Finding Purpose For My Life

Just having the belief that your life has purpose is such a powerful thing.  It builds an inner fighting spirit that can defeat anything.  This I believe is the true meaning behind the Nietzsche quote, "He who has a why to live can bear almost any how.”


Over the past week I have been working through many of the lessons and subsequent techniques that I employed to get through the initial stages of diagnosis, the difficult transition to living the life of a patient, and my subsequent personal growth.  The greatest lesson I learnt that stuck with me and got me through many of the most difficult times was finding purpose.  Now this is a super broad topic as it can mean anything and for me as time when by my act of finding purpose shifted.

In the beginning stages while in hospital my finding purpose centered around finding purpose in my own life.  It is a pretty hard thing to do actually and truthfully you can't actually achieve this just through reflection.  I didn't achieve it but through reflection I knew my life had purpose and it just wasn't revealed to me yet.  In addition, I knew that my illness would provide me a purpose once I beat it as I would want to become active someone in the fight against it.  Just having the belief that your life has purpose is such a powerful thing.  It builds an inner fighting spirit that can defeat anything.  This I believe is the true meaning behind the Nietzsche quote, "He who has a why to live can bear almost any how.”  This one quote got me through my most difficult and painful times going through chemo.

I knew I wanted to get involved in the fight against blood cancers and while I was in the hospital I kept getting all these great ideas (remember how I like to attack everything quickly still at this point).  As luck would have it I was fortunate to get to meet and have a chat with a renowned psychologist and cancer researcher in the power of thought and relaxation.  During our conversation I conveyed how I felt this happened to me to give me some purpose to give back and help the fight. He gave me some of the best advice and said I wouldn't be much good to helping if I didn't make it. I had to focus on just getting better first and then when I made it through I could shift to helping in the fight. This led me down the path that my main purpose for the next two years was focusing on myself and defeating this disease.

I still didn't feel this was enough and while in the hospital I had two lightbulbs as I call them on things that could help with the fight but not take away from my focus and 2 year purpose of defeating this disease.  The came when I was receiving some blood products and I was so grateful that someone would take the time to give so that I could live.  It saddened me though because I knew that I would never be able to give back in this regard because of my treatment, and so was born the blood challenge where I called upon all of you to give back on my behalf.

The second way I came up with to give back was this blog.  I came up with the idea that the blog could actually follow my journey (my purpose).  While my purpose was to defeat cancer it would document when I went through and any tips I found along the way that may help some other person going through this terrible disease.  As I moved through the treatments I realized this blog was so much more.  It gives an inside look into what I as a cancer patient am going through to a lot of people who have no direct exposure to cancer.  That is when I realized that my predominant readership base was not cancer patients.  As the year progressed I switched the purpose of the blog as I realized my journey could provide insight and lessons to a lot of people that aren't going through cancer as well.  Why should we have to all go through this terrible disease to reap the rewards right :)  I can do it for all of you and pass along what I learn :D 

And so that is where we stand today.  I will continue to find small things that help with my overall focus of helping combat this disease but I am still in the surviving stage so it will mainly be through this blogging forum.  I am sure as the year goes along I will find other purposes to adjust my focus to but until then I will keep doing what I am doing and continue to enjoy everyday the best I can.

PS I am still waiting to hear some of your hobbies that you will try this year in order to add passion in our lives ;)  Take sometime to reflect on what the purpose of your life.  It doesn't have to huge and change the whole world.  Changing your world or someone's elses is just as huge.  Don't let this cartoon become you :)

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Taking Steps to True Happiness

I wrote last week in, My Leukemia’s Poetic Justice, I had a really difficult time getting used to the slowed down lifestyle when I got out of the hospital.  One of the main reasons for this frustration was my illness had forced me to stop doing most of the things I was accustomed to and loved.  Walking everyday did help with my adjustment to the slower lifestyle but that isn't the whole story.  During this time I took a step back and did a lot of reflection.  From this I realized I needed to find some new passions in the form of hobbies. 

I have always been a big believer in always learning something new and adding new passions to your life.  It is actually scientifically proven that by continually learning new things, your brain actually gets more of a workout and keeps more synapses open.  Our brains are magnificent computers but they are designed to streamline their processes so they can work more efficiently.  As they do this streamlining they close down synapses and reduce the amount of active neurons.   By working our brains out more we keep more of these active neurons open.  Aside from the scientific side, continually trying new things keeps our lives exciting.  I have tried many new things over the years, some I loved and I almost immediately moved on from. 

Once I realized I needed some new passions, I began brainstorming new things to try.  The problem was my illness was very limiting in what I could do, so I had to really be creative.  I always wanted to learn to sail, so I actually tried a sailing course.  Unfortunately after my first lesson I realized my lack of strength due to my treatments made it too dangerous for my health for me to continue.  Thankfully I explained my situation to the sailing school and they gave me a full refund. 

I realized I needed to try something that would use a little less energy.  It was actually out on one of my walks that I thought of the hobby that blossomed into one of my biggest passions.  While walking I realized that everything I had been had changed my perspectives and now I found I looked at things differently than I had before.  So I thought I would try photography to see if perspective of the world would translate into great images.  I ordered a starter camera just to try it out.  I fell in love my first time out and have upgraded my camera since.  The hobby has now turned into a fully fledged passion where I spend endless hours reading up on photography techniques and learning to become better at my craft.

Going into the hospital for the transplant I knew when I came out I would have to find hobbies and passions again.  What most people don't know is I actually sold my camera and lenses the week before I went in for transplant.  I just knew that I wasn't going to use it for awhile and I had interest in changing around my camera setup anyways.  It was the best decision I ever made because since getting out of the hospital I have had so much fun researching and planning out my new camera system.  When I sold the camera, I always knew I would replace it but wasn't sure if I would upgrade to a different camera body or not.  I decided to go with same camera body and change my lens setup.  While at the hospital on Friday I actually had someone meet me at PMH and I got my "new" camera.  I am so excited to start taking photos again and start on my 2011 collection.  For those that haven't seen my pictures from last year here is a link to what are my favourite pictures from 2010 - Aaron's Photo stream

Adding hobbies that can translate into passions in our lives adds so much joy.  I believe it is essential to have individual passions to achieve true happiness.  Don't force them though; keep trying new things until you find what you love.  Once you get bored, move on to something new.  Also remember to push your boundaries and put yourself outside of your comfort zone.  You will learn so much about yourself in doing this.  I once took swing and salsa dance lessons by myself because I wanted to see if I would enjoy it.  Now I was supervising at the time and once my shippers found out I was given the gears pretty hard, but I really had to push myself out of my comfort zone to do it.  I ended up not liking it too much but was so happy to have tried it and I definitely grew personally from it. 

Being that it is a new year I think each of you should make a promise to try something new this year.  I promise it will add so much happiness to your life this year! So come on, think of something you want to try and post it to the comment section. 

I look forward to hearing about everyone's new hobby!

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Attitude for achieving Greatness (Sunday Dialogue)

This week I reflected a lot of the beginnings of my journey.  I came across this quote awhile ago and thought it was so powerful.

"No pessimist ever discovered the secret of the stars, or sailed to an uncharted land, or opened a new doorway for the human spirit." Helen Keller
What do you think about it?  Do you agree with the message, do we have to optimistic in order to achieve greatness? 

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