Existential Issues

Exploring Existential issues is central to Purpose Driven Therapy.

When you hear the word “existential”, you may think of some obscure intellectual mumbo jumbo. Existential issues, quite simply, are issues that have to do with the plight of human existence, with the meaning of life, and what meaning, if any, our lives have.

We only get a certain number of days on earth and even less vital adult days. We average about 30,000 days with maybe 20,000 prime adult days. The questions become:

  • With the limited time we have, what is important?
  • What do we value?
  • What gives us joy?
  • What legacy do we want to leave?
  • How can we accomplish this?

Humans are in the precarious position of knowing we will die. We are both animals and gods. We are animals that eat, sleep, get sick and die; and we are capable of vision, empathy and creation. What is it we want to create? Is it family. business, art?

How do we balance our animal and sensual drives with our visions of a better word?

Theses are the questions Purpose Driven Therapy addresses. In life, people tend to regret the things they didn’t do more than the things they did. Taking action informs us who we are and what we want and need. How many people started medical or law school only to discover they hated it?

Once a person knows what they want, the question is what are realistic goals and how are they achieved?

I always ask clients the following questions:

  • “What do you want out of life that you’re not getting?”
  • “What’s the best part of your life?”
  • “If you were qualified and credentialed to do any job, what would it be?”
  • “If you had 10 million dollars what would you do with it?”

These answers are distilled in to achievable goals with a multitude of small easy tasks.

You want to be like Brad Pitt? Maybe it’s because your greatest joy is to be seen and to perform.

What about local community theater. Get on the Internet today and make one call today about joining a community theater. Let’s say you join — but discover you hate acting. This is extremely valuable self knowledge and joining would have been a rich valuable experience.

It’s about taking action and taking chances.