defined it as a tree.Its a tree because ourcognitivebrains have learned to understand it as such.Its our way of translating sensory noise into a mode of organization thats useful.This is a crucial distinction.Our observation of reality is an approximation confined by the boundaries of language.Its uncertain and in large part unpredictable.As the lateNobel LaureateAlbert Camus noted,welive to reason with an unreasonable world and it often leads to a conflicted life.When you bind these labels and hierarchies too closely to your identity, youanchor your expectations to thing s that are fundamentally fragile.If you gain your worth from being a CEO and the fact that you wield a degree of power in the context of a business, rather than, say, fromintrinsic values, then you will eventually find yourself in a position of conflict.Life isnt concerned with your artificial sense of importance.At some point, there will be adivergencebetween the story you tell yourself and the cold, hard reality.Your net worth wont matter, and thefall will be muchsteeper.When you are a nobody, however,you dont pretend that a label - whether good or bad - is anything more thana figment of our collective imagination.You liberate yourself from many of thepettysocietal pressures of existence.You may mucksmuschenstill assume a certain role with pride, but knowing that it doesnt make you any more or less importantgroundsyou on a firmer foundation.Its a small mental shift that makes a big difference.3.Being a nobody gives us the humility to realize thatits our struggles that define us, not ourdesiresWhen we convince ourselves that were more special than what the universedictates,we tend to develop a sense ofentitlementabout what life owes us.We choose to believe the surface-level stories about what happiness and success look like, and we are quick to think that they dont cost a thing.Theharshtruth is that the universe doesnt owe anyone anything.Its utterly indifferent to what you or I want.It exists as it does based on the forcesthat act on it, andto shapeanoutcome in our favor,its on us to pick our battles.Its fine and well to want an amazing career, butwalking around withthe assumption that you deserve one wont get you there.Its the price that you are willing to pay that will.Its that initial unrewarded work and those long, long hours of blood and sweat and tears with no end in sight that will.To accept such struggles,it takes humility.It requires you toacknowledge that youre just like everybody elsethat wants a great job, a wonderful relationship, and consiste nt happiness.Your desires arent unique.It means thatyou accept thatthe difference isnt in what youwant,but inwhat you are willing to suffer for.Its about the trade-offs youre willing to endure, the beatings youre willing to take, and its about knowing that in spite of all of that,the fruits of your labor may still not amount to anything.Its aboutboldlystaring life in the face and having the courage to sayI might not be much, and I know I wont always get what I want, but it sure ashelldoesnt mean that I wonttry.Andthat, ultimately, is thepurpose of life.To try and see reality in its true form and then to do what you can to shape it into what you wish itwere.Youre already a nobody, andas am I.Were not owed anything.The sooner we realize that, the sooner we can focus on the things we can change.And theres a lot we can change.Its not easy, but thats precisely why its valuable.Were each a negligible part of a vast cosmic entity, andthere really is something beautiful about that if you ch oose to see it for what it is.This article first appeared on konzeption Luck.