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Ever since I first wrote about a life’s purpose, it seems that I can’t quite get the idea out of my head and the more I think about it the more I’m convinced that life has no overt, tangible purpose. But if that is true, what is the nature of our decision making process? We say that we make our decisions based on the experiences we wish to have, but that wouldn’t be entirely accurate. Sure, maybe that’s how we should be making our decisions but when it really comes down to it, we make decisions based on many other factors. We like to weight our decisions against what purpose they may serve to our life in general or the universe at large. We brush off actions in which we can’t find a noble, or at least moderately useful purpose. But if life had no concrete purpose, that must mean our actions weren’t working toward anything. Given this, I started wondering, If our actions are not working toward our life’s purpose, why are we performing these actions? The more I pondered this, the more I realized in this one question I had found the true nature of decision making. I had found a way to free myself from the need to make “the best” decision and in doing so had found a way to make “better” decisions.

The Two Key Questions

How many times in your life have you made a decision only to have people around you ask, “Why would you choose that? What purpose does that serve?” Perhaps you’ve bought some fabulously expensive piece of jewelry that you’ve always wanted. Sure, you can afford it and sure, you want it, but what purpose could it possibly serve? This is the nature of our decision making problems, we have to “justify” our decisions, even if it is only to ourselves.

We ask ourselves the magic question:

For What Purpose?

When we should really be asking:

To What End?

Now on the surface these two questions may seem exactly alike, but I’ll give you an example of what I mean. When you ask, for what purpose? You’re asking what grand design your decision is serving and the answer very often seems to be none. Take the jewelry example again; when we ask what grand purpose does jewelry serve, the answer is to enhance our physical beauty, which certainly doesn’t seem a grand enough answer for us to accept. When we ask to what end am I purchasing this jewelry? We get a much different response: to fulfill my desire for jewelry. This answer is more acceptable to us because we are not seeking something that we would label as “grand,” now we are seeking a means to an end. We’ve simplified the decision because we aren’t looking to satisfy some mysterious plan, we’re only trying to assuage a desire, which not the least bit mysterious at all.

The Star Wars Illustration

I think this idea first came to me late one weekend evening when I was very mindlessly surfing the internet. I came across a forum in which a man had posted some sixty pictures of his Star Wars action figure collection. Even if you aren’t a geek like myself or that gentleman, you really did have to step back and marvel at the size and scope of this man’s collection. I can’t begin to estimate how many action figures stood, arranged quite prettily, on this man’s many shelves, but the number had to be in the high hundreds. And, being the nerd that I am, I had to take a moment to admire such an awesome site and yet I was troubled by the above questions.

“I admit that there is certainly a purpose to this collection,” I thought. “The purpose of a collection is to be collected, which I can accept. I understand ‘for what purpose,’ what I don’t understand is ‘to what end?’” I couldn’t for the life of me come up with what, to my mind, was a suitable explanation for such a collection. Sure, something of a purpose was served, but to what end would one create such a massive display? Then I realized; this collection was chosen, over of many other options, by a man who found a need to have such a collection. This desire isn’t world-altering or at all what we might consider grand, but it was a simple decision to fulfill a simple purpose. That is all the reason it needed to exist.

The Secret of the End

The reason that we must begin to evaluate our decisions based on the end, instead of the purpose is for the sake of our desires. When we ask ourselves, “what is the purpose of this action?” what we’re saying is, “how does this decision fit into the grand plan of my life?” If we ask this question we are destined to come up with an unsatisfactory answer because we are trying to understand the metaphysical realm, trying to pretend that we play some vitally important role, when the truth is that our vitally important role will play out through us regardless of the decisions we make. Instead of trying in vain to understand the nature of the Universe, or the Source, or the Unified Field, or God, or whatever you want to label it, we can choose instead to simply ask ourselves “to what end?” Asking to what end leaves us searching only for the physical outcome of our desires, which is as far as they can ever go anyway.

If you believe that we are spiritual beings having a physical experience, then you accept that one day you will return to a spiritual state, that this physical isn’t all there is to life. If the physical realm is transitory why would you ever need to search for a purpose that is grander than your present, physical experience? Once you shuffle off this mortal coil, is that car you bought or those shoes you wore going to affect the outcome of all spiritual existence as we know it? Probably not. When we search only for the physical outcome of our decisions we find that we can make them much easier than ever before because the fate of the universe isn’t resting on our shoulders. When we fully understand the transitory nature of the physical realm, we will ask for nothing more from this present moment than it is already giving. We will not need to look for a deeper meaning behind it all because we know that having and enjoying the physical experience is the deeper meaning, that experiencing this world fully is why we are here.

All of these things you choose to have and experience are just the toys of the physical realm. Their grander meaning is irrelevant because eventually you’ll out grow them. Enjoy them while you enjoy them and ask nothing more from them than what they can give you in this moment.

Screwing Up the Physical

All right, you say. I can go along with the Universal argument, but what about making a decision that could ruin my life or my career?

The best answer I can give to this question is that the whole question is a moot point either way since most us don’t have the guts to truly make that kind of a decision. Think about it. If you were ever presented with the opportunity to go double or nothing on your entire life—win double what you have, or loose everything–would you really take that bet? Most of us wouldn’t. Not to mention that those sorts of decisions don’t exist in the real world. Most of the decisions we are faced with seem looming at the moment, but are miniature in hindsight. Let’s be honest, when deciding whether or not to take type of job or that type of job, will it really matter even five years down the road? No, probably not.

Hardly ever in our lives are we going to be faced with decisions that are ever going to be permanent. If you decide to get a new job and it turns out to be a bad decision, there’s no cosmic rule that says you’re stuck their. Don’t like the decision you made? Make a different decision. So often we’re worried about screwing up our lives and leaving a terrible legacy, but unless you’re a world leader, I wouldn’t worry about it and even then your legacy won’t be remembered all that long. Warren G. Harding is widely considered to be the worst President in United States History, but how many people in the world do you think ever really think about, or even know that fact? How many people in the world do you think actually know who Warren G. Harding was? Sure, he’s got a bad legacy, but in the overall scheme of Harding’s life, it wasn’t much of an issue. Why? Because it takes a great deal of hindsight to truly see the effect one has on one’s life and the world at large.

You and I do not possess this hindsight and therefore have no way of knowing what our decisions today may result in tomorrow. Why worry about it? Life is short, live large.

The End

To ask what purpose our decision may serve is like asking the difference between the drop of water that drowns you and the drop of water that quenches you. The truth is that it doesn’t matter either way. So go ahead and buy that Coach purse, buy that shiny new car if you want it. Their role in the grand scheme of your life are that of toys to be played with so long as you are interested in playing with them. Enjoy them while you have them because in ten years it won’t matter what purse you bought or what car you had. What matters now is what physical experience you choose to have. Don’t worry, you’ll return to the spiritual soon enough. For now be content with choosing the outcome of your physicality and avoid the contemplation of what purpose it may serve, you will serve your purpose just by living a life that pleases you.

If there is one key to fitness, one thing that can take you from “so-so shape” to “rock-hard and lean” it has to be, hands down, your mind-set. Now if you’re a regular reader of my site, this should come as no surprise to you. When you think about it, there exists nothing n the world that didn’t begin it’s existence in the form of a thought. Your body and the way it looks and feels right now are all a product of how you have viewed it in the past and how you are viewing it right now. Now let’s take a step back from that statement and qualify some things. Let’s move beyond the notion of any sort of law of attraction. Even a skeptic of attraction and intention manifestation can’t deny that the brain controls the body. Given that perspective, is it so hard to believe that your brain alone could make you thin, or build muscle? In her book The Intention Experiment, Lynne McTaggart has detailed how this “mental fitness” really is the case.

“Where I am, is where my mind put me. Where I will be is where my mind will put me.”

–Billy Blanks, Tae-Bo Creator

In her book, McTaggart details an experiment that was done using participants between the ages of 20 and 35 years old. The participants were instructed to imagine flexing their bicep muscles as hard as they could – not to actually flex the muscle, just to imagine that they were doing so. This was done daily, five days a week for a few weeks. At the end of the experiment the participants were measured and found to have increased the size and strength of their biceps by 13.5% without having done any exercise whatsoever! Even more impressive is that this increase in size and strength lasted for three months after the experiment was completed. If this isn’t convincing enough, go to your local gym and look around for a little while. You’ll find two groups of people: Those who have gotten fantastic results and workout with a concentration only seen in Zen monks, and those who lift weights like their in a race to see who can finish and get back to the office first. Needlesstosay, the guys trying to get back to the office, still manage to look deflated and flabby, despite doing the same amount of work as the first group. Why, because the more you concentrate on the work being done by your muscles, the more energy and focus you are putting into training them and the more energy and focus you are putting into increasing their size and strength.

Anorexia and the Mirror Effect

Anorexia, an eating disorder categorized by it’s victim’s need to starve themselves thin, is proof positive of what can happen when the mind sends the body terribly wrong signals. You see, this disorder isn’t just suffered by teenage girls with fashion model envy, it can strike everyone. Commonly called “manorexia” (I don’t know why anyone felt the need to give it another name) many male celebrities, such as Dennis Quaid, have come forward to admit that they too have struggled with this disorder. But what causes it? It isn’t just a strong desire to be thin. Anorexia is a mental disorder, but nowhere near as irrational as you may think.

It’s almost gut wrenching to see someone who suffers from anorexia, weighing less that one hundred pounds staring into a mirror and telling themselves that they look fat. We can’t understand why they would think that, but they aren’t crazy, there is a definite logic that lies behind this unhealthy belief. You see, as I detailed in an earlier series of articles on the inner workings of the metabolism, when you starve yourself, you are actually lowering your metabolism and when you lower your metabolism, your body doesn’t burn fat, it burns muscle. Since your body fat percentage is based on a ratio of muscle to fat, we begin to see the problem. The more you starve yourself, the less muscle you have and the more fat you store. Sure an anorexic may weigh only one hundred pounds, but they have a body fat percentage of over 35% or more! Anorexics seeing themselves as fat isn’t just some obsessive need, it’s biologically accurate.

All Solutions Begin in the Mind

Whether you are an anorexic or decidedly overweight, the cause is, surprisingly, the same: Lack of nutritional knowledge and good self-image. Neither of these groups truly understand the way in which our bodies truly utilize food and neither of these groups thinks well of themselves. This type of negative, self-hating thought process is like a broken record of undesirable effects. Every time you look in a mirror and tell yourself, “Look how fat you are!” you’re sending the signal to your brain that you are, and therefore must remain, fat.

I know you may find it hard to believe that the way you talk to yourself could really change your physical appearance, but I assure you that it can. It has been proven in numerous studies that your brain can adapt itself to what it is told to be true. If you consistently tell yourself that you are bad at math, your brain begins to physically adapt in such a way as to make you bad at math. Your brain believes what it is told to believe because it cannot distinguish between what is true and what it thinks is true. Because of this simple fact, the your body will fire the same neurons whether you look fat, feel fat, or think fat. It can’t tell the difference.

Bad Affirmations! Bad!

So often when we are trying to loose weight, trying to tone up our bodies, we pass by mirrors and get disgusted. “EGH!” we silently scream. “You look awful! How did you let yourself get like this?” Now, when used correctly, this disgust can be a powerful weapon. I written before about how this disgust with your current form can give you the motivation needed to make a permanent change. But there is most definitely a right way and a wrong to go about it.

When you tell yourself things like:

• “I look so fat!”
• “I don’t see any results!”
• “I look disgusting!”
• “I’m such a pig!”

These are bad affirmations. Why, because they are only reaffirming what you don’t like. Look at your affirmations this way: Your brain can only say “Yes!”

When you say, “You look so fat!” Your brain responds, “Yes, you do!”

When you say, “I don’t see results!” Your brain responds, “You sure don’t!”

When you say, “I look disgusting!” Your brain responds, “Okay, you do!”

When you say, “I’m such a pig!” Your brain responds, “You got it!”

No matter what you say, your brain deems it to be true. It’s the ultimate “Yes Man.” No matter what you tell it, it will agree and send the signal to the rest of the body that what it has been told is true. Given that, take a look at your self-talk, is it where it needs to be? If not, let’s look at how you can create some healthier options.

How to Create Good Affirmations!

When trying to create healthier affirmations, do your best not to out-right lie to yourself because that will never work. Telling yourself, “I am thin!”when you’re 200 pounds overweight, isn’t going to help anything because you’re not going to believe that affirmation for one red hot second. You have to believe what you’re saying, other wise your next thought will only contradict the healthy affirmation you’ve given yourself. So how can you create healthy affirmations that will move both your mind and body into a thinner and leaner you? By using what I like to call, Transition Affirmations or Process Affirmations. These are affirming, not a static position, but a state of flux. In other words “I am thin” becomes “I am becoming thinner everyday.” This type of affirmation doesn’t say “I am this state,” it says “I am on my way to becoming this state,” which is infinitely more helpful to you.

Make sure that when you create your affirmations you are creating them with a sense of forward momentum. Always be sure to use the present tense and not the future tense. Saying “I am” is much more powerful than saying “I will.”

Now when I started my fitness journey, I did so because I became too disgusted to remain in the condition I was in for one more day and, like I said, that can be a healthy state of mind, so long as it’s followed by a Transition Affirmation. Take a look at these examples of affirmations I use:

• “I look terrible, but I’m getting better.”
• “I’m not seeing results, but I know I’m moving forward a little every day.”
• “I’m fat now, but I’m getting thinner with every work out.”
• “I’m feel so out of shape, but I’m that won’t last long.”

You see the difference? Being disgusted with yourself only results in having more to be disgusted with. Turning your disgust into a motivational thought will not only get your brain working toward the proper intentions, but also get you pumped up to keep moving forward with you work outs because something good is coming.

It Begins and Ends in the Mind

Changing the way your think about yourself can change the way you present yourself in real life and that’s not an exaggeration. I’m not saying you will feel thinner, I’m saying you will be thinner. When you look in the mirror and tell yourself that right now you may not be up to par, but you are well on your way to changing, you have put yourself in a powerful position to make the best of the power that lies in your own mind. Please, however, do not rely only on improved self-talk if you suffer from any type of eating disorder. If you suffer from anorexia, bulimia, or compulsive eating, see a professional who can help you learn the skills you need to recover properly, such as proper nutrition and exercise.

For those of you who have started your own workout programs and need the motivation it takes to make it all the way through and create serious, lasting changes in you fitness level, start using affirmations like these. Affirmations that will move you forward instead of keeping you stuck in the usual self destructive loop. Remember that before you do anything, you must get your mind right because everything begins and ends in your mind.