“The meaning of life is to find your gift. The purpose of life is to give it away.”
Both William Shakespeare and Pablo Picasso, arguably two of the most influential people in the world, once used these words to describe what one should do with their gift.
Purpose is defined as the reason for which something is done or created or for which something exists. The day you die, what will you be remembered for? What did you do to impact others?
It is natural to wonder why we should give our gifts away. Of course we would want to value and protect something that was difficult to find.
If we think philosophically about why we were put on earth, one can argue that we are all here for a different reason and we all have some kind of purpose to fulfil. When you find your purpose and utilise it, you will then impact others to, in the end, fulfil their purpose; you can think of it as a chain reaction.
It is difficult for some of us to find our purpose. We can look at Shakespeare and Picasso as examples. It is a skill not many have to take simple words or a splash of paint and turn it into something worth enjoying and remembering for centuries. But how did Shakespeare and Picasso give away their gifts?
The oxford dictionary defines a gift as something given willingly to someone without payment. We often think gifts are monetary and by giving it away, we might lose it. A gift, however, doesn’t necessarily always have to be a physical object. When we find our gifts like writing for example, and we use it to empower or influence others, we are by default sharing and giving away our gift.
As important it is to find our purpose, we shouldn’t forget to share it with others so that, in the end, they can find their gift and fulfil their purpose.